[opensolaris-summit] Summit Hardware

Thu Oct 4 11:15:04 PDT 2007

I'm bad with this... sorry again

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Sonnenschein <johnsonnenschein at gmail.com>
Date: Oct 4, 2007 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [opensolaris-summit] Summit Hardware
To: Garrett D'Amore <gdamore at sun.com>

+1 in general, comments inline

On 10/4/07, Garrett D'Amore <gdamore at sun.com> wrote:
> Its looking like it may be worthwhile... maybe on Sunday?  It seems like
> there are a few folks interested in having a couple of technical
> conversations.
>
> I'd propose the following topics, which I can help lead.  This is based
> on where there are schedule gaps in the rooms in the current schedule:
>
> Saturday 17:00-17:30   - Getting started with kernel development
> (intro/teaching)... I won't go much into specific APIs because there
> isn't time, but I can give tips and tricks to getting your feet wet,
> perhaps including fixing a known bug.

absolutely! I would go out of my way to be there.

> Saturday 17:30-18:30   - Porting network drivers to GLDv3... again this
> would be mostly a one-way.  I'd present an actual conversion.  (Since I
> can perform such a conversion in about 4 hours typically, I think
> *presenting* it in an hour would be pretty easy.)

given time constraints, thoughts on adding to this? (eg filesystem
interfaces, DDI, etc )

> Sunday 15:00-16:00   - Power management (mostly focused on tasks for
> driver developers, but also covering other challenges.  Randy and I
> could probably co-host it.)
>
> I'd *request* someone to present a topic on Fault Management for Driver
> Developers.  I'm not qualified to present this.   But it's a topic I'm
> interested in, and which hasn't been well covered in an easily
> consumable format, IMO.
>
> I'd recommend a round-table discussion to cover I/O virtualization.
> Specifically, what are we going to do about PCI SR-IOV, VMDq, Intel's VT
> I/O stuff, and such?  This is a topic of interest for Xen, hypervisor,
> and I/O engineers. (Also networking/crossbow.)  I think part of the
> problem is that we need to sit down and talk about what the problems
> coming down are, and what as a group we need to do to solve them.
>
> I'd be interested in attending any presentation of, or discussion
> surrounding, Bluetooth, but I think the appropriate folks from China
> won't be here.
>
>     -- Garrett
>
> John Sonnenschein wrote:
> > 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/
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> opensolaris-summit mailing list
> >> opensolaris-summit at opensolaris.org
> >> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/opensolaris-summit
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>

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