Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!jkh
From: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: New Install / Observations & Gripes
Date: 9 Jan 1996 03:12:42 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <4csmfa$eo2@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <DKup49.M1t@bnr.ca> <4cqk44$3gt@agate.berkeley.edu> <4crpbm$hja@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: violet.berkeley.edu
In article <4crpbm$hja@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>,
Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu> wrote:
>Uh.... wait a minute. (*sound of Bill rummaging around for his soapbox
>and fire-retardant jockey shorts*)
>
> [slams devfs as Not Invented Yet and overkill to boot]
> [suggests Not Invented Yet devinfo as solution]
Sorry, Bill, but I tried that. I have, in fact, a bunch of code just
sitting in a directory here which detects many of the devices on
the system using code I ripped screaming out of lsdev and hacked to
be a general library of lookup procedures.
The only problem with it is that it just doesn't work.
Those devices that actually *have* any form of working devinfo support
in them are invariably lacking even the most basic sort of class
information ("is ``cdr0'' a CDROM or the Car Decal Recognition device
driver?"). Those devices which *do* have class information more frequently
than not have the WRONG class information.
In short, devinfo is just as unusable as devfs. Funny you should
mention it, but I just pinged Garrett on this again last week.
I asked him if the whole thing was ready for me to revisit yet
(having complained vociferously to him ere I last ran up against the
mountain of bogosity that is devinfo) and he said "No" if anything,
it was worse now.
And so I put it to Bill, self-proclaimed crotchety old traditionalist stick
in the mud that he is: "I'll be happy to use devinfo if you're willing
to make it work, first!"
Oh, and bear in mind that you'll have to duke out `the proper approach'
(e.g. "xxx finally screams longer and louder than yyy and zzz, causing them
to cede victory to xxx") with Poul-Henning and Garrett! Apparently there's
a bit of a mini-war going on over it right now. So enjoy yourself, and
please let me know when I can use devinfo successfully in sysinstall! :-)
Jordan