First off;
Some unused stuff with the pci.h/pci.c. I'd like to see that totally done
away with.
#define PCI_CLASS_PROCESSOR_386 0x0b00
#define PCI_CLASS_PROCESSOR_486 0x0b01
#define PCI_CLASS_PROCESSOR_PENTIUM 0x0b02
(etc, etc)
I don't see any of that code being put to use at all. Now, I have an idea
for putting it to use, since it probably needs to be in there for a
reason.
Linux prj.pcimporters.com 2.0.32 #1 Wed Nov 19 00:46:45 EST 1997 i586
unknown
Focus on the "unknown." It would be pretty nifty if we used the #define
PCI_CLASS_PROCESSOR flags to replace the "unknown" with fields like
"Pentium," "Cyrix," "AMD," "Alpha," "SPARC," "sun4m," "sun4u," etc, etc.
I'm not entirely sure how one would go about this, but it's just a
suggestion.
Second; debugging. Yes, we have some REALLY detailed debugging stuff. But
I'd like to see MORE. ESPECIALLY at the kernel level.
Shift-Scroll Lock comes in handy, but what happens when it's of no help?
Why not add Shift-Alt-F1, and so on, mapped to more specific debugging
information at the kernel level. Another idea is the make the logging a
bit more detailed. I'm still trying to track down the cause of the "Unable
to get a free page.." errors on localloop. Perhaps if there had been more
logging, I could have found the cause by now. ;)
Third; Known Problem Reporting. If there's a device which has known
problems, it'd be nice if the kernel were to report the known problems
either at boot, or during configuration. It'd also be nice to add in
compatibility issues, but that'd be a little too much work. However, a
database of known problems with hardware shouldn't be too hard to create,
and maintain. And it would be nice for the Linux newbie, who's not
entirely sure what's wrong with his machine. Or even the oldbie, who
almost put a BusLogic BT-946 into a motherboard that would have caused an
absolute nightmare with it. ;) Heck, I think we could even do that with
2.0, and definitely 2.1. If anybody wants to get started, hey, just drop
me a line. I'll be glad to attempt to coordinate. ;)
Anyways, these are just some things that I think would be nice to have in
2.2. I'm not demanding, I'm not even asking. I'm just saying, "hey, it
might be nice if we had so and so." Anybody else who'd like to, feel free
to hop on. And, as always, feedback, comments, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc,
etc, etc, etc, /etc, rm -rf /etc, er.. you get the idea, are always
welcome. Except rm -rf /etc. ;)
*goes back into hiding from memleaks on localloop* ;P
-Phillip R. Jaenke [InterNIC Handle: PRJ5] (kernel@prj.pcimporters.com)
Head of Development, The Improvement Linux Project.
Penguin0: Cyrix Cx6x86 PR200L+, 64M, 1.6G, 1.2G, 4.3G, EE/Pro, 2.0.30
Penguin1: Intel P5-100, 32M, 4G, NE2k, 2.1.60-Improvement