Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756384AbYGGRiR (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 Jul 2008 13:38:17 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753969AbYGGRiB (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 Jul 2008 13:38:01 -0400 Received: from g1t0027.austin.hp.com ([15.216.28.34]:31625 "EHLO g1t0027.austin.hp.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754384AbYGGRiA convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 Jul 2008 13:38:00 -0400 From: "Altobelli, David" To: Pavel Machek CC: "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , "greg@kroah.com" Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:37:18 +0000 Subject: RE: [PATCH][resubmit] HP iLO driver Thread-Topic: [PATCH][resubmit] HP iLO driver Thread-Index: AcjgUutmweuI1YwBTvukTdLUQdZhjQAARtIw Message-ID: References: <20080623160052.GA7616@ldl.fc.hp.com> <20080627191458.GA10872@ucw.cz> <20080707160658.GB1794@elf.ucw.cz> In-Reply-To: <20080707160658.GB1794@elf.ucw.cz> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Whitelist: TRUE Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1677 Lines: 38 Pavel Machek wrote: > Hi! > >>>> A driver for the HP iLO/iLO2 management processor, which allows >>>> userspace programs to query the management processor. Programs can >>>> open a channel to the device (/dev/hpilo/dXccbN), and use this to >>>> send/receive queries. >>> >>> What kind of queries? Is there documentation somewhere? >> >> Generally, it can get data out of the management processor - things >> like basic iLO configuration (users, nic, etc), handle SNMP traffic, >> flashing iLO, and some others. >> >> Unfortunately, there isn't yet any available documenation. > > Ok, I guess we should have documentation "what does it do" and "what > protocol does it speak" before we can think about merging. I really hope that isn't the case. The message packets and documention are owned by hardware teams, and they currently do not want to make that documentation public. However, I do think there is value in merging the driver without docs. Having drivers in tree is often stated as a goal, because of the obvious security and API/ABI disadvantages to out of tree drivers. If this can't be merged, then we continue to ship an out of tree driver, which no one (us, distros, customers) likes. We pester our partners to support this driver, or include it, or what have you. We get slowly out of date, and bugs creep in, or our package breaks on upstream kernels. To me, it seems like merging the driver is the better path. -- 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/