Re: [PATCH v7 0/8] Pegasos2 emulation

[BALATON Zoltan]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2021, Laurent Vivier wrote:
> Le 16/03/2021 à 13:24, BALATON Zoltan a écrit :
> > On Tue, 16 Mar 2021, Laurent Vivier wrote:
> > > Le 16/03/2021 à 12:49, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé a écrit :
> > > > On 3/16/21 10:01 AM, Laurent Vivier wrote:
> > > > > Le 15/03/2021 à 13:33, BALATON Zoltan a écrit :
> > > > > > On Sat, 13 Mar 2021, BALATON Zoltan wrote:
> > > > > > > On Wed, 10 Mar 2021, BALATON Zoltan wrote:
> > > > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I've started posting this series well in advance to get it into 6.0 and yet it 
> > > > > > > seems like it may
> > > > > > > be missing it due to organisational issues (no real complaints were found with 
> > > > > > > patches but
> > > > > > > Philippe seems to like more review that does not seem to happen as nobody is 
> > > > > > > interested). Looks
> > > > > > > like David is waiting for an ack from Philippe but will be away next week so if 
> > > > > > > this is not
> > > > > > > resolved now it may be too late on Monday. To avoid that:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > David, could you please send an ack before you leave for the last two patches 
> > > > > > > so it could get
> > > > > > > committed via some other tree while you're away?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Philippe, if you can't ack the vt82c686 patches now are you OK with taking the 
> > > > > > > whole series via
> > > > > > > your tree before the freeze? That would give you some more days to review and 
> > > > > > > it could always be
> > > > > > > reverted during the freeze but if it's not merged now I'll have to wait until 
> > > > > > > the summer to
> > > > > > > get it
> > > > > > > in again which would be another long delay. I don't think this will get more 
> > > > > > > reviews unless it's
> > > > > > > in master and people can start using and testing it better.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Since David seems to be away for this week before seeing my mail asking for an 
> > > > > > ack from him, now
> > > > > > this can only get in by Philippe or Peter. (David said before he'd be OK with 
> > > > > > the series if
> > > > > > Philippe
> > > > > > acked it so I think that can count as an implicit ack and it could always be 
> > > > > > reverted before the
> > > > > > releease.)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Philippe, do you have anything against this to get merged now? If not please 
> > > > > > send a pull or ack it
> > > > > > so it has a chance to be in 6.0 or tell if you still intend to do anything 
> > > > > > about it before the
> > > > > > freeze. This series was on the list since January and the remaining parts you 
> > > > > > did not take are
> > > > > > here
> > > > > > since February 22nd and the version after your first review since two weeks so 
> > > > > > it would be nice to
> > > > > > sort this out and not block it any further without a good reason.
> > > > >
> > > > > Pegasos looks like a New World PowerMac, so perhaps Mark can help?
> > > >
> > > > The PPC part is mostly reviewed. The problem is the first patch:
> > > > "vt82c686: Implement control of serial port io ranges via config regs".
> > >
> > > vt82c686.c is a Fuloong 2E file, why Fuloong 2E maintainers are not involved in 
> > > the review?
> >
> > Philippe is MIPS maintainer and he was involved and reviewed most patches. 
> > Huacai did not respond
> > much and Jiaxun's email adress is constantly stripped by the list so whenrver I 
> > add him it will be
> > lost the next time. He seems to be more interested in Fuloong 3 anyway so did 
> > not respond much either.
> >
> > All in all I think there's just not enough interest in these machines/devices 
> > so my stance is that
> > if it does not break anything just take it now and then we'll have enough time 
> > for further review,
> > fixing or reverting during the freeze. Whereas if this is kept pushing back 
> > then nothing will happen
> > with them for the next 2-3 months then we'll be back to here and miss the next 
> > release as well.
>
> The PATCH 1 doesn't seem to be needed to have a working Pegasos 2 machine, does 
> it?

It is needed (as well as all other patches in the series). Patch 1 is 
needed for getting serial output which is the only way to communicate with 
the Pegasos2 firmware so it's really hard to boot anything without it.

> If the problem is only with the first patch perhaps you can remove it to have 
> it merged and come
> back later with a cleaner implementation (it is presented to be a hack)?

I'll try to explain it again in another message but there's no cleaner 
solution available without much more work than I want to take up. To do it 
a more cleaner way ISA emulation would need to be QOM'ified that I won't 
do. This solution is a hack in that it pokes the isa-serial device from a 
superclass but there's no easier and cleaner way to do it so this should 
be good enough for now and it has the lowest chance to break anything 
else.

> I think PATCH 6 can already be merged, and PATCH 2 can be done outside of the 
> series as a pre-requisite.
>
> Then it will be easier to manage a series only adding devices for your new 
> machine.

It's all or nothing I'm afraid as all these pathces are needed for 
pegasos2 to work so taking only a few of them won't let users use it in 
6.0.

Regards,
BALATON Zoltan