Re: NetBSD drivers on HURD?

[Jan Kratochvil]

Hi,

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 01:58:43 +0900, Lee Braiden wrote:
...
> It's a fairly obvious idea, and I'm sure it would have already been done if 
> it 
> was easy, but what /is/ the thinking on NetBSD drivers in (L4-)HURD?

I would consider more some (HURD-friendly) generic drivers layer and several
adapting layers on top of it for specific OS drivers.

                              [HURD]
                                | generic drivers API
          /---------------------+------------------------\
          |                     |                        |
[Linux-kernel-iface]  [NetBSD-kernel-iface]  [MS-Windows-kernel-iface]
          | Linux API           | NetBSD API             | MS-Windows ABI
   [sata_via.c]              [???.c]                 [ntfs.sys]

I wrote such Linux-kernel-filesystem-API <-> MS-Windows-kernel-filesystem-ABI
before
        http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/
and the borken monolithic Linux kernel just avoid any reasonable drivers
adaptation, compatibility and security safety layers there.

Sure there should be some proper IDL separation there, maybe like

modules:     [HURD modules]
                  | | | IDL
module:     [Linux-kernel-iface layer]  ; maybe not needed
                    | IDL
module:  [sata_via.c + iface-stub]

Sorry for design flaws I am not much aware of L4/HURD details.


Regards,
Lace