Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 05:43:18 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 05:43:09 -0400 Received: from cs.columbia.edu ([128.59.16.20]:53122 "EHLO cs.columbia.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 05:43:05 -0400 Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 02:42:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Ion Badulescu To: Roberto Nibali cc: , Andrew Morton Subject: Re: Fix for Donald Becker's DP83815 network driver (v1.07) In-Reply-To: <3ADFFB56.A9C84A2@tac.ch> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, Roberto Nibali wrote: > Hmm, but doesn't the code in 2.4.x improve the hard IRQ signal delivery > even for UP systems with a local APIC table? I have an APIC aware board > but I have only got 1 CPU on it and I currently need to run 2.2 kernel. > But if you tell me that there is not much help, I'm ok with that, as > long as it wouldn't be better with APIC support :) I think the UP-APIC support was added primarily to support the NMI oopser on UP systems. I might be wrong, though. > > Well.. Space.c is a dinozaur. However, this is the 2.2 series and no more > > surgery will happen on this kernel, at least normally. > > So, what is your suggestion: Does this limitation do any harm or can I > live with that and still run 16 eth devices and safely disregard the > "early initialization ..." ? You can safely disregard the "early initialization deferred" messages. They are essentially harmless. As for the 16 eth ports limit, if you want to increase it, simply edit drivers/net/net_init.c and change the value of MAX_ETH_CARDS. This limit appears to also affect modules, so my earlier suggestion of using modules wouldn't have helped. > > Because, again, this is legacy code. It works, it does the job, that's it. > > All this crap is gone in 2.4. > > I'll be porting my distribution to 2.4.x soon I think :) If the only thing you need from your boxes is networking-related, than it's probably ok. Otherwise I'd wait a bit longer before putting 2.4 on production servers... > Your driver works now and for me now need to mark it experimental. Yeah, I guess I'll submit a patch to remove the experimental bit, after the current code changes are accepted.. > It also works statically built into the kernel up to 4 quadboards. I > hacked Space.c and enhanced the ``static struct device ethX_dev = { };'' > stuff. You shouldn't need to do that, it's just wasted memory. The ethX_dev was used mostly to avoid probing for ISA cards, which is completely irrelevant when using PCI cards. As for the 4 quadboards limit, see above -- all you need to change is MAX_ETH_CARDS. Ion -- It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/