Contributing to the kernel video drivers, phase #2

[Jean-Sébastien Pédron]

Hi!

Thanks to everyone who shared their opinions!

Generally, people seem to prefer the file-by-file approach. About the
targetted kernel, a few of you would even go with the big jump to the
latest kernel.

If we could achieve that, it would be awesome as this would resolve the
"we are behind" issue. But the risk is quite high. Still, I'm curious
about this. So here is what I propose:

    o  Let's create a drm-next-3.9 branch, based on drm-i915-update-38.
       People who are interested by updating the whole DRM to Linux 3.9
       (not just i915) can send pull requests to this branch. I will
       join this effort once drm-i915-update-38 is finished and
       committed.

    o  Also, we create a drm-next-4.4 branch, still based on
       drm-i915-update-38. Again, those who wish to work on that,
       please send pull requests. What I don't know is, should we move
       to linuxkpi first (instead of sys/dev/drm2/drm_os_freebsd.[ch])?

For the file-by-file approach, here is what I usually do:
    o  I compare the diff between Linux $target_version and FreeBSD.
    o  If the diff is relatively small, I try to apply changes one by
       one.
    o  If the diff is large, I copy the Linux source file and port it
       again, by looking the the FreeBSD version.
    o  If functions were reordered or style was changed, I try to do
       the same non-functional updates to the FreeBSD file in HEAD:
       this simplifies the comparison between the old and new copies of
       the FreeBSD file.

Those who preferred the commit-by-commit approach: would you like to
form a thrid team and work on that? Or join the file-by-file effort?

-- 
Jean-Sébastien Pédron

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