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Date:   Sun, 30 Jul 2023 13:30:34 +0000
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To:     linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org
From:   "Artem S. Tashkinov" <aros@gmx.com>
Subject: Very bad bad firmware loading reporting situation
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Hi everyone,

I really dislike how firmware loading is handled by kernel [modules]:

* Many modules don't report which firmware files are getting loaded
* Often no information is reported in regard to firmware files
themselves, such as version, date or firmware file size. In a perfect
world it would be nice to at least see the CRC32 checksum of the
firmware file.
* Often bus and address are not clearly indicated.
* All the required firmware files must be probed simultaneously
(file_exists()) and reported if any of them are missing _before_
attempting to load any of them.   For instance missing firmware files
for the amdgpu driver may lead to a system instability or outright crashes=
.

This needs to change.

What I expect to see in `dmesg`:

module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Loading firmware file
'directory/fw1.bin', version 1.2.3, size 12345 bytes
module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Loading firmware file
'directory/fw2.bin', version <unversioned>, size 23456 bytes
module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Loading firmware file
'directory/fw3.bin', version 1.0.0, size 4444 bytes

In case fw2.bin or fw3.bin is missing, the module must report that info
_before_ attempting to load any found/existing firmware files.

module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Warning: missing firmware file
'directory/fw3.bin'
module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Warning: missing firmware file
'directory/fw2.bin'
module_name: PCI-e 0000:01:00.0 Loading firmware file
'directory/fw1.bin', version 1.2.3, size 12345 bytes

As it currently stands firmware files are loaded on a one by one basis,
so in case you don't want to keep hundreds of megabytes of useless files
in /lib/firmware, several reboot attempts may be required to figure out
all the missing firmware files which is far from optimal.


Case in point:

cs35l41-hda i2c-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: Cirrus Logic CS35L41 (35a40),
Revision: B2
cs35l41-hda i2c-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: Reset line busy, assuming
shared reset
cs35l41-hda i2c-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: Cirrus Logic CS35L41 (35a40),
Revision: B2
cs35l41-hda i2c-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: xz decompression failed (xz_ret=
=3D6)
cs35l41-hda i2c-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: Falling back to default firmware=
.

No information about firmware being requested whatsoever. No information
about bus or hardware device or maybe there is but it's hard to read.
There's no module named "cs35l41-hda".


Another example:

mt7921e 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
mt7921e 0000:01:00.0: ASIC revision: 79220010
mt7921e 0000:01:00.0: HW/SW Version: 0x8a108a10, Build Time: 2023062714370=
2a
mt7921e 0000:01:00.0: WM Firmware Version: ____000000, Build Time:
20230627143946

No information about firmware file(s) being loaded whatsoever. Actually
three files are being loaded by this device (Wi-Fi + BlueTooth).

This issue is tracked here:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3D217734