[PATCH] 8250_pci: Prevent Exar/RTD Boards from binding.

[Rob Groner]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu [mailto:Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu]
> Sent: Friday, September 25, 2015 12:48 PM
> To: Rob Groner <rgroner at RTD.com>
> Cc: kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> Subject: Re: [PATCH] 8250_pci: Prevent Exar/RTD Boards from binding.
> 
> On Fri, 25 Sep 2015 11:46:29 -0400, Rob Groner said:
> > Serial boards made by RTD using the Exar XR17V358 chip rely on the
> > extra capabilities of the Exar-provided driver to allow configuration
> > of the board.  When support for the Exar chip was added to the kernel
> > 8250_pci driver, this then prevented easy use of the board by
> > customers for anything other than standard serial usage in RS232 mode.
> 
> Was it your intent to also prevent the use of this board in standard serial
> usage in RS232 mode (which I'd expect is the most common use case)?

That is a byproduct of giving the non-average user the ability to reconfigure their board.  This will basically move us back to pre-3.8, where the customer would simply have to insmod the provided Exar driver.  The small inconvenience to that more common user seems (to us in Tech Support) outweighed by the much greater inconvenience to the user who wants to reconfigure.

Rob Groner