Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:39:29 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <20090111.133929.57600645.davem@davemloft.net>
To: dwmw2@infradead.org
Cc: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, alessandro.suardi@gmail.com,
       jaswinderlinux@gmail.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
       netdev@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: 2.6.28-git8: tg3 doesn't work due to firmware not loading
 (-git7 is ok)
From: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
In-Reply-To: <1231676698.25018.147.camel@macbook.infradead.org>
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	<20090111.040842.86784676.davem@davemloft.net>
	<1231676698.25018.147.camel@macbook.infradead.org>
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From: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:24:58 +0000

> Other drivers will load the firmware later, at the time the device is
> brought up. This means that even if you build the driver into the kernel
> without its firmware, it can still request the firmware later, when you
> try to start _using_ it. And when the file system is available.

For example, for mounting an NFS root using that device.... Oh, will I
need an initramfs for that once you pull the firmware-in-kernel
option?

To me, device probe is in fact the place to fail firmware discovery
for networking devices.  Because such a failure can mean you can't
mount your root filesystem.
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