[flagged]
Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#22This makes me sad.
Now, most will say "but why, 1995 is ancient history, no such hardware exists anymore". The thing is ... should Linux get rid of what is old? I understand you have a smaller kernel when you have less code, less cost to maintain, I get it. Still, I wonder whether this should be the only allowed opinion. Would it not be better to, kind of, transition into a situation where any hardware built in the future, would be supported? So in 2050, we'd not say "damn, computers from 2026 are obsolete now". We could say "no problem, linux is forever". Everything is supported. I actually would prefer the latter than the "older than 30 years, we no longer support it".
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are still ISA slots in new systems with fairly modern processors and plenty of RAM, if you don’t mind buying specific models of industrial PCs for way too much money. For $1100 or so you, too, could have a 4th generation Core i3 machine. https://www.rampcsystems.com/product/2-isa-slot Or maybe you need 4 PCI and 9 ISA for some reason. DuroPC’s got you, if you can drop $1800 on a system with the same generation…
ISA slots are all identical. If you have one slot, you can multiply it to 100 slots just by connecting the wires.
How were different devices addressed? I assume it’s a master and slave system, but even then were address collisions automatically resolved?
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#24What is a bus mouse? Is it using the old PS/2 port?
The PS/2 connector is what came after that the bus mouse. Back then the mouse was connected to a specialised add-in card. Probably an ISA card if I remember correctly.
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#25What is a bus mouse? Is it using the old PS/2 port?
No, interface used before ps/2 that need ISA card to be used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_mouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#26Raises the question whether a bug in code that's never called actually exists ;)
Code that is never normally used can sometimes still be gotten to run by an attacker, and therefore can still be a security risk.
From my understanding, that isn't how drivers in Linux work. Nearly no kernels will have that code compiled into them because kconfig won't call for it. It is "opt-in", and it is so niche few Distros would have done so.
Linux only ships with a tiny sub-set of the drivers in the source tree.
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are still ISA slots in new systems with fairly modern processors and plenty of RAM, if you don’t mind buying specific models of industrial PCs for way too much money. For $1100 or so you, too, could have a 4th generation Core i3 machine. https://www.rampcsystems.com/product/2-isa-slot Or maybe you need 4 PCI and 9 ISA for some reason. DuroPC’s got you, if you can drop $1800 on a system with the same generation…
ISA slots are all identical. If you have one slot, you can multiply it to 100 slots just by connecting the wires.
I'm pretty sure the host will run out of IRQs long before 100. Don't most systems only have 16?
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
ISA slots are all identical. If you have one slot, you can multiply it to 100 slots just by connecting the wires.
How were different devices addressed? I assume it’s a master and slave system, but even then were address collisions automatically resolved?
They used 16-bit addresses from 0x0 to 0xffff.
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
ISA slots are all identical. If you have one slot, you can multiply it to 100 slots just by connecting the wires.
How were different devices addressed? I assume it’s a master and slave system, but even then were address collisions automatically resolved?
> How were different devices addressed?
There's a shared address bus. Each device responds to the i/o and/or memory addresses it's configured for. Configuration can be static, jumpers, isapnp.
> I assume it’s a master and slave system, but even then were address collisions automatically resolved?
No. If two devices want to use the same address space, you'll have problems. isapnp might help you out, but it was added in the second decade of ISA, so ... lots of things don't use it.
Re: Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
ISA slots are all identical. If you have one slot, you can multiply it to 100 slots just by connecting the wires.
How were different devices addressed? I assume it’s a master and slave system, but even then were address collisions automatically resolved?
In original ISA none of this is managed, the owner of the PC is expected to manually configure both hardware and software appropriately.
So e.g. [with the PC turned off!] you move a tiny jumper (basically just a piece of conductive metal with a plastic housing) to the "IRQ 8" position and you pick "IRQ 8" in some menu or set it in an environment variable in DOS or whatever.
By the time PCI is starting to appear there is some level of "Plug and Plug ISA" but it's fairly crazy because of course all the old stuff still exists whereas for PCI the bus always had this intelligence baked in so nobody just assumes they can pick.