lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2006]   [Apr]   [19]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: [PATCH] MODULE_FIRMWARE for binary firmware(s)
On 4/19/06, Duncan Sands <duncan.sands@math.u-psud.fr> wrote:

> Hi Jon,

Hi Duncan.

> > However, there is right now little mechanism in place to automatically
> > determine which binary firmware blobs must be included with a kernel in
> > order to satisfy the prerequisites of these drivers. This affects
> > vendors, but also regular users to a certain extent too.
> >
> > The attached patch introduces MODULE_FIRMWARE as a mechanism for
> > advertising that a particular firmware file is to be loaded - it will
> > then show up via modinfo and could be used e.g. when packaging a kernel.

> I haven't really understood what problem this solves. Is this just a
> standardised form of documentation, or are you imagining that an automatic
> tool will use this to auto include a minimal set of firmware files in an
> initrd?

I'm imagining that the resultant modinfo output can be used by a tool
for anyone to package up the correct firmware to go with a given
driver. Right now, there's no way to do that - i.e. we've gone
backwards from a standpoint of coupling a kernel with firmware. I
completely understand why firmware doesn't really belong in the
kernel, so let's add this :-)

> I'm thinking of something like this: (1) redhat (or whoever) ships
> firmware files for every driver under the sun in /lib/firmware; (2) redhat
> wants to allow users to have a customized initrd with only essential drivers;
> (3) the tool goes through the list of essential drivers, looks up the firmware
> string via MODULE_FIRMWARE, finds the file in /lib/firmware, and includes it
> in the initrd.

That kind of thing. It's not just Red Hat who benefit - anyone who
wants to package up a kernel and do something with it will want to
know about firmware they might need. Including everything in
/lib/firmware "just in case" is as ugly as having userspace tools with
duplicated logic that need to understand about the internals of a
driver module.

Jon.
-
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/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2006-04-19 14:43    [W:0.066 / U:1.360 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site