Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751308AbWHMQgG (ORCPT ); Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:36:06 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751313AbWHMQgG (ORCPT ); Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:36:06 -0400 Received: from mailout.stusta.mhn.de ([141.84.69.5]:41996 "HELO mailout.stusta.mhn.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1751308AbWHMQgF (ORCPT ); Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:36:05 -0400 Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:36:03 +0200 From: Adrian Bunk To: v4l-dvb-maintainer@linuxtv.org Cc: Trent Piepho , Zachary Amsden , Andrew Morton , Jack Lo , Greg KH , Rusty Russell , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Christoph Hellwig , linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org, Linus Torvalds , Dave Jones , Arjan van de Ven Subject: Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE Message-ID: <20060813163603.GE3543@stusta.de> References: <44D1CC7D.4010600@vmware.com> <20060805105122.GT25692@stusta.de> <200608061319.00085@orion.escape-edv.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200608061319.00085@orion.escape-edv.de> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.12-2006-07-14 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3260 Lines: 75 On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 01:18:59PM +0200, Oliver Endriss wrote: > 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. If you look at the dependencies of DVB_AV7110 and the code in av7110.c you'll note that your statement "it allows allows a user to build an av7110 driver without hotplug" is not true. > 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. The general direction in Linux kernel development is to load the firmware at runtime. > I have no problem if you want to remove STANDALONE: Simply remove the > dependency to STANDALONE, but keep DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE with default 'n'. The point of STANDALONE are working allmodconfig/allyesconfig compiles. Removing the dependency on STANDALONE therefore implies that it compiles. > CU > Oliver cu Adrian -- Gentoo kernels are 42 times more popular than SUSE kernels among KLive users (a service by SUSE contractor Andrea Arcangeli that gathers data about kernels from many users worldwide). There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. Benjamin Disraeli - 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/