Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1762615AbYGOU4F (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:56:05 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752241AbYGOUzz (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:55:55 -0400 Received: from srv5.dvmed.net ([207.36.208.214]:56073 "EHLO mail.dvmed.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751077AbYGOUzy (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:55:54 -0400 Message-ID: <487D0ED1.7010003@garzik.org> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:55:45 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080501) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Linus Torvalds CC: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh , Frans Pop , arjan@infradead.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, dwmw2@infradead.org, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers. 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> <487CE917.3000000@garzik.org> <487CF29E.5000009@garzik.org> <487D01B5.7020300@garzik.org> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: -4.4 (----) X-Spam-Report: SpamAssassin version 3.2.5 on srv5.dvmed.net summary: Content analysis details: (-4.4 points, 5.0 required) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2178 Lines: 58 Linus Torvalds wrote: > > On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Jeff Garzik wrote: >> Already posted a list. > > No you didn't. > > You posted a list of problems you have from doing odd and stupid things. > Not the reports, not the explanations of what those odd and stupid > things actually were in practice, and why they had to be that stupid. > > Quite frankly, I suspect that it's all a matter of "people compiled their > own kernels, and didn't copy the new files, because they just didn't > realize they needed to". No, I spelled out a list of projects, what would break, and how it would break. Again, * Red Hat driver disks. The build process is unaware of the need to bundle firmware. Any use with Fedora (or, later, RHEL) will result in a non-working driver, for the simple reason that firmware is not copied onto the image. * Embedded projects like OpenWRT, that divide up kernel modules into multiple packages. Since it's not just one big package, you have to update each package's list of files to include the newly split-out firmwares. Failure to do so results in a successful build set of packages... of drivers that lack their firmware. * Router and embedded system image builders like tomsrtbt, with similar problem to RH driver disks: they simply do not know that a firmware needs to be copied into the image, alongside the tg3 driver. * Older userlands where, axiomatically, the mkinitrd and other firmware fixes have not been made, and may never be made. Yes, it is a matter of education. Yes, it is a matter of fixes. That does not change the fact that 2.6.27 will mean non-working drivers for these situations, and there is a simple remedy for this entire class of problems: retain ability to compile firmware into the module. That does not change the fact that useful testers may be turned away from 2.6.2[78] while waiting for Red Hat or OpenWRT or whomever to fix their stuff. Jeff -- 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/