On Sat, 16 Mar 2019, Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult wrote: > > No, it's just that those systems do not allow those devices to be > > removed because they are probably not on a removable bus. > > Ok, devices (hw) might not be removable - that also the case for uarts > builtin some SoCs, or the good old PC w/ 8250. But does that also mean > that the driver should not be removable ? > > IMHO, even if that's the case, it's still inconsistent. The driver then > shouldn't support a remove at all (or even builtin only), not just > incomplete remove. This device (as well as `dz') is typically used for the serial console as well, so being built-in is the usual configuration. Nevertheless modular operation is supposed to be supported, however it may not have been verified for ages. A further complication is in the virtual console configuration one of the serial lines is dedicated for the keyboard, so again you want the driver built-in (although hooking up the virtual console keyboard this way has been broken with the conversion to the serial core in the 2.6 timeframe and I have never figured it out how it is supposed to be done correctly with the new serial infrastructure and SERIO_SERPORT; I believe some platforms do it with the use of horrible hacks rather than SERIO_SERPORT). Maciej
