Subject: Re: [bug?] tg3: Failed to load firmware "tigon/tg3_tso.bin"
From: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>
To: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
Cc: Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com>, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>,
       Hannes Reinecke <hare@suse.de>, Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>,
       Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>, David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>,
       hugh@veritas.com, akpm@linux-foundation.org,
       kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com, mchan@broadcom.com,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org,
       netdev@vger.kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <486F6494.8020108@firstfloor.org>
References: <486E2260.5050503@garzik.org>
	 <1215178035.10393.763.camel@pmac.infradead.org>
	 <20080704141014.GA23215@mit.edu> <s5habgxloct.wl%tiwai@suse.de>
	 <486E3622.1000900@suse.de> <1215182557.10393.808.camel@pmac.infradead.org>
	 <20080704231322.GA4410@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <s5h4p746am3.wl%tiwai@suse.de>
	 <20080705105317.GA44773@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <486F596C.8050109@firstfloor.org>
	 <20080705120221.GC44773@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <486F6494.8020108@firstfloor.org>
Content-Type: text/plain
Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:16:06 +0100
Message-Id: <1215260166.10393.816.camel@pmac.infradead.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
Content-Length: 1305
Lines: 30

On Sat, 2008-07-05 at 14:09 +0200, Andi Kleen wrote:
> Olivier Galibert wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 05, 2008 at 01:22:20PM +0200, Andi Kleen wrote:
> >> Many distribution have some way for separate kernel module packages.
> >> It's essentially the same problem so it should be already solved
> >> in some way.
> > 
> > Errr, no.  Modules go in /lib/modules/`uname -r`, so no conflict.
> 
> Well that's the only sane way to store the firmware anyways (otherwise
> you could never keep kernel versions which need different firmware installed)

It almost never happens that you have kernel versions which _need_
different firmware installed. In almost all cases, the older driver will
continue to work just fine with the newer firmware (and its bug-fixes).

The ABI between driver and firmware rarely changes in such a fashion
that you have to update the driver in lock-step -- and even on the
occasions that it does, it's not hard to simply change the name of the
"new-style" firmware so that it doesn't stomp on the old one (Think of
it like an soname).

-- 
dwmw2

--
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/