Roadmap 2012

[Christian Helmuth]

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
-- 
Christian Helmuth
Genode Labs

http://www.genode-labs.com/ · http://genode.org/ · /ˈdʒiː.nəʊd/

Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden
Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth