Messages in this thread | | | From | Duncan Sands <> | Subject | Re: [ATMSAR] Request for review - update #1 | Date | Mon, 5 Sep 2005 17:04:44 +0200 |
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Hi Alistair,
> > The instalation is currently (with firmware loader instead of modem_run) > > very simple: USE="atm" emerge ppp, download firmware and place it in > > /lib/firmware, compile the kernel with speedtch support. > > Compared to "place the firmware in /lib/firmware" on many other distros, this > sounds like a lot of work! The kernel speedtch provides no advantages to its > userspace alternative.
historically the main problem with using the kernel driver was getting hold of an ATM aware pppd. The step "USE="atm" emerge ppp" looks like gentoos way of installing such a pppd. Nowadays several major distributions ship with an ATM aware pppd, so if you are using one there is nothing to be done. Likewise, most distributions ship a kernel with speedtch support. So if you're using such a distribution all you have to do to use the kernel driver is "place the firmware in /lib/firmware".
On the other hand, it is misleading to say that with the user mode driver all you have to do is place the firmware in /lib/firmware. That's only true if your distribution (eg: Mandrake) explicitly supports the user mode driver and has pre-installed and configured it for you. If you don't have such a distribution then setting up the user mode driver, while not difficult, does require some work.
> > I tried to use userspace driver some time ago but it wasn't working for me > > so I gave up. I was using modem_run with kernel driver for long time to > > load the firmware but there were many problems with it too (nearly every > > kernel or modem_run upgrade was breaking something, modem_run was hanging > > in D state in most unapropriate moments and so on). > > This is not the case any longer.
I'm the one who fixed most of those problems by the way.
> > Now I am using pure kernel driver and firmware loader and it works 100% > > ok. There were no problems with it for long time. And I don't even want to > > look at this userspace driver again. > > Conversely people (including myself) found the kernel implementation to be > buggy, and when userspace breaks, you can simply restart it.. when the kernel > breaks, you have to reboot.
Tell me what problems you've been seeing and I will try to fix them.
All the best,
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