Hi, I have been working hard on a kernel patch to add Hollywood+/DXR3 support in the kernel the last few days (mpeg-decoder cards). There is already stand-alone module support for these in gentoo in media-video/modules, but it would be much cooler to have it in the kernel. And this kernel patch uses much updated sources with tons of bugfixes that aren't in the 0.12.0 modules. I would really appreciate if you added this to the next gentoo kernel =). I will put together a kernel support ebuild with some new tools and the required microcode as well and upload that later. I have done some extensive testing of the patch and so far I have eliminated all bugs that I have found. The em8300 driver has been tested for a long time so I doubt that any serious bugs are in this code.
Created attachment 5128 [details, diff] gentoo kernel patch to add h+/dxr3 support
we already have a package for the support stuff in em8300-libraries... I will CONSIDER adding this to teh kernel, but adding things that are supported by external packages to the kernel causes dependency troubles.
Can't you just have the next gentoo-sources block em8300-modules?
actually provide, not block so that em8300-libraries doesn't merge the modules package.
The em8300-libraries package should be removed anyway, noone is using it. Noone has used it for several years and it hasn't been updated so I don't think it is useful anyway. I could write an em8300-utils package which installs the appropriate utils you need, I guess the em8300-modules package does that now. Which is a real unclean way of doing it. I submitted gentoo ebuilds right after I had installed it but someone beat me to it. It is likely we will release a new version sometime soonish, by then I will have a better em8300 ebuild system for you.
uhh, I don't know what you are talking about the em8300-libraries package is in use, for that mattter I use it every day to watch dvds... I think you are a bit confused about what is in it. Where as I was the original submittor of it back in the day when it was first submitted to gentoo.
Ah, it installs the utils as well. Good, though it should've been named em8300-utils or something like that. The current name is a bit misleading as there is only one lib included and it isn't being used.
meh... it was just a randomish name... I was pretty new to all this at the time... Anywho, what we can do is make a virtual/dxr3 and have em8300 modules or a properly patched kernel support it... and I will work on this, assuming your patch werkxors...
I would probably rather have the module externally compiled. Take a look at how Nvidia does it.
This has been compiled as an external module for all time. The kernel patch is a new thing. The thing is that we are going for kernel integration sometime soon (after 2.5 though) and we need people to try this out. SuSE has already agreed to include this patch in their upcoming kernels. Mandrake already has a similar but seriously broken patch (created by them), I'm hoping they will replace it with out patch asap. Since I use gentoo I also, naturally, submitted the patch here. I don't see why you want it as an external module instead, you can still compile them as modules from the kernel config.
Ok, you'll have to send us updated patches every time we release a new kernel then... what's the status of the legality of these drivers?
Sure, no problem. Sigma designs mentions that you should try this driver if you are using linux (and they give a link to freshmeat.net to find it). I have tried contacting them to get a more clear view on the legal status but all I got for reply was that their policy was to not have anything to do with the linux driver for this hardware. The patch applied against -r10 as well.
Created attachment 5243 [details, diff] updated patch which fixes a bug found in the Config.in/Makefile Seems I cannot obsolete the old patch. This new patch fixes a bug some users found in the Config.in/Makefile when compiling the code as modules. Can I mail you when the patch is upgraded? It's a bit tedious filing a bugreport every time and I already have a mailinglist with linux distributors kernel maintainers who have accepted the patch already.
Yes, add lostlogic@gentoo.org and mjc@gentoo.org to the ML, that will work fine and we will include it when our build system allows (currently moving external kernel modules into the kernel causes headaches for us, but that will be improving with some currently in progress improvements to portage)
keep sending us info for updated patches and we'll keep considering for inclusion. closing as we've already come to a resolution on how to handle this. Jay
