Re: [PATCH 3/3] ACPI: thinkpad-acpi: change thinkpad-acpi inputdefault and kconfig help

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Sat Aug 11 2007 - 14:06:19 EST


> Quoting Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> Subject: [PATCH 3/3] ACPI: thinkpad-acpi: change thinkpad-acpi input default and kconfig help
>
> The current kconfig help text was misleading users. Also, the default for
> an input-layer-optimized support caused way too many problems without
> up-to-date userspace in place.
>
> So, rework the help text, and change the default to N. Note that
> distributions are supposed to enable this option as soon as they update HAL
> to a version that handles the thinkpad-acpi new input layer interface.

I don't really know the details here, so I could be completely wrong.

However, generally, forcing HAL and kernel to be in sync really
looks to me like a non-ideal way to handle interface change.
For example, this would mean that one can't use the same kernel
for multiple distributions, and for a person like me
that needs to switch distros all the time, it seems like a pain.

Could not the kernel expose both new and old interfaces
somehow, so that HAL can be updated without recompiling the kernel?
For example, there could be a sysfs interface which let the HAL set
the desired interface version.

Couldn't that work?
This seems easy to code up.
Want a patch like that?

--
MST
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