Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758661AbYGOVYq (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:46 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752075AbYGOVYh (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:37 -0400 Received: from srv5.dvmed.net ([207.36.208.214]:39258 "EHLO mail.dvmed.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751783AbYGOVYh (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:37 -0400 Message-ID: <487D158B.90603@garzik.org> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:27 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080501) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Willy Tarreau CC: Linus Torvalds , Marcel Holtmann , David Woodhouse , Frans Pop , arjan@infradead.org, akpm@linux-foundation.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: <487C0365.5030203@garzik.org> <200807151757.10626.elendil@planet.nl> <1216149637.27242.65.camel@violet.holtmann.net> <1216150616.27455.377.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <1216151640.27242.90.camel@violet.holtmann.net> <487D0801.4000206@garzik.org> <20080715204750.GM1369@1wt.eu> In-Reply-To: <20080715204750.GM1369@1wt.eu> 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: 1750 Lines: 42 Willy Tarreau wrote: > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 04:26:41PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: >> To be extremely concrete, firmware-in-module is >> >> * add Kconfig option (kernel-wide or per-driver, dunno) asking >> "build firmware into drivers, as before?" >> >> * tweak build process to build firmware into foo.ko output, >> probably in a specially marked ELF section >> >> * get request_firmware() to automatically notice that the >> MODULE_FIRMWARE() was built into this driver, and to >> look at the special ELF section for its data > > Jeff, just thinking, wouldn't it be slightly easier to move the firmware > in a separate module on its own and just add a dependency, so that foo.ko > automatically loads foo-fw.ko ? I know it will be slightly differente, but > would not change in-site deployment workflows nor installed scripts. Quite true. That's definitely an option, but I feel that building the firmware into the driver module itself would be about the same level of difficulty, but carry with it additional benefits: Users and distros can be _certain_ their driver setup will not break due to these changes, if you have Kconfig options available to reproduce exactly what 2.6.26 produced [firmware compiled into the driver itself]. If Kconfig options are set such that the outputs are the same in 2.6.26 and 2.6.27 -- vmlinuz and kernel modules -- then that should close windows of regression both real and theoretical, by producing _exactly_ the same outputs. 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/