[opensolaris-summit] Summit Hardware

Thu Oct 4 10:42:13 PDT 2007

FWIW,

when I initially became interested in the summit, I had assumed it
would mostly be technical discussion ( it's the "developer summit" not
the "packaging stuff together" summit ).

I know that I at least would love for you to present something (either
formally or otherwise) on kernel driver development

On 10/4/07, Garrett D'Amore <gdamore at sun.com> wrote:
> Al Hopper wrote:
> > On Thu, 4 Oct 2007, Shawn Walker wrote:
> >
> >> On 04/10/2007, Garrett D'Amore <gdamore at sun.com> wrote:
> >>> John Sonnenschein wrote:
> >>>> Apple actually published a fantastic set of docs on the filesystem,
> >>>> but more to the point OSX/darwin contains a CDDL compatible licensed
> >>>> implementation, but I'm not as attached to the particular idea as I am
> >>>> with the idea of having technical (rather than political or design )
> >>>> breakouts
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> As we are quickly running out of time, and I'm still not clear what
> >>> exactly is going to be discussed here.  I can't tell whether the summit
> >>> is going to be folks presenting their ideas for future directions on
> >>> topics like packaging and installation (both of which bore me, but I
> >>> actually happen to *like* the SYSV packaging that we have today), or
> >>> whether this going to be any multiway exchange of ideas going on.
> >>>
> >>> The "drivers and laptop support" topic is potentially very germane to
> >>> me, as that is my current focus (specifically drivers for SDcard, and
> >>> laptop power management including suspend/resume), but I'm still not
> >>> sure what is going to be discussed there... I don't recognize David
> >>> Stewart from the laptop or device drivers communities, nor from the
> >>> internal group at Sun that is focused on mobile platforms.  *So*, what
> >>> will that topic be about, really?
> >>>
> >>> I'm still afraid that the very non-technical focus of the topics means
> >>> that a lot of potential participants like me might be turned off by the
> >>> Summit.  This looks a lot more like a meeting of the Program Managers
> >>> than of the Engineers.  (And maybe that is indeed necessary and is also
> >>> the need the Summit is intended to fill, but if that is the case then
> >>> there is approximately zero purpose in my attendance.)
> >>
> >> I wouldn't call installation, packaging, upgrading, virtualisation,
> >> laptop drivers, open sound, etc. "non-technical" -- but that all
> >> depends on what you mean but "non-technical."
>
> Yes, it does.  But if you look, virtualization for example, is still
> focussed on install.
>
> I'm not sure that laptop drivers, OSS, etc. are really going to be
> covered in technical detail, other than a presentation of slideware.  I
> expect Intel will offer some information about what they are
> contributing (which is indeed valuable!), but at the end of the day,
> this is more likely, IMO, to be PM level stuff than
> hands-gritty-in-the-code stuff.
>
> >>
> >> I'd be happy to see you there, as I know there are at least a few of
> >> us that would like to pick your brains about driver development during
> >> a breakout session. However, that's up to you.
> >
> > A big +1
> >
> > You can only influence the agenda by being present.  And we'll have
> > some systems where you could provide a real hands-on demo of your
> > expertize - rather than presenting slide-ware.
>
> I'd offered to present a technical breakout on one or more topics
> related to drivers, networking, GLDv3, etc.  The "general" consensus I
> got was (or that I thought I got was), there wasn't enough interest in
> such topics at this particular venue.  And I've not seen anyone else
> offer to present anything close to the technical level that I was hoping
> for, outside of installation/packaging/patching.
>
> And, fwiw, the problems I had hoped to see go beyond my personal
> interests, but could include other areas like OpenGL, compiz, looking
> glass, etc.  But again, maybe those communities are taking care of
> things in their own way.  (Gnome and X11 have their own
> non-OpenSolaris-hosted communities at least.)
>
> Anyway, is this a forum where folks are going to get together and try to
> solve problems, or is it more each presenter giving his thoughts and
> slideware?
>
> One way presentations have their uses, and (as indicated above), I'm
> willing to present if there is demand.  (Topics I am equipped for
> include power management, dynamic reconfiguration, GLDv2/v3/DLPI, and
> general kernel/device driver development.)
>
> But I'm also very, very interested in having conversations that are not
> one-way.  There are some significant feature gaps, and technical
> challenges that the community could use more help with.  A dedicated
> forum to tackle group design problems, and even individual hacking (got
> a pet bug you want fixed?)  would probably be very useful.  So far, this
> doesn't look like (at least this time) this is evolving into that forum.
>
> Anyway, I need to make up my mind today, because I still have to figure
> out travel and hotel plans.  And if I were to plan to present anything,
> I'd need to gather materials.  Don't get me wrong: I *want* to
> participate.  But I want the participation to be worth the time that it
> distracts me from actually *doing*.
>
>     -- Garrett
> >
> > Water always finds its own level...
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Al Hopper  Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX.  al at logical-approach.com
> >            Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134  Timezone: US CDT
> > OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Apr 2005 to Mar 2007
> > http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/ogb_2005-2007/
>
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