[rfc] removing the NDISulator

Adrian Chadd adrian at freebsd.org
Mon Oct 21 22:29:25 UTC 2013


The NDISulator is a crutch from a time when there wasn't _any_ real
alternative.

There are plenty of alternatives now. What's lacking is desire and
person-power. But the datasheets are there, or the vendor code has been
released, or there's linux/otherbsd drivers.

Leaving it in there is just delaying the inevitable - drivers need to be
fixed, ported, or reverse engineered.

This is going to upset users in the same way that eliminating any other
transition/sideways compatibility layer upsets users. But as I said, the
path forward is fixing up the lack of stable drivers, not simply supporting
some crutch.

If there are drivers that people absolutely need fixed then they should
stand up and say "hey, I really would like X to work better!" and then
follow it up with some encouraging incentives. Right now the NDISulator
lets people work _around_ this by having something that kind of works for
them but it doesn't improve our general driver / stack ecosystems.



-adrian


On 21 October 2013 14:46, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:

> "Andrey V. Elsukov" <bu7cher at yandex.ru> wrote:
>
> > I'm agree. While there are still some devices without native drivers,
> > but that work via NDISulator, we should keep it.
>
> Yes, best keep it while it helps some people.
>
>
> Adrian Chadd <adrian at freebsd.org> wrote:
>
> > It's honestly about time that these were updated, fixed and/or ported to
> > FreeBSD.
> >
> > So, I'm still going forward with the plan. I won't be killing it during
> the
> > 10 lifecycle.
>
> If ndis is removed while it works, that would be bad for users,
> some of whom won't even be on lists, but use ndis as their lifeboat.
>
> If ndis is later labeled as abandoned & if maintenance ceases, & if it
> then breaks, only then will pressure increase on others to step
> forward & help fix things; if a wait then sees no one stepping forward,
> surely only then would removal seem most appropriate ?
>
> Cheers,
> Julian
> --
> Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich
> http://berklix.com
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