linux-kernel - Re: WMI and Kernel:User interface

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Date:   Tue, 13 Jun 2017 17:50:00 +0200
From:   Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Darren Hart <dvhart@...radead.org>
Cc:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Pali Rohár <pali.rohar@...il.com>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Mario Limonciello <mario_limonciello@...l.com>,
        Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com>,
        Rafael Wysocki <rjw@...ysocki.net>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        platform-driver-x86@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: WMI and Kernel:User interface

On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 08:38:57AM -0700, Darren Hart wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 12:05:35AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > Hi Darren,
> > 
> > first - can you please properly trim your replies and don't write
> > more than 7 characters per line?
> 
> Sure... (although I think you've done all the necessary pruning for this
> response). 70 I presume you mean? I usually have tw set to 72...
> apparently I dropped that setting at some point. Will correct.
> 
> > 
> > On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 06:24:35PM -0700, Darren Hart wrote:
> > > This is a big topic for sure. Speed and scale of platform enabling is something
> > > I would like to see us support better. The barrier to entry to kernel
> > > changes is high, especially for trivial things, like adding IDs, GUIDs, etc.
> > > which would ideally, IMHO, be in the hands of the OEMs.
> > 
> > It's not.  It's a trivial patch, and you cover all Linux users.  Very
> > much unlike say the windows world where you are stuck with installing
> > a vendor specific set of drivers forever.
> > 
> 
> The patch is trivial, but the process is time consuming. Two to Three
> months to see an ID added and released is big blocker for contemporary
> life cycles.

Wait, what?  Please explain.

Yes, it could take worse case 2-3 months to add a new device id, but
does it really?  I take new device ids up until 2 weeks before a -final
kernel is released.  And once they are in Linus's tree it's usually only
a single week before they end up in all stable kernel releases.

But that's upstream, no device ships with upstream, they ship a distro
kernel.  Look at the pre-installs from SuSE and Canonical, to get a new
device id into their kernels takes what, a day or two?  And that is what
really matters as that is what goes out the door for their device.

At least that is the process for when _I_ used to work on pre-installed
Linux on devices, maybe things have gotten a lot worse since I left that
business, but I would sure hope it wouldn't get magnitudes worse.

So 2-3 months seems really long to me.

thanks,

greg k-h