Re: [irda-users] Re: irattach locks kernel (Tekram irMate 210 over pl2303 usb->serial converter)

[Russell K. <rm...@ar...>]

On Thu, Aug 22, 2002 at 05:34:21PM -0700, Jean Tourrilhes wrote:
> 	And the question is : is this lock really needed ?

That is something you need to take up with the networking folk.  I suspect
the answer is that no one knows for sure, but in the interests of a clean
API to drivers, it is.

> 	Bah, in any case it would be easy to add. Patch welcomed.

Unfortunately its not simple.  The rtnl lock is a semaphore, which you
can't lock from non-process context.  Its the same problem with BKL and
the tty/serial layer, and the same problem with USB.

Its therefore a common problem; it would be nice to find a solution
that covers all 3 cases.  I don't know the IrDA stack as well as I did
a year or two ago, so I'd have to read up on it to come up with any
suggestions.  When I can do that, I don't know at present; I've too
many projects outstanding at present eating away my time and I'm getting
no where fast at the moment.

-- 
Russell King (rm...@ar...)                The developer of ARM Linux
             http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/personal/aboutme.html