linux/Documentation/ABI/removed/raw1394

What:		raw1394 (a.k.a. "Raw IEEE1394 I/O support" for FireWire)
Date:		May 2010 (scheduled), finally removed in kernel v2.6.37
Contact:	linux1394-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Description:
	/dev/raw1394 was a character device file that allowed low-level
	access to FireWire buses.  Its major drawbacks were its inability
	to implement sensible device security policies, and its low level
	of abstraction that required userspace clients do duplicate much
	of the kernel's ieee1394 core functionality.
	Replaced by /dev/fw*, i.e. the <linux/firewire-cdev.h> ABI of
	firewire-core.

Users:
	libraw1394 (works with firewire-cdev too, transparent to library ABI
	users)
ieee1394: remove the old IEEE 1394 driver stack The drivers - ohci1394 (controller driver) - ieee1394 (core) - dv1394, raw1394, video1394 (userspace ABI) - eth1394, sbp2 (protocol drivers) are replaced by - firewire-ohci (controller driver) - firewire-core (core and userspace ABI) - firewire-net, firewire-sbp2 (protocol drivers) which are more featureful, better performing, and more secure than the older drivers; all with a smaller and more modern code base. The driver firedtv in drivers/media/dvb/firewire/ contains backends to both ieee1394 and firewire-core. Its ieee1394 backend code can be removed in an independent commit; firedtv as-is builds and works fine without ieee1394. The driver pcilynx (an incomplete controller driver) is deleted without replacement since PCILynx cards are extremely rare. Owners of these cards use them with the stand-alone bus sniffer driver nosy instead. The drivers nosy and init_ohci1394_dma which do not interact with either of the two IEEE 1394 stacks are not affected by the ieee1394 subsystem removal. There are still some issues with the newer firewire subsystem compared to the older one: - The rare and quirky controllers ALi M52xx, Apple UniNorth v1, NVIDIA NForce2 are even less well supported by firewire-ohci than by ohci1394. I am looking into the M52xx issue. - The experimental firewire-net is reportedly less stable than its experimental cousin eth1394. - Audio playback of a certain group of audio devices (ones based on DICE chipset with EAP; supported by prerelease FFADO code) does not work yet. This issue is still under investigation. - There were some ieee1394 based out-of-the-mainline drivers. Of them, only lisight, an audio driver for iSight webcams, seems still useful. Work is underway to reimplement it on top of firewire-core. All these remainig issues are minor; they should not stand in the way of overall better user experience of IEEE 1394 on Linux, together with a reduction in support efforts and maintenance burden. The coexistence of two IEEE 1394 kernel driver stacks in the mainline since 2.6.22 shall end now, as announced earlier this year. Signed-off-by: Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de> 2010-10-09 22:12:20 +00:00			`What: raw1394 (a.k.a. "Raw IEEE1394 I/O support" for FireWire)`
			`Date: May 2010 (scheduled), finally removed in kernel v2.6.37`
			`Contact: linux1394-devel@lists.sourceforge.net`
			`Description:`
			`/dev/raw1394 was a character device file that allowed low-level`
			`access to FireWire buses. Its major drawbacks were its inability`
			`to implement sensible device security policies, and its low level`
			`of abstraction that required userspace clients do duplicate much`
			`of the kernel's ieee1394 core functionality.`
			`Replaced by /dev/fw*, i.e. the <linux/firewire-cdev.h> ABI of`
			`firewire-core.`

			`Users:`
			`libraw1394 (works with firewire-cdev too, transparent to library ABI`
			`users)`