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    SubjectRe: [git pull] Input updates for 2.6.34-rc6


    On Thu, 27 May 2010, Robert Hancock wrote:
    >
    > I don't think they did anything wrong in their BIOS, it's working exactly as
    > the spec intended. There is no PS/2 controller, and the ACPI PnP tables do not
    > list one.

    You seem to be unable to read.

    First off, there _is_ a PS2 controller. You can't get any normal Intel
    chips without one, as far as I can tell. The lines may not be brought out,
    but that's immaterial.

    Secondly, even if there wasn't any - or the controller is actively
    disabled, Linux handles that situation perfectly fine. The fact is, the
    low ports (< 0x100) are reserved for motherboard devices, and Linux probes
    the things fine.

    Thirdly, the thing is, PnP tables are incomplete. Always. They don't prove
    a negative. Deal with it. It's a _fact_.

    So Apple must have actively screwed things up. If you can't admit that,
    it's your problem.

    > Long and the short of it is, it seems pretty safe to say that on any ACPI
    > machine, if there's no PnP entry for PS/2 devices, the BIOS does not intend
    > for the OS to use them.

    And your argument is pure and utter sh*t. I don't know why I even bother
    replying to it, but I'll try one more time:

    - BIOS writers are incompetent drug-addled morons. Your argument that
    "the BIOS does not intend for the OS to use them" is a totally idiotic
    argument, for the simple reason that it's not up to the BIOS writers,
    and even if it _was_ up to them, they always screw things up.

    The thing boils down to: we cannot trust the firmware anyway (this is a
    simple _fact_, not some random opinion), and no, the BIOS writers do not
    have some magic powers that allow them to determine how hardware should be
    used.

    Should we always use PIO mode for IDE just because the BIOS may have set
    it up that way? Even if we know better? It's the exact same issue:
    firmware simply isn't the last word. It shouldn't be in the first place,
    but more importantly, it _cannot_ be, because the BIOS writers have shown
    themselves to be inevitably incompetent.

    And Apple BIOS writers seem to be worse than average. The _average_ BIOS
    writer tends to still result in working keyboards (or properly disabled
    ones). The incompetent ones do bad things with SMM and actively break the
    keyboard. Apple is not alone in this, although I think this is the first
    time I hear of somebody breaking it quite _that_ badly (normally it's just
    "horribly bad latency due to SMM traps").

    Linus


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