Hello everyone,
just recently, I had a chat with Norman about the finalization of the roadmap for 2012 and we agreed that one item should not be forgotten: device drivers.
Currently, we have a satisfying mix of native drivers (PS/2, VESA framebuffer, ATA/ATAPI, SATA, UART) and ports from other systems (iPXE NIC drivers, Linux 2.6 audio, GPU and USB). I'm really confident with our own developments and the neat device-driver environment for iPXE, but the situation with the Linux drivers is different. The linux_drivers repository is showing its age with the most recent version being Linux 2.6.20.21. For audio be backported drivers from 2.6.28 and for the Intel GPU driver we went for a completely new port that just shares the same repository. Finally, linux_drivers is lagging behind with regard to handling third-party source code and, thus, bloats the Genode source package with lots of sources from the Linux kernel.
Therefore, I propose to put device drivers for USB (HID, MSC), GPU, and optionally audio on the agenda. The development should be guided by the i915 implementation and, thus, obsoletes the current linux_drivers. It may sound ambitious, but IMO the drivers should be ready for Genode 12.05. What is your opinion?
Regards