Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 5 Jun 1999 02:32:52 -0400 (EDT) | From | "Mike A. Harris" <> | Subject | Re: Hard coding default COM3/4 IRQ. |
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On Mon, 31 May 1999, Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote:
>What I found is that by assuming that the default IRQ 3 and 4 are used, >I got *much* less e-mail complaints. Those who are using their own >custom hardware in general are smart enough to figure out how to fix it >on their own --- and the amount of requests of assistance from less >experienced folks who are using the cheapest hardware they could find >went a down a lot; these folks win by using the IRQ 3/4 default >settings, and their cheap hardware would have lost if we tried to >autodetect their IRQ and fail.
I'm sure that everything you've stated is correct, with respect to chips that aren't "as advertised" - however, I've installed Windows 95 on a heck of a lot of machines, as well as Win98, and I've not yet ever seen it get the modem IRQ wrong. That doesn't say that it doesn't - it is just rare if ever (which is a miracle for win95). On most of the machines that I get my hands on, the modem goes on COM3/IRQ2, because I've yet to have any major conflicts statistically speaking.
Therefore, my theory is that it can be done, and done at least as good as W95 (even if it means reverse engineering _gulp_ windows 95's autodetection routines).
Linux should not force the user to do things that other OS's can demonstrably autoconfigure with little or no problems. I like the compile time option of autoconfigure serial that is in 2.2.x. I haven't tested it yet, but if it breaks on some machines, then it just needs some more work until it gets set properly. IMHO, this will only happen if people test it, and report failures, along with their complete system configuration, and chipset info, etc..
At any rate, keep up the good work, and lets hope for a rock solid Windows killing 2.4.0 within a year.
Take care! TTYL
-- Mike A. Harris Linux advocate GNU advocate Computer Consultant Open Source advocate
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot...
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