kernel versionning problem
Josh Boyer
jwboyer at jdub.homelinux.org
Tue Jan 23 01:57:46 UTC 2007
On Mon, Jan 22, 2007 at 07:12:29PM -0500, Chuck Anderson wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 22, 2007 at 05:19:24PM -0600, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> > >>>>> "TE" == Tanguy Eric <eric.tanguy at univ-nantes.fr> writes:
> >
> > TE> http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2965
> >
> > Blah, blah, only breaks on Fedora, blah blah, Fedora people don't know
> > how to behave.
> >
> > So exactly what is it that Fedora is doing wrong here?
>
> The problem is that the rt2x00 driver assumes that there is an API
> difference between kernels < 2.6.20 and >= 2.6.20. In truth there is
> no guarantee of a stable API at all in Linux, and that keying off
> LINUX_VERSION_CODE is next to useless. If you patch the kernel at
> all, what version does it become? Perhaps one API changed to be like
> Linus' 2.6.20 due to your patch(es), but another API didn't change and
> is still like Linus' 2.6.19. An out-of-tree driver that keys off
> LINUX_VERSION_CODE can never get this right. You could change the
> version code to fix one out-of-tree driver, but then that breaks the
> other.
Exactly. This is something external driver maintainers just have to deal
with if their driver isn't upstream¹.
josh
¹ Have is said the word "upstream" enough in this thread? No? Repeat after
me... "Upstream, Upstream, it's our way. Upstream, Upstream anything else
will ruin your day."²
² I apologize for my crappy cheer.
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