Drivers reveal their interfaces [LWN.net]

Drivers reveal their interfaces

Posted Sep 30, 2007 16:37 UTC (Sun) by filker0 (guest, #31278)
In reply to: To Zoborov by Zoborov
Parent article: The Linux Driver Project takes off

The driver will serve, for those who can read source code, as a key to deciphering the hardware
interface to which the source code is written. If the driver source is available outside of NDA,
someone with the aptitude and skill set to do reverse engineering should have very little trouble
figuring out what every hardware interaction is doing even if GKH chooses to obfusticate the code
(which I seriously doubt he would). The provinence of an open source driver reverse engineered
from another open source driver is much clearer than that produced by examining the disassembly
of proprietary binary blob.

I disagree strongly with Stephan A. Rickauer on that. I also disagree with your position that this is
the same as having a binary blob. A driver that is in the kernel distribution will be maintained and
updated as the kernel APIs change and can be ported to other architectures. We are not left waiting
for the manufacturer to come out with a new blob or meta-module.

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Drivers reveal their interfaces

Posted Sep 30, 2007 16:57 UTC (Sun) by Zoborov (guest, #29327) [Link]

A driver that is in the kernel distribution will be maintained and updated as the kernel APIs change and can be ported to other architectures.

Be that as it may, in the words of Theo de Raadt:

I can assure you that other people without the docs cannot fix the bugs in those drivers

Fixing bugs

Posted Sep 30, 2007 17:15 UTC (Sun) by filker0 (guest, #31278) [Link]

Someone with the docs is always in a better position to fix the bugs, but not having them does not preclude fixing bugs, Theo de Raadt's comments notwithstanding.

It's not always fun, but it is possible. I've done it more than once, at least once where all I had was a binary driver, a scope, and a knowlege of what the driver was supposed to be doing. Having non- obfusticated source code is very much like having register level docs, plus a little theory of operation thrown in.

What you're really doing is questioning GKH's integrity, his intelligence, and his committment to Free and Open Source. Until he's produced a driver, you are welcome to worry that he might produce the source eqivilent to a binary blob, but you conclude that you will.

Drivers reveal their interfaces

Posted Oct 2, 2007 19:27 UTC (Tue) by krishna (guest, #24080) [Link]

> I can assure you that other people without the docs cannot fix the bugs
in those drivers

And while I can't assure you, I'll give you 2-to-1 odds that given a
working driver and the docs, you'll never finish getting the bugs out of
the *documentation*.