Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753418AbYGEOo7 (ORCPT ); Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:44:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751229AbYGEOos (ORCPT ); Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:44:48 -0400 Received: from dspnet.fr.eu.org ([213.186.44.138]:4178 "EHLO dspnet.fr.eu.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751182AbYGEOor (ORCPT ); Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:44:47 -0400 Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 16:44:45 +0200 From: Olivier Galibert To: David Woodhouse Cc: Andi Kleen , Takashi Iwai , Hannes Reinecke , Theodore Tso , Jeff Garzik , David Miller , 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 Subject: Re: [bug?] tg3: Failed to load firmware "tigon/tg3_tso.bin" Message-ID: <20080705144445.GA17319@dspnet.fr.eu.org> Mail-Followup-To: Olivier Galibert , David Woodhouse , Andi Kleen , Takashi Iwai , Hannes Reinecke , Theodore Tso , Jeff Garzik , David Miller , 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 References: <486E3622.1000900@suse.de> <1215182557.10393.808.camel@pmac.infradead.org> <20080704231322.GA4410@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <20080705105317.GA44773@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <486F596C.8050109@firstfloor.org> <20080705120221.GC44773@dspnet.fr.eu.org> <486F6494.8020108@firstfloor.org> <1215260166.10393.816.camel@pmac.infradead.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1215260166.10393.816.camel@pmac.infradead.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2067 Lines: 50 On Sat, Jul 05, 2008 at 01:16:06PM +0100, David Woodhouse wrote: > 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). I'm not sure which planet you're from, but it's one without ipw2200 chips in it. And in any case, the file names change. > 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). Ah, I see, you just didn't read the thread you're replying to. Let's do it again one more time. The question is, how do you sanely distribute the kernel-tree generated firmware in a binary distribution, knowing that you want to be able to have multiple working kernels installed simultaneously? Solution 1: in the kernel package -> You get file conflicts on the firmware files that do not change between kernel versions Solution 2: in a package by itself -> You either break compatibility with kernel versions that happened before a firmware change, or you accumulate tons of files over time. The accumulated form gets hard to create from source. Solution 3: in the kernel package or in a kernel-specific package, but the files are in a kernel version-specific directory (/lib/firmware/`uname -r`, /lib/modules/`uname -r`/firmware) -> Incompatible with current userspace Solution 4: in one package per firmware file, with appropriate dependencies on the kernel package -> A number of kernel package maintainers just took a hit on you Any other solution you can see? OG. -- 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/