Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 8 Jun 2005 23:27:07 +0200 | From | Pavel Machek <> | Subject | Re: ipw2100: firmware problem |
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Hi!
> >I'm fighting with firmware problem: if ipw2100 is compiled into > >kernel, it is loaded while kernel boots and firmware loader is not yet > >available. That leads to uninitialized (=> useless) adapter. > > > > > We've been looking into whether the initrd can have the firmware affixed > to the end w/ some magic bytes to identify it. If it works, enhancing > the request_firmware to support both hotplug and an initrd approach may > be reasonable.
That seems pretty ugly to me... imagine more than one driver does this :-(.
> >What's the prefered way to solve this one? Only load firmware when > >user does ifconfig eth1 up? [It is wifi, it looks like it would be > >better to start firmware sooner so that it can associate to the > >AP...]. > > > > > The debate goes back and forth on whether devices should come up only > after they are told, or initialize and start looking for a network as > soon as the module is loaded. > > I lean more toward having the driver just do what it is told, defaulting > to trying to scan and associate so link is ready as soon as possible. > We've added module parameters to change that behavior (disable and > associate for the ipw2100).
Having a parameter to control this seems a bit too complex to me.
How is
insmod ipw2100 enable=1
different from
insmod ipw2100 iwconfig eth1 start_scanning_or_whatever
?
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