Re: ARM defconfig files

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From: Russell King
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 11:53 am

On Thu, Jun 03, 2010 at 11:18:05AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:

Absolutely no way are we ready for that.


Linus, don't make this personal.

The problem is NOT "what options which are found under the arch/arm tree
do I need".

The problem is "what options throughout the rest of the kernel do I need
to result in a usable kernel".

No amount of reorganising the Kconfig files into a heirarchial manner
(which they already are) helps.  Not one bit.  Because they already are.
That's not where the problem is.

For instance, if I have platform A, I know it has an RTC.  How do I know
which of the 37 RTC drivers the kernel configuration presents me with to
select?  Am I really expected to open up the platform and read the
device numbers off all the chips (some of which being surface mount are
abbreviated) and work out that it's a TWL4030 RTC that I should be using?

That's just one instance - and there's probably many more just like that.
Just look at "multifunction drivers" for another case in point.  How the
hell do I know what multifunction driver is appropriate for a platform?

Ditto "Power supply support".

The list goes endlessly on.  All those things I've mentioned are all
_outside_ of arch/arm.  That's where the _real_ problem is.  Solve that
problem so that it's easier for people to configure the kernel, and then
we don't need the multitude defconfig files.

That's the problem which the defconfigs are solving today.

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of:
--
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Messages in current thread:
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 7:48 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 9:46 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 9:53 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 11:10 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 11:13 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 11:18 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 11:20 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 11:21 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Al Viro, (Thu Jun 3, 11:30 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 11:41 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 11:53 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 11:53 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 11:56 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 12:20 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Paul Mundt, (Thu Jun 3, 12:26 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 12:35 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 12:45 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 12:49 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 12:57 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 1:05 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 1:06 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 1:09 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King, (Thu Jun 3, 1:18 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Thu Jun 3, 1:20 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Thu Jun 3, 1:31 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Thu Jun 3, 1:34 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 2:17 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 2:33 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 2:48 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Grant Likely, (Thu Jun 3, 3:15 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Thu Jun 3, 3:24 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Thu Jun 3, 3:45 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Kevin Hilman, (Thu Jun 3, 5:23 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Paul Mackerras, (Thu Jun 3, 5:36 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Benjamin Herrenschmidt, (Thu Jun 3, 6:02 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Benjamin Herrenschmidt, (Thu Jun 3, 6:06 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 9:53 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 9:59 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Balbi, (Thu Jun 3, 10:18 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Lindgren, (Thu Jun 3, 10:29 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Geert Uytterhoeven, (Thu Jun 3, 11:30 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Geert Uytterhoeven, (Thu Jun 3, 11:53 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Benjamin Herrenschmidt, (Fri Jun 4, 1:52 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Catalin Marinas, (Fri Jun 4, 4:31 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Grant Likely, (Fri Jun 4, 5:39 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Contreras, (Sat Jun 5, 6:47 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Contreras, (Sat Jun 5, 7:12 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Sat Jun 5, 7:39 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Contreras, (Sat Jun 5, 9:39 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, david, (Sat Jun 5, 8:28 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, david, (Sat Jun 5, 8:53 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Catalin Marinas, (Tue Jun 8, 8:30 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Daniel Walker, (Tue Jun 8, 9:37 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Mon Jun 14, 1:32 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Wed Jun 30, 3:40 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Mon Jul 12, 8:55 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 9:51 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King - ARM Linux, (Mon Jul 12, 10:32 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 10:40 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Mon Jul 12, 11:50 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 12:04 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 12:09 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 12:17 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 12:34 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Grant Likely, (Mon Jul 12, 12:50 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Mon Jul 12, 12:59 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Russell King - ARM Linux, (Mon Jul 12, 1:06 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 1:14 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 1:29 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Arnd Bergmann, (Mon Jul 12, 1:31 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 1:50 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 2:54 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, David Brown, (Mon Jul 12, 4:05 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Linus Torvalds, (Mon Jul 12, 4:18 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, David Brown, (Mon Jul 12, 4:34 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Nicolas Pitre, (Mon Jul 12, 5:55 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Tue Jul 13, 12:07 am)
optimized script [Was: ARM defconfig files], Uwe Kleine-König, (Tue Jul 13, 1:07 am)
Re: optimized script [Was: ARM defconfig files], Olof Johansson, (Tue Jul 13, 11:04 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Rob Landley, (Tue Jul 13, 11:32 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Grant Likely, (Tue Jul 13, 11:32 am)
Re: optimized script [Was: ARM defconfig files], Nicolas Pitre, (Tue Jul 13, 4:39 pm)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Contreras, (Wed Jul 14, 2:13 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Felipe Contreras, (Wed Jul 14, 2:21 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Uwe Kleine-König, (Wed Jul 14, 6:20 am)
Re: ARM defconfig files, Tony Luck, (Wed Jul 14, 10:37 am)