Date:   Thu, 16 Sep 1999 11:25:23 -0700
From:   David Hinds <dhinds@tao.stanford.edu>
To:     linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Comments on status of PCMCIA merge

To answer a few questions that have been popping up about this...

First some history: Linus did the first crack at merging PCMCIA into
the kernel tree on his own before he left on vacation, and some things
were left in an unfinished state.  I think he mainly just wanted to be
able to say it was in there before the feature freeze.

There is still lots of stuff in the standalone PCMCIA package that is
not in the kernel tree.  Only a few client drivers are in the kernel
tree at this point... the rest will hopefully migrate in soon.  Some
things may not make it into the kernel any time soon (specifically,
the PnP BIOS add-ons).  Also, the user-mode tools in the PCMCIA
package, like cardmgr, are (at least for now) essential for using
PCMCIA and will never be part of the kernel tree.  So, moving some
parts of PCMCIA into the kernel does not affect the need for the
standalone package.  The only immediate benefit to having PCMCIA in
the kernel tree is that some components can be linked into the
kernel (whether this is much of a benefit is debatable, I guess).

Alan's 2.3.18ac5 patch updates a lot of the changes that Linus made,
to make it easier for me to maintain a common code base for the
standalone and in-kernel PCMCIA distributions.  This patch *should*
fix the Makefile problems (I guess the raw 2.3.18 did not build as
modules, and ac3 only built as modules, but ac5 should build either
way).

For now, the vast majority of people should probably continue to use
PCMCIA as they did before, using the standalone package, and ignore
the kernel PCMCIA support until it settles down and more clients are
merged in.

-- Dave Hinds

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/