Improving FreeBSD's hardware compatibility

Intron wrote this message on Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 19:25
+0800:
> On the other hand, so many hardware vendors (especially
some small
> enterprises, which are eager to obtain software
support)
> have publicized data sheets of their integrated circuit
products,
> but so few people would write hardware driver for
FreeBSD.

I haven't seen this.  The only case that I can think of is
due to
developers not having the hardware, or a need to use said
hardware,
so nothing happens...

Do you have a list of hardware that has documntation
available that
needs device drivers to be written?

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I
have, has not."
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Intron wrote this message on Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 19:25
+0800:
> On the other hand, so many hardware vendors (especially
some small
> enterprises, which are eager to obtain software
support)
> have publicized data sheets of their integrated circuit
products,
> but so few people would write hardware driver for
FreeBSD.

I haven't seen this.  The only case that I can think of is
due to
developers not having the hardware, or a need to use said
hardware,
so nothing happens...

Do you have a list of hardware that has documntation
available that
needs device drivers to be written?

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I
have, has not."
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John-Mark Gurney wrote:

> Intron wrote this message on Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 19:25
+0800:
>> On the other hand, so many hardware vendors
(especially some small
>> enterprises, which are eager to obtain software
support)
>> have publicized data sheets of their integrated
circuit products,
>> but so few people would write hardware driver for
FreeBSD.
> 
> I haven't seen this.  The only case that I can think
of is due to
> developers not having the hardware, or a need to use
said hardware,
> so nothing happens...
> 
> Do you have a list of hardware that has documntation
available that
> needs device drivers to be written?
> 
> -- 
>   John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579
> 
>      "All that I will do, has been done, All that
I have, has not."
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rs
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Well, I list all hardware products whose data sheets I've
seen and which
haven't been supported by FreeBSD.

1. Cologne Chip - HFC-S PCI A ISDN Controller IC
    http://www.colognechip.com/isdn/controllers/main-
datasheets.htm

       FreeBSD only supports ihfc(4), its ISA version, but
doesn't
support this PCI version.

2. Sigmatel - STIR 4200, USB 1.1 - IrDA 1.3 adapter
    The data sheet was once published on their website. Both
Linux and
NetBSD support this chip.

3. Philips SAA 7130/7134, TV decoder
    This is one of the most popular TV decoder chips on the
market.
The data sheet can be obtained from the vendor, just as what
Linux
community has done.

4. USB MIDI device class
    http://ww
w.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs

5. USB IrDA device class
    http://ww
w.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs

      Some new USB-IrDA chips conform to this specification.

6. TI 3410/5052 USB-RS232C adapter
    http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb3410.ht
ml
    http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb5052.ht
ml

      Please have a look at those Linux device drive
websites and perceive
the disparity that FreeBSD falls behind:

Modem:               http://linmodems.org/
Video:               http://linux.bytesex.org/
Temperature sensor:  http://www.lm-sensors.org/

USB PC Camera:       http://mxhaard.fr
ee.fr/spca5xx.html

      Although not all data sheets have been publicized by
vendors, but
at least FreeBSDers can follow/keep up with Linux community,
cannot we?

------------------------------------------------------------
------------
                                                From
Beijing, China

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On Fri, 2006-Jul-21 09:42:40 +0800, Intron wrote:
>Oliver Fromme wrote:
>>Yeah, most of which are crap.     The raw
number of
>>drivers says _nothing_ about hardware vendors'
support.
>
>This is a problem of code quality.

A driver that is effectively unusable is no better than no
driver
at all.  The FreeBSD prefers to expend developer resources
on
providing a smaller number of drivers but have them actually
work.

>But at least Linux community has so many
volunteers/vendors to write
>drivers.

quantity != quality

On Fri, 2006-Jul-21 11:18:07 +0800, Intron wrote:
>3. Philips SAA 7130/7134, TV decoder
>   This is one of the most popular TV decoder chips on
the market.
>The data sheet can be obtained from the vendor, just as
what Linux
>community has done.

You are wrong in two respects here.
a) The publicly available datasheet does not provide
programming details.
   The programming details are only available under NDA.
b) FreeBSD _does_ have a driver for this chipset, available
from
   download.purpe.com - which I am successfully using.

>     Although not all data sheets have been publicized
by vendors, but
>at least FreeBSDers can follow/keep up with Linux
community, cannot we?

Feel free to contribute.

-- 
Peter Jeremy