On 06-06-14 01:59, Fariya wrote:
Hi Arend,
Considering that my driver doesn't compile on kernel versions < the
latest one, I wanted to submit a patch/patches to handle all kernel
versions. My question was relating to this - do I need to submit a
patch [which handles kernel versions from 3.0 to 3.14] or patches for
each kernel version from 3.0 to 3.14, which when applied on the latest
driver of mine, would make it compilable for all kernel versions?
The fact that your driver does not compile on non-latest kernels is the
reason to look at backports project. The alternative is to do it
manually by creating patches against each target kernel. The backports
framework tries to avoid that by doing things a tad bit smarter. Key in
this is that using the driver from backports release package gives an
additional module called compat.ko. In here all the glue code is present
that makes your driver work on the older target kernel.
Assuming you have a linux-next tree checked out in ~/linux-next, here
are a couple of steps you should do:
1. assure you have coccinelle installed.
2. clone the backports repository.
3. add you driver folder to copy-list file.
4. run 'gentree.py ~/linux-next /tmp/backport-rsi-next'.
If this runs successful, you should verify if it works on your machine
assuming it runs an older kernel:
5. cd /tmp/backport-rsi-next
6. run 'make menuconfig' and select your driver.
7. run 'make'.
Any issues in steps 4 or 7 warrant a patch against backports repo.
Regards,
Arend
On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 3:25 AM, Arend van Spriel <arend@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 05-06-14 23:30, Fariya wrote:
Hello,
Thanks for answering all my queries so far. I just wanted to clarify
one important thing - The latest backport release is of the kernel
3.15-rc1-1.
[http://drvbp1.linux-foundation.org/~mcgrof/rel-html/backports/]
So this means I need to submit my patch(es) for this kernel or the
latest kernel available on kernel.org which is 3.15-rc8? Also, can I
send like a single patch which handles all kernels or do I need to
submit patches for each kernel from 3.0 to 3.14?
Let's try once more. the release page contains stable releases and
development release. The development release is a snapshot taken from
linux-next (so including wireless-next) so it has everything you throw at
John and gets applied by him. The package can be used to build drivers for a
particular target kernel, ie. 3.0 to 3.14. So you don't need to submit any
driver patches as the backport packaging script will get simply copy the
driver sources from linux-next repository.
Regards,
Arend
Regards,
Fariya
On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Fariya <fariyaf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:09 PM, Arend van Spriel <arend@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 05/29/14 12:03, Fariya wrote:
Hello Arend,
Thanks for the reply. I do have a few more questions:
a) I kind of went through the existing drivers in the backport release
and found that the framework that you are talking of is more of #ifdef
LINUX_VERSION_CODE>= KERNEL_VERSION() handling for various kernels.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Kind of correct. A backport release is done taking a snapshot of
linux-stable and patch it with those ifdef and other tricks. The script
taking the snapshot and the patches is what is in the backport repo.
Basically, the drivers are copied as is and the kernel functions these
driver use are subject to being backported when these functions are not
available in the older kernels.
b) How do I ensure that my driver gets into backport repo. Do I need
to send patches [the patch will contain code for various kernels,
handled via the #ifdef LINUX_VERSION_CODE>= .... code?] for my latest
driver onto this e-mail list?
The backport takes a snapshot from linux-stable and linux-next so
anything
you send to John will end up in the backport releases. So you only need
to
submit something if the backport driver code would not compile, which
means
some function called in the driver needs backporting.
c) Assuming my driver gets into the backport repo soon, I am wondering
how the future versions of my driver will be backported? [considering
that I would be submitting code compatible to the latest kernel onto
the linux-wireless mailing list] Do I need to send a patch to the
backports mailing list, for any submission that I make to the
linux-wireless mailing list?
As mentioned above there is no need unless you want to contribute to the
code in the backports repo, ie. the stuff that creates the backport
releases.
Regards,
Arend
On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 7:45 PM, Arend van Spriel<arend@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 05/26/14 15:44, Arend van Spriel wrote:
On 05/26/14 11:47, Fariya wrote:
Hi,
My company's wireless driver is a part of the latest 3.15-rc kernel.
My question is pertaining to the backports project. How does the
procedure at backports work? Will my driver be picked up and
backported by the backports group now that it is part of the kernel
or
the owner of the driver needs to backport the driver [for various
kernels] and provide it on to this mailing list initially?
The backport repo does not hold a backported driver, but a framework
to
create a package of the latest drivers which can be automatically
backported to various kernels.
When you check out the backports repository on kernel.org there is a
copy-list file which lists everything that is copied from the kernel
tree to be included in the backport package. First step would be to
add
you driver to that list. If you are lucky that might be sufficient.
However, a quick try over here shows not :-p
/tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.c: In
function
rsi_mac80211_attach:
/tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.c:988:2:
error:
implicit declaration of function ether_addr_copy
[-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[7]: ***
[/tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.o] Error
1
Regards,
Arend
Regards,
Arend
Regards,
Fariya
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