[etherlab-users] EC kernel driver changes upstream merge?

[Uwe Hermann]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 12:20:37PM +0100, Florian Pose wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 04:28:57PM +0100, Erwin Burgstaller wrote:
> > The ec_* network driver modules do not work without the EtherCAT master
> > loaded. So the master itself would have to be part of the kernel first.
> 
> ... and it's definitely not a good idea to embed EtherCAT logic in every
> network driver in the kernel. ;-)

Why not, from a quick glance I don't see a reason not to do it; could be
worth a quick try what upstream kernel developers think about it.
The kernel could have Kconfig options for EtherCAT on/off per driver, or
it could be a kernel parameter 'modprobe e1000 ethercat=1' or using some
other mechanism.

Having the driver support in mainline would definately be a big plus on
the long term, IMHO.


Uwe.
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