Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1761729AbYGOTj3 (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:39:29 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1756077AbYGOTjV (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:39:21 -0400 Received: from senator.holtmann.net ([87.106.208.187]:45396 "EHLO mail.holtmann.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755984AbYGOTjV (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:39:21 -0400 Subject: Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers. From: Marcel Holtmann To: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh Cc: Frans Pop , Linus Torvalds , 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: <20080715180535.GA6080@khazad-dum.debian.net> 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> <20080715180535.GA6080@khazad-dum.debian.net> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:39:29 +0200 Message-Id: <1216150769.27242.81.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: 1838 Lines: 43 Hi Henrique, > > You release 2.6.27-rc2 and I build it. Ouch! It fails to install, at least > > if I want to install it _alongside_ 2.6.27-rc1 or other kernels (which I > > do!). Why does it fail? Because dpkg's package management does not allow > > one package to overwrite files already "owned" by another package. > > I believe I read in the previous thread that some distros are already using > /lib/firmware//. > > There was also the suggestion of moving the entire set of kernel-packaged > firmware to /lib/modules//firmware, probably while keeping > /lib/firmware as a second place to look for firmware so that we don't hose > any system. can we please leave the /lib/modules/*/firmware idea out of it. While this thread is about the kernel drivers that need firmware loading, but it is not the whole story. We do have hardware that needs a firmware loading process that takes place entirely in userspace. In some USB and UART cases we can do the firmware loading step before any kernel driver takes control of that device and currently these firmware loading helpers look into /lib/firmware/ where every firmware file should be placed. Also the /lib/firmware directory was chosen a long time ago and you find the discussion on the linux-hotplug mailing list archive if you are interested. That said, using /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/ like Ubuntu supports right now and then fall back to /lib/firmware looks like a sane approach to me. However as David mentioned, this needs patches to udev first before we go any step further. 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/