Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1762746AbYGOTWd (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:22:33 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1762502AbYGOTWO (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:22:14 -0400 Received: from senator.holtmann.net ([87.106.208.187]:51125 "EHLO mail.holtmann.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757506AbYGOTWM (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:22:12 -0400 Subject: Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers. From: Marcel Holtmann To: Linus Torvalds Cc: david@lang.hm, Frans Pop , jeff@garzik.org, arjan@infradead.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, dwmw2@infradead.org, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: References: <1216077806.27455.85.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <20080714164119.99c33d5b.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <20080714165956.7fe2d4ee@infradead.org> <487C0365.5030203@garzik.org> <487C0365.5030203@garzik.org> <200807151757.10626.elendil@planet.nl> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:22:21 +0200 Message-Id: <1216149741.27242.67.camel@violet.holtmann.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1495 Lines: 37 Hi Linus, > > David W has made it very clear that the eventual intent of this patch series > > is to remove all firmware from the kernel tree and have it shipped as a > > seperate package. > > I don't think that kind of black-and-white model is necessarily > attainable. Nor do I think it's even _good_. > > It's probably the right thign for _some_ firmware, assuming we have models > that just make it easy enough - for drivers where it's generally better > for distros to get the firmware from vendors rather than the kernel. > > But there is certainly nothing inherently good in forcing a split. > > I think both sides here need to calm down and stop being so extreme. > > I do want request_firmware() to be the way to load firmware (and possibly > other configuration data too, for that matter - I don't think it's > necessarily wrong for people to "misuse" it for other long-term data > despite the name), and I do want people to be able to update firmware > easily without having to force a kernel bump, but I also don't think it > means that firmware has to go away from the kernel sources. actually the PCMCIA subsystem is already using request_firmware() to load external CIS data to overwrite broken ones. Regards Marcel -- 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/