Re: [2.6 patch] drivers/pnp/: possible cleanups

[Adam Belay <abelay@novell.com>]

On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 16:23 -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> Adam Belay <abelay@novell.com> wrote:
> >
> > This patch essential makes it impossible for PnP protocols to be
> > modules.  Currently, they are all in-kernel.  If that is acceptable...,
> > then this patch looks fine to me.  Any comments?
> 
> You're the maintainer...

I've been holding off on making many changes to PnP at the moment,
because I have been considering replacing it with a new (more modern and
ACPI capable) ISA/LPC bridge driver.  This work would likely begin after
my PCI bridge driver rewrite is finished and merged (as the PCI work is
in some ways a prerequisite).

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=111023821617705&w=2

Still, if there are changes to fix actual bugs, then I'm all for them.

Also a few features could be added.  Specifically PnPBIOS
hotplug/docking station support.  If anyone's interested, I may
implement it (and it would use some functions that were removed by this
patch).  Furthermore, ISAPnP could be made a module.  PnPBIOS probably
couldn't.

> 
> If someone converts a protocol to be moduar, presumably they will re-add
> the needed exports to support that.

Correct.

> 
> Are there likely to be any out-of-tree modular protocols in existence?
> 

Not that I'm aware of.

So in short, I'd rather not remove them, because they take away from the
original design of the PnP layer.

Thanks,
Adam