Bug 78095 – ISA bus disabled by defaullt in kernel sources, but sometimes required

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM

[Description Milan Plzik 2005-01-15 08:04:52 UTC]

In x86_64 kernel default configuration, there is hard-wired disable of ISA bus support. It's quite logical turn, but in reality, even some 64 machines (f.x. my notebook) still include old hardware connected to ISA bus (IrDA controller in my case nsc-ircc). I think there should be at least menu option to enable ISA support. I think there can be other hardware, which is still hidden behind ISA bus.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. modprobe nsc-ircc
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
FATAL: Module nsc_ircc not found.

Expected Results:  
Correctly loaded driver.

Portage 2.0.51-r12 (default-linux/amd64/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3,
glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r0, 2.6.10-gentoo-r1 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.10-gentoo-r1 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.8
Python:              dev-lang/python-2.3.4 [2.3.4 (#1, Dec 16 2004, 19:39:58)]
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.4
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.59-r6, 2.13
sys-devel/automake:  1.8.5-r2, 1.5, 1.4_p6, 1.6.3, 1.7.9, 1.9.4
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r2
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.10-r2
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.8.1-r3
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -march=k8 -mtune=k8"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config
/usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/
/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/
/usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf
/etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -march=k8 -mtune=k8"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.ynet.sk/pub"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="amd64 X aalib acl acpi aim alsa apache2 avi bash-completion bcmath berkdb
bitmap-fonts bonobo bzlib calendar caps cdr clibpdf crypt cscope ctype cups curl
curlwrappers dba dbx dga dio directfb doc dvd dvdr emul-linux-x86 encode esd
ethereal evo f77 fam fbcon fftw flac flash font-server foomaticdb fortran ftp gb
gd gdbm ggi gif ginac gmp gnome gnustep gnutls gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2
gtkhtml iconv icq imagemagick imap imlib innodb ipv6 jabber java jikes joystick
jp2 jpeg junit ladcca lcms ldap libedit libg++ libgda libwww lzw lzw-tiff mad
maildir mbox mcal mhash mime ming mmap mng mnogosearch motif mozilla mpeg mpi
multilib mysql mysqli nas ncurses nis nls nptl oggvorbis openal opengl oscar oss
pam pcmcia pcntl pcre pda pdflib perl php plotutils png pnp portaudio posix
postgres ppds python qdbm quicktime readline recode ruby samba scanner sdl
session shared sharedmem slang slp sndfile snmp soap sockets sox speex spell spl
sqlite ssl svg sysvipc szip tcltk tcpd tetex theora tidy tiff tokenizer truetype
truetype-fonts trusted type1-fonts unicode usb userlocales vhosts videos wavelan
wmf xface xine xinerama xml2 xmlrpc xmms xosd xpm xprint xrandr xsl xv xvid zeo
zlib"
Unset:  LDFLAGS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

[Comment 1 SpanKY 2005-01-15 13:07:34 UTC]

are you saying that when you do `make menuconfig`, the isa bus option does not show up ?

[Comment 2 Micheal Marineau (RETIRED) 2005-01-15 13:34:21 UTC]

The lack of an option for ISA when configuring for x86_64 leads me to believe it would take a bit of work to get ISA to function.  Why it's not supported I don't know, I'll look into it.

[Comment 3 Micheal Marineau (RETIRED) 2005-01-15 13:43:43 UTC]

Are you sure your IRDA controller is on an ISA bus?

http://www.x86-64.org/lists/discuss/msg05922.html

[Comment 4 Micheal Marineau (RETIRED) 2005-01-15 13:57:16 UTC]

It looks like there is confusion in the kernel about what CONFIG_ISA really means, because with that patch on x86_64 irda supposedly works, but on other arch's irda only works if CONFIG_ISA is indeed enabled (or so the thread states).  You can read an lkml thread on the subject here: http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0410.3/2197.html

I don't know what the real solution is, but try that patch and see if it works.

[Comment 5 Milan Plzik 2005-01-16 02:49:08 UTC]

I got it working by simply modifying arch/x86_64/Kconfig - added 'default y' to ISA option. Then the nsc-ircc driver compiled cleanly and worked as expected. 

[Comment 6 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) 2005-01-20 08:56:39 UTC]

Is 2.6.11-rc1 any better in this respect?

[Comment 7 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) 2005-01-28 03:48:24 UTC]

Please reopen when you reply to comment #6 (and 2.6.11-rc2 is out now...)

[Comment 8 Milan Plzik 2005-01-28 06:37:06 UTC]

I just checked the 2.6.11-rc2 kernel; it looks like nothing has changed. Some of IrDA drivers still depend on ISA bus; without Kconfig modification, I didn't find any way to compile them.

[Comment 9 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) 2005-02-09 07:51:29 UTC]

This is really an upstream issue. We'd normally suggest filing a bug at http://bugzilla.kernel.org but I'm not sure if there is much point as discussion is obviously underway.