Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:41:13 +0100 | From | "Jon Masters" <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] MODULE_FIRMWARE for binary firmware(s) |
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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.
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