Re: [PATCH] media: none of the drivers should be enabled by default

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Hans Verkuil wrote:

> On Tuesday, August 30, 2011 23:31:06 Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> > On Tue, 30 Aug 2011, Hans Verkuil wrote:
> > 
> > > On Tuesday, August 30, 2011 22:12:09 Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 30 Aug 2011, Hans Verkuil wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > On Tuesday, August 30, 2011 19:22:00 Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> > > > > > None of the media drivers are compulsory, let users select which 
> drivers
> > > > > > they want to build, instead of having to unselect them one by one.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I disagree with this: while this is fine for SoCs, for a generic 
> kernel I
> > > > > think it is better to build it all. Even expert users can have a hard 
> time
> > > > > figuring out what chip is in a particular device.
> > > > 
> > > > Then could someone, please, explain to me, why I don't find this 
> > > > "convenience" in any other kernel driver class? Wireless, ALSA, USB, I2C 
> - 
> > > > you name them. Is there something special about media, that I'm missing, 
> > > > or are all others just user-unfriendly? Why are distro-kernels, 
> > > > allmodconfig, allyesconfig not enough for media and we think it's 
> > > > necessary to build everything "just in case?"
> > > 
> > > That's actually a good question. I certainly think that the more obscure
> > > drivers can be disabled by default. But I also think that you want to keep
> > > a certain subset of commonly used drivers enabled. I'm thinking bttv, uvc,
> > > perhaps gspca.
> > 
> > Good, this is a good beginning! It was actually the purpose of my patch - 
> > to make us actually consider which drivers we need enabled per default, 
> > and which we don't, instead of just enabling all.
> > 
> > > As far as I can see, alsa enables for example HD Audio, which almost all
> > > modern hw supports. We should do something similar for v4l.
> > 
> > Yes, agree.
> > 
> > > And we should really reorder some of the entries in the menu: one of the
> > > first drivers you see are parallel port webcams and other very obscure
> > > devices.
> > 
> > Ok.
> > 
> > So, how should we proceed? What I certainly would like to disable 
> > completely or to 99% are remote controls and tuners. The rest are actually 
> > disabled by default, which is great. Or at least I would like to have a 
> > single switch "disable all," ideally active by default. One of the 
> > possibilities would be to take the patch as is and _then_ begin to think, 
> > which drivers we want enabled by default. I just think, that the correct 
> > approach is to think, which drivers we need enabled by default - as 
> > exceptions, instead of - which drivers we can afford to disable.
> 
> I would propose to start by reorganizing the menu. E.g. make a submenu for
> old legacy bus drivers (parallel port, ISA), for platform drivers, and for
> 'rare' drivers (need a better name for that :-) ). For example the Hexium
> PCI drivers are very rare, and few people have them.

Sure, this can be done, not sure whether I'm a suitable person for this 
task - I don't have a very good overview of the present market 
situation;-)

> Once that is done we can look at disabling those legacy/platform/rare drivers.

I'm not sure any of those are actually enabled. What concerns me most are 
tuner and remote controller drivers. Do they also belong to your "rare" 
category? Do you agree, that they have to be disabled by default?

Thanks
Guennadi
---
Guennadi Liakhovetski, Ph.D.
Freelance Open-Source Software Developer
http://www.open-technology.de/
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html


[Index of Archives]     [Linux Input]     [Video for Linux]     [Gstreamer Embedded]     [Mplayer Users]     [Linux USB Devel]     [Linux Audio Users]     [Linux Kernel]     [Linux SCSI]     [Yosemite Backpacking]
  Powered by Linux