linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/2] SOUND: kill gameport bits

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Date:	Tue, 19 Aug 2014 22:18:15 -0700
From:	Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@...il.com>
To:	Andreas Mohr <andi@...as.de>
Cc:	linux-input@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@...e.cz>,
	Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] SOUND: kill gameport bits

Hi Andreas,

On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 04:46:38AM +0200, Andreas Mohr wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> > Gameport support hasn't been working well ever since cpufreq became
> > mainstream and it becomes increasingly hard to find hardware and
> > software
> > that would run on such old hardware.
> 
> Given that I'm puzzled why one would want to deprecate a whole subsystem
> which appears to be supported by a whole 14 different PCI sound card
> drivers (where the ones I'm owning hardware of are intended to be in
> active maintenance)

Are you actively testing gameport interfaces with real joysticks/gamepads on
these cards? And what software is still in use that runs on these old boxes
(with mainline kernel)?

> and only 3 ISA-based ones, I'm missing several
> details and justifications of that decision here (perhaps there was a
> prior discussion/activity that I'm missing?).

There was a post to linux-input a few days ago when I ased if anyone woudl cry
over gameport going away.

> 
> Also, I'm left wondering why e.g. my Athlon XP system (a very popular
> choice for longer times) would be affected by Cpufreq...
> And there are no details on how exactly cpufreq is a problem or how this
> timing issue could be fixed...

If you take a look at gameport_measure_speed() in gameport.c you will see that
it counts cycles for timing, which obviously does not work that well when CPU
frequency changes.

The bugs have been opened in bugzilla/reported on lists ages ago but nobody
stepped up to fix that.

> The obvious workaround for such an ensuing dearth of hardware support
> could be USB 15-pin gameport adapters - but are they even supported on
> Linux? Haven't seen info on this...
> And even if supported, these adapters (at least the non-perfect ones, as
> can be seen from reviews on a well-known online shop site) are said to
> be hit-or-miss.
> 
> http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?238938-joystick-GamePort-to-USB-adapter-question
> http://reviews.thesource.ca/9026/2600164/nexxtech-usb-gameport-adapter-reviews/reviews.htm
> 

They have better chance of being supported ;) I had a couple a few years back
and they did work for me.

> If we keep removing functionality like this, then why stop short of
> removing x86 32bit as a whole? By having Linux support nicely restricted
> to hardware made within the last 5 years, we would surely be doing the
> planned-obsolescence Micro$oft "ecosystem" (what was ecological about
> this again?) a huge favour...

I really do not care about Microsoft and favors, I just go by the fact that
this hardware is becoming naturally extinct. And not only hardware, but also
software that uses it. Do you still play a lot of games with joysticks on such
hardware?

Thanks.

-- 
Dmitry


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