current status of digi driver

[David Boyd]

While attempting to upgrade our comm servers from 7.4-RELEASE to
8.2-RELEASE, I discovered that the digi driver didn't make the grade.

I searched the archives and found discussions in August 2008 concerning
drivers that were disconnected for lack of MPSAFEness. The threads
continued right up to the point where it was agreed that the drivers
shouldn't be allowed to halt/delay the MPSAFE switch in 8.0-RELEASE.

It appears that there was also agreement that (at least) some of the
drivers, digi included, would be converted soon after 8.0-RELEASE.

The pre-MPSAFE code appears to be included in the most recent -STABLE
and -CURRENT, but doesn't get built. The HARDWARE.TXT still includes digi
among supported multiport serial device drivers.

Is there any plan to bring digi forward?

We have about 55 modem ports over ten 8-port Xr cards (PCI) that connect
remote sites via dial-up.

These work perfectly with 7.4-RELEASE.

We would like to see them work perfectly with 8.x-RELEASE or 9.x-RELEASE.

I have time and hardware to test with and can help as needed.

Thoughts?

[Gavin Atkinson]

Post by David Boyd
While attempting to upgrade our comm servers from 7.4-RELEASE to
8.2-RELEASE, I discovered that the digi driver didn't make the grade.
I searched the archives and found discussions in August 2008 concerning
drivers that were disconnected for lack of MPSAFEness. The threads
continued right up to the point where it was agreed that the drivers
shouldn't be allowed to halt/delay the MPSAFE switch in 8.0-RELEASE.
It appears that there was also agreement that (at least) some of the
drivers, digi included, would be converted soon after 8.0-RELEASE.
The pre-MPSAFE code appears to be included in the most recent -STABLE
and -CURRENT, but doesn't get built. The HARDWARE.TXT still includes digi
among supported multiport serial device drivers.
Is there any plan to bring digi forward?

[snip]

Post by David Boyd
I have time and hardware to test with and can help as needed.

Patches have been submitted in the last week to update the digi(4) driver
to work with the new TTY layer. If you are able to spend some time
testing them on 9-CURRENT, there is a possibility that there may still be
time to get them into the tree before 9.0-RELEASE.

The patches can be found in kern/158086.

Thanks,

Gavin

[Peter Jeremy]

Post by David Boyd
It appears that there was also agreement that (at least) some of the
drivers, digi included, would be converted soon after 8.0-RELEASE.

That came down to developer time and it appeared that I was the only
person interested in it.

Post by David Boyd
Is there any plan to bring digi forward?

See kern/158086 (which updates digi(4)) and kern/152254 (which re-
implements TTY functionality that was lost with TTYng). Both include
patches that should work on either 8.x or -current. Of the two, the
latter is more urgent because it impacts the KBI.

Post by David Boyd
We have about 55 modem ports over ten 8-port Xr cards (PCI) that connect
remote sites via dial-up.

I've only got access to PCI Xem cards that are used for serial console
concentration so it would be useful for you to test both the Xr cards
and dial-in support.