Subject: Re: e1000: backport ich9 support from 7.5.5 ?

From: "Kok, Auke" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:51:02 -0700

Jason Lunz wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 06:29:18PM +0100, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
>> 	I understand there is some delay in getting e1000-7.5.5 into the
>> upstream kernel given the major re-working of the chipset specific
>> parts.
>>
>> 	I wonder would it be feasible in the meantime to backport the ich9
>> support and push it upstream?
> 
> seconded - this driver reorg has been holding back support for the
> newest e1000 hardware since at least 2.6.20, and I haven't seen any
> indication that the 7.5.5 e1000 driver will even be added to 2.6.23.

I disagree, we should not break the current e1000 driver in the kernel while 
there is a new driver coming up that introduces ich9 support without breaking 
(the old e1000) support for all other devices. This is why we want to drop a new 
version of the e1000 driver upstream instead, and put all newer devices in that 
driver.

For distro's not following kernel.org releases we have the perfect solution: A 
fully tested 7.5.5 driver on sourceforge that was extensively tested against 
RHEL5 for instance, but also a lot of other older kernels.

> What's the prognosis for the 7.5.5-series e1000 reorg going into
> netdev-2.6?

I sure hope to get it out before 2.6.23 merge window close... But anything can 
unfortunately happen.

Auke