linux-kernel - Re: Question about dynamic minor number of misc device

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Date:   Tue, 21 Jan 2020 12:54:21 -0500
From:   Sam Hartman <hartmans@...ian.org>
To:     "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>
Cc:     Sam Hartman <hartmans@...ian.org>,
        Zhenzhong Duan <zhenzhong.duan@...il.com>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        "linux-kernel\@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>
Subject: Re: Question about dynamic minor number of misc device

>>>>> "Theodore" == Theodore Y Ts'o <tytso@....edu> writes:

    Theodore> Sam,

    Theodore> Would you happen to know how commonly used the speakup system would be
    Theodore> --- in particular, on non-udev systems where changing the minor number
    Theodore> of the device node might break some folks?  Does your hardware system
    Theodore> use speakup, or some other interface?

Speakup is used by things like the Debian Installer in speech mode.
I'd assume D-I uses udev.

However Speakup is also likely to be used by blind people who prefer
older environments--no GUI, no pulseaudio, that sort of thing.
No udev is kind of pushing that mindset to the extreme though.
Speakup is not typically used without a keyboard or similar, so you're
not going to see it on embedded systems.

    Theodore> Also, who would be the best people to reach out at the
    Theodore> linux-speakup.org project to verify what the potential impact might be
    Theodore> of making this change.  It looks like some of the web pages are a bit
    Theodore> dated, so I wasn't sure what's up to date.

I might ask on debian-accessibility@...ts.debian.org.
My recollection is that the upstream is not very energetic, and that the
distros keep speakup working because it's quite important for some
people.
We broke it on hda_intel for the original Buster release and that
certainly generated lots of user feedback.

debian-accessibility is Debian specific.  There is the more general
blinux-l@...ts.redhat.com (blind linux users), but that lists tends to
be so user focused that you might not get good feedback to a question
like this.

--Sam