[ubuntu-x] Final Maverick i830, i845g, i855 support

[Gordon Schumacher]

On 09/19/2010 11:05 PM, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Driver development isn't really that hard from a programming
> perspective, in that you don't need to know much about data structures
> or advanced algorithms or whatnot.  The code itself is pretty basic C,
> and there isn't really that much of it.  Mostly the hard part is about
> learning about the hardware and its functions, and figuring out what
> values need to be poked into what registers.
>   

I'm familiar with the concept - I worked at Maxtor, writing a
drive-testing application which had its own driver stack - and I've done
some low-level communications with the drive, which is very similar.  I
meant more that I know absolutely nothing about the kernel APIs for any
OS, much less Linux.  :)

> One thing I'm not sure of is if the registers are the same for all the
> different 8xx models, or if they vary from chip to chip.  I suspect the
> latter, since that's a really common condition.  (Unfortunately Intel
> didn't publish the hardware documentation, which would have made it
> easier to doublecheck the register mappings for the particular hw.)
>   

Hmm.  There is some very slight chance I may be able to do something
that.  It's a long shot, but we'll see...

> Anyway, if the above doesn't sound like complete technojibberish, maybe
> you have the chops to do driver bug fixing!
>   

Don't get me wrong - I know that I *could* do it.  It's just another one
of those areas that's a complete black box to me at this point :)

> If it does sound like technojibberish, well at least maybe it gives some
> better insights into why 8xx has been hard to get working right:
>   

Well, we'll also see what my time permits.  That does give me something
to go on if I get the chance...