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Date:   Tue, 27 Feb 2018 08:04:15 +0100
From:   Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org>
To:     Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
Cc:     Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org>,
        "H. Nikolaus Schaller" <hns@goldelico.com>,
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        Tony Lindgren <tony@atomide.com>,
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        Discussions about the Letux Kernel 
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Subject: Re: [Letux-kernel] [PATCH v5 3/5] misc serdev: Add w2sg0004 (gps
 receiver) power control driver
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On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 04:26:18PM +0100, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> > > Let's restart this discussion and focus on the main roadblock (others
> > > are minor details which can be sorted out later).
> > > 
> > > If it feels like a hack, the key issue seems to me to be the choice of
> > > the API to present the GPS data to user space. Right?
> > 
> > Or even more fundamentally, does this belong in the kernel at all?
> 
> Yes, it does.

But not necessarily in its current form.

> > Now, if we'd ever have a proper GPS framework that handled everything in
> > kernel space (i.e. no more gpsd) then we would be able to write kernel
> > drivers that also take care of PM. But perhaps that's unlikely to ever
> > be realised given the state of things (proprietary protocols, numerous
> > quirky implementations, etc).
> 
> That is what needs to happen.
> 
> > The kernel is probably not the place to be working around issues like
> > that, even if serdev at least allows for such hacks to be fairly
> > isolated in drivers (unlike some of the earlier proposals touching core
> > code).
> 
> Oh, kernel is indeed right place to provide hardware abstraction --
> and that includes bug workarounds.

Right, at least when such hacks can be confined to a driver and not be
spread all over the place.

Johan