Messages in this thread | | | From | Oliver Endriss <> | Subject | Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE | Date | Sun, 6 Aug 2006 13:18:59 +0200 |
| |
Adrian Bunk wrote: > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 04:40:25PM -0700, Trent Piepho wrote: > > On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote: > > > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 03:56:17PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote: > > > > You're describing PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD. The text Zach quoted is from > > > > STANDALONE, which is something else completely. That allows us to not > > > > build drivers that pull in things from /etc and the like during compile. > > > > (Whoever thought that was a good idea?) > > > > > > Is DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE really still required? > > > ALL other drivers work without such an option. > > > > The other DVB drivers that need firmware load it when the device is opened > > or used (ie. a channel is tuned). At least for the ones I'm familiar > > with. If they are compiled directly into the kernel, they can still use > > FW_LOADER since the loading won't happen until utill well after booting is > > done. > > > > For AV7110, it looks like the firmware loading is done when the driver is > > first initialized. If AV7110 is compiled into the kernel, FW_LOADER can > > not be used. The filesystem with the firmware won't be mounted yet. > > > > So AV7110 has an option to compile a firmware file into the driver. > > But is there a technical reason why this has to be done this way? > > This is the onle (non-OSS) driver doing it this way, and Zach has a > point that this is legally questionable.
This option _is_ useful because it allows allows a user to build an av7110 driver without hotplug etc. I NAK any attempt to remove it.
Sorry, a kernel option cannot cause a legal issue. Only the user does. For non-distribution kernels there is no difference whether firmware is loaded at run-time or compiled-in.
Obviously, there might be a difference for distribution kernels if you are not allowed to distribute the firmware (imho not a problem in this case, but IANAL). Simple solution: Do not enable the option.
I have no problem if you want to remove STANDALONE: Simply remove the dependency to STANDALONE, but keep DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE with default 'n'.
CU Oliver
-- -------------------------------------------------------- VDR Remote Plugin available at http://www.escape-edv.de/endriss/vdr/ -------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |