Re: modem not responding

[Jean Lee <jean.lee@xxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

Just to give my experience as an example :

For a new project, I am currently searching an SOC with integrated USB 
host, 2 UARTs, GPIOs, RTC and the support for Linux.
I am new to linux and I am primarily an hardware developper. I think 
that I can develop some applications using existing device drivers but I 
think that I am too new to help to develop some new device drivers. What 
I need first is something which is working.

After a short study, it seems that the SOCs which are well suited for my 
application are the AT91RM9200 and Cirrus EDB9302. For both chips, the 
only available kernel with peripherals support is a 2.4 kernel. (and 2.6 
kernels are unofficial ones)
The conclusion is simple : I think that I will start developing a new 
product with 2.4 kernel BECAUSE of device drivers availibility and 
BECAUSE I'm too new to linux and I can't spend some time to learn how to 
write an USB host device driver for a 2.6 kernel.
It is not that I don't want but if I say to my customer that I need 3 
month to port linux to his application : he will laugh.....
When I will succeed with 2.4 kernel, I will then learn how to write a 
device driver and start to help beginners.

I don't think that I am an exception. A lot of project are now going 
through linux because it is opensource and for a lot of people, it is 
the same as free. Moreover, I think that a lot of developpers can write 
an application software but not a device driver.

Conclusion :
I think that the real problem is that the kernel is in transition : 
There are real linux developpers who are working on 2.6 kernels and who 
don't want to hear about 2.4 kernels because it is one year old for 
them. But I think that there are a lot of people like me for whom the 
current linux version is 2.4 BECAUSE of device drivers availability (and 
2.6 is an experimental version)...
There are two sorts of developpers who needs two different sort of help 
in one list :

A solution is perhaps :
If someone doesn't want to deal with 2.4 kernels, he can simply not 
reply (or just advice to go to 2.6 kernel and stop the support if the 
answer is "impossible to move to 2.6 kernel")... I can't expect from 
someone who is working on 2.6 kernel to provide support for a 2.4 kernel 
and I think that there are enough people who are working on 2.4 kernel 
based applications who can provide support to my problem.
Once most basic device drivers ( if we can consider USB host as a basic 
device driver) will be available for 2.6 kernels, the need for these two 
sort of support will disappear (but will certainly appear between 2.6 
and 2.8 kernels...). I'm sure that Darwin would have agreed.

Personnal note :
If anybody knows another SOC with integrated USB host, 2 UARTs, GPIOs, 
RTC and the support for Linux 2.6, can you give me its name?

Best regards,

Jean Lee


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