--- Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com> wrote:
> OK, so PCI interrupt configuration is in fact the problem (or at least
> one of the problems; we can't be sure there aren't more).  Are you using
> GENERIC_LAPTOP, or GENERIC?  

Of _course_ I am using GENERIC, because this is what i386cd-3.1.iso is
providing me with! Should I have had a choice of a kernel during the
installation...


> The option you may need is:
> options 	PCI_INTR_FIXUP		# fixup PCI interrupt routing

I can't possibly have an `option' when I install an operating system from an
installation CD that is full of binary packages and a single kernel build.
 

> I think your hardware is wrong; the BIOS should have configured the
> interrupt.

Technically, you are entitled to think this way, as you are a developer.

Practically, since everybody else in the Universe doesn't find my hardware
faulty, it must be a wrong _assumption_ in NetBSD's kernel.

Each and every time I read that "the laptop model X has a faulty BIOS with
regards to ACPI/APM/PCI_IRQ/<insert_your_tag_here>", then I know it's about a
wrong attitude.

Some developers assume that a laptop was wrongly designed, but somehow it was
designed for Windows, and Windows is so dumb that somehow doesn't care, so it
works.

Well, it's wrong. The laptop was _not_ designed for Windows, it was designed
by humans (which explains everything), and it _must_ work. The OS should
adapt to the hardware, not the other way around.

The problem is when a developer _assumes_ that a BIOS is designed by God,
thus it should be perfect. Real developers deal with real hardware instead.
When you assume that something is perfect, you don't write code, you write
failing code that oopses.

Normally, I should have filled a bug report, as all the other *BSD flavors
never had a problem with my BIOS (not even FreeBSD5), nor the Linuces -- so
it _is_ a bug.

But, as I have never filled a *BSD bug (my primary OS was Linux), please
forgive me for being unable to understand how send-pr-based bug reports
manage to work effectively: I am used from the infamous Linux world with nice
Bugzillas, where searching for existing bug reports is easy-peasy, where
consulting the work on a reported bug, and providing further feedback or help
is also very comfortable, and I am under the shock to discover that the *BSD
world has stagnated in this department: it's practically unchanged since 1995
or so.

I was trying to switch my home hardware from Linux flavors to *BSD flavors,
and I am under the (again) shock and disappointment to see that NetBSD, which
I considered once (that was in 1995-1996) as much better than FreeBSD, is the
only OS unable to cope with my hardware!

Thanks,
R-C



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