Also all Atheros based systems with binary drivers from Atheros itself or SDK's from third party vendors only work with particular (quite old) kernel versions. Perhaps you are able to build with newer kernel but it's much more difficult to get support from the chip manufacturer this way.
Using open source drivers instead is not always an opinion because it's very hard to comply with radio regulations and get your product certified. This is why I think it's somehow also important for BATMAN to support older kernels.
This problem also applies to Sigma Designs, Texas Instrument and all other Multimedia-SOC vendors but there will seldom be BATMAN on non wireless systems like this :-)
Franz
Andrew Lunn schrieb:
At some point we have to start thinking about how many versions we want to support. Each new kernel brings more changes which need to be dealt with. Right now, the required effort is still at a sustainable level but the gap is growing. On one hand it is a nice playground to expand our knowledge about macros and demonstrate what nasty things you can do (see the second patch as an example). ;-) On the other hand it always requires a serious amount of time and effort. It only makes sense if at least some people are using it. Opinions ?
I guess the problem here is devices which cannot use modern kernels.
Why can a device not use a modern kernel?
Binary only drivers which work only for a specific kernel. I guess the biggest problem here is broadcom devices? What is the current state here? How good is the native linux broadcom driver? Are there other chipsets without an open driver?
The need to use a vendor kernel since the mainline kernel does not have the necessary support. How big a problem is this?
What other reasons are there not to use a modern kernel?
Andrew