Re: ptcd(4), a driver for the cash drawer port on the PROTECH PS3100 point of sale terminal

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 11:53:54AM +0100, Marc Balmer wrote:
> 
> Am 15.12.2012 um 23:05 schrieb Iain Hibbert <plunky%ogmig.net@localhost>:
> > 
> > I wonder, since there is no way to detect this device, and the driver
> > seems to be entirely a wrapper for the inb/outb functions, is there not a
> > way to access the inb/outb from userland directly (with an ioctl or sysctl
> > maybe) and then control of such things as this could be done directly with
> > a simple-script and not require a custom kernel?
> 
> That could probably be possible.  But the driver is not only a wrapper to 
> inb(), outb() (which I replaced by proper bus_space_read/write calls, btw), 
> but provides a GPIO device so that teh hardware can be accessed from 
> userland.  gpio(4) seems a logical choice for such devices.

It might be possible, but it would also require running the system with
the 4.4BSD security model disabled.  Not a good idea.

-- 
 Thor Lancelot Simon                                          
tls%panix.com@localhost

        It's very complicated.  It's very cumbersome.  There's a
        lot of numbers involved with it.