A simple +1 from me.
Garrett D'Amore wrote: > Now that Sun has made official moves to de-support certain hardware (and > to be fair this is not new ... for example some people have wanted > UltraSPARC 1 support for a while now, but now it will be expanded to all > SPARC workstations other than U25 and U45), it seems like it might be a > good idea if we had a "community supported hardware" group and perhaps a > dedicated code base. > > What I'm thinking of is: > > 1) a new consolidation > > * call it CSHW (community supported hardware) for now (other names?) > * (structured somewhat like ON, but probably considerably simpler) > * containing platform support and drivers not in ON > * drivers might also include userland components (X11 modules?) > > 2) the consolidation would be built "in parallel" to ON > > * compile against a checked out copy of the ON source base at the > same time. > * then build 150 of CSHW would also be built against build 150 of ON > * (and possibly other consolidations such as X?) > * binary distro would only be "correct" if it made up of matching > components > * don't duplicate what is in ON -- this isn't a "fork", its an > extension of ON. > * will probably use a much simpler Makefile system without ON's > limitations > * I will offer to set up the initial repo for it. > > 3) Sun would have no official support for this new consolidation. > > * no support in bugster for this stuff > * not part of any official Sun distro > * caveat emptor > > 4) The "C-Team" for it would be made up of people from the community > > * might or might not be Sun employees (have some thoughts here) > * majority non-Sun kernel contributors > * would be Core contributors > * if you want to be on this list, let me know > * volunteer gatekeeper and backup gatekeeper > * use OpenSolaris public systems for doing builds > * builds should not be very resource intensive -- there isn't that > much that has to be compiled > > 5) Initial things I'd think of integrating into it: > > * the Tadpole SPARCLE support I recently yanked from ON > * restored SDcard functionality for SPARC (by simply compiling the ON > bits) > * drivers for audiocs4281, and perhaps other less popular audio hardware > * perhaps "alternative" drivers for LSI "mfi" and "ce" hardware from > community authors > * stp4020 driver (after removal from ON) > * bpp driver (after removal from ON) > * other legacy PCMCIA drivers (pcram/pcmem ?!?) > * platmod support for SPARC workstations as they are removed from ON > * support for Ultra-1 systems from Rainer > * perhaps a revived le driver ported from NetBSD? > * perhaps other "architecture ports" ?? This might be trickier than > you think! > > 6) Rules for integration would be far, far looser than ON: > > * code has to compile > * you have to assert that you have tested it > * no long term support commitment required > * no webrti, instead just an e-mail based review/approval for now > * (what do other consolidations use for rti approval?) > * code review still required > * include documentation (man page) as part of integration > * no ARC approval required > * can import ON Consolidation Private interfaces > * no duplicates of stuff in ON or other consolidations without > justification > * sign-off by one of the Core Contributors > > 7) Obviously this would require a new Community Group inside OpenSolaris > > * three core contributors needed (need to identify two more besides me) > * mailing lists and webpages on opensolaris.org > * code hosted in mercurial on hg.opensolaris.org > * possibly separate defects.os.o category? not sure. > > I'm willing to start the process on this - including setting up an > initial consolidation -- if there is enough other community interest. I > need at least two other folks who are willing to act as CC's though. My > first nominations on this would be Juergen Keil, Rainer Orth, Steve > Stallion, and Jason King. Of course, I've not really verified any of > this with them yet; I'm happy to take other suggestions or volunteers. > > Note that I'm also willing to volunteer as the initial gatekeeper on > this, performing builds, etc. > > If I hear the necessary support from the community-at-large and receive > confirmation of willingness to volunteer from appropriate CC's, then > I'll go ahead and start the process. > > - Garrett > > _______________________________________________ > driver-discuss mailing list > driver-discuss at opensolaris.org > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/driver-discuss
