RE: das08 pci board BUG id 9 red-hat

We wrote a patch to be able to use the das08 driver without recompiling the
red-hat kernel for pci-das08 board.

We need this because we cant afford to recompile the red-hat kernel without
pcmcia support.
This is a requirement for our project.  We need to have the easiest
installation procedure possible
since the end-users of our software are not unix developpers and we got a
lot of computers installed with red-hat 7.2 kernels.


We add a define in das08.c called CONFIG_COMEDI_DAS08 and a question in the
configure script that enable the pcmcia
support in das08 driver.

This patch is maybe not the best solution to that problem.

We can think to implement the following alternative solutions:

1- Separate the pcmcia code from the pci code and make the das08.o driver
from 3 object depending on the configuration files:
   pcmcia_das08.o pci_das08.o and common_das08.o.

2- Continue probing on failure in the pcmcia section. Is that possible in
the comedi architecture ?
	- What will appen if there is more than one das08 compatible card ?

3- Use the patch.diff attached in this e-mail and decribed above.

Please, let me know what you think of this patch and tell me if you are
planning to include it in the commedi source distribution.  We would also
like to know witch alternative solution you think that will fit best with
commedi before we put more efforts.


Thanks....
Louis-Rene Poirier Beauchemin


-----Message d'origine-----
De : comedi-admin_at_comedi.org [mailto:comedi-admin_at_comedi.org]De la part
de Louis-René Poirier Beauchemin
Envoyé : 2 février, 2003 06:22
À : ivanmr_at_altavista.com; fmhess_at_users.sourceforge.net; ds_at_schleef.org;
comedi_at_comedi.org
Cc : Philippe Marchesseault; Frobert
Objet : das08 pci board



Hi linux hackers fellows.

I am Louis-Rene Poirier a student in software ingeneering from Ecole de
Technologie Superieure (E.T.S) university
located in Montreal city, Canada.

We use your driver for the pci-das08 board from Measurement Computing .

We use this board to gater data from a device called Neurodyne wich is an
amplifier for external muscual sensors.
This is for a research project that aim to put mouse support for paraplegic
peoples.
So we need the analogic input from the pci-card.

Our goal is to make this card works under linux to be able to use the
neurodyne device.

We tried your driver but we got trouble to make comedi detect our pci card.
So we had the choice to write a brand new driver, witch is kinda risky task,
or to make some hacking in the comedi source
to see whats wrong see if we can get comedi driver working.

We decide to give comedi a try.
We took the latest CVS snapshot ( about 2 weeks ago ) and start hacking.

We removed all reference to pcmcia support in cb-pcidas driver.
After that, comedi was able to detect the card and the monitor application
(from comedi example package) print out the data from the neurodine device.

This was a great step, this prove that your drivers works, but we removed
pcmcia support and the resulted driver was unstable and randomly freeze the
system.

Our next step is to get an acceptable fix. And, to be able to get support
from the linux community, we dont want to fork in a parrallel project.

We want to know if someone is using the same card under linux kernel 2.4.18
and gone throught the same problems.

Before making any other change to the source code, we need to know if our
problem was a real bug.
Maybe its already fixed or maybe not.

I dont currently have access to the, lets call it a huge dirty hack, we made
to the source code. The computer at the university is down or freeze or in
network problems. I need to get physical access to the computer witch can be
tomorrow.

We are willing to work in the source code since we get university credits
out of it.
But before to get to work, we need your help to correctly aim our efforts.

Please reply as soon as possible if you get revealant informations this will
be greatly apreciated.

Other people that work on this project:
Philippe Marchesseault P.Marchesso_at_videotron.ca. My teamnate to get the
linux driver working.
Francoirs Rober frobert_at_cam.org Our teacher and great OS guru.
Eric Fimbel efimbel_at_ele.etsmtl.ca The doctor responsible for this project.
Louis-Rene Poirier louis_rene_at_videotron.ca Me.

www.etsmtl.ca our university web site.

Thanks in advance...

PS:
Am sorry for all the orthographic mistakes that I made in this e-mail, As
you can guess english is not my primary language.
We speak french in Quebec province ( for those interested ).

-------------------------------------------
Louis-Rene Poirier Beauchemin, soft-ing student 2yrs.


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