Return-path: Received: from mtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com ([81.103.221.47]:46898 "EHLO mtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752456AbZGAQQc (ORCPT ); Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:16:32 -0400 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add prism 2/3 usb adaptor firmware for use with staging/wlan-ng driver. From: Karl Relton To: "Luis R. Rodriguez" Cc: dwmw2@infradead.org, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <43e72e890906301458y197c5411yfb93ea0089ed49f3@mail.gmail.com> References: <1246388712.4949.52.camel@localhost> <43e72e890906301217m2dec7bfaqea0472907531d21d@mail.gmail.com> <1246396179.4949.76.camel@localhost> <43e72e890906301458y197c5411yfb93ea0089ed49f3@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:16:31 +0100 Message-Id: <1246464991.4331.18.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, 2009-06-30 at 14:58 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Karl > Relton wrote: > > On Tue, 2009-06-30 at 12:17 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > >> On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 12:05 PM, Karl > >> Relton wrote: > >> > Signed-Off-By: Karl Relton > >> > Signed-Off-By: Mark S. Mathews > >> > >> The commit log is empty. Where is this driver? Is it in staging at > >> least? If so does this get users of the driver a usable firmware? What > >> is the future of the driver BTW? > >> > > > > Oops - put text in wrong part of patch documentation. I can move this up > > to the 'commit log' part. > > > > The driver is under 'staging' - maintained by Greg Koah-Hartman > > > > The firmware blob in 'srec' format for prism 2/3 usb adaptors. > > The driver will read the srec file using a standard request_firmware() > > call, and will convert it into the appropriate binary format and upload to > > the adaptor. Note the processing is left to the driver (rather than > > pre-compiling) because the driver needs to insert runtime data obtained from > > the adaptor into the blob. The appropriate insertion locations are conveyed > > by the srec format. > > Why all the srec->binary conversion? Doesn't this waste space on > people's firmware directories? > Yes, technically it does. The srec file is ~185KB, a binary image would be ~64KB. The reason it was left is that the driver has to do some runtime plugging of data into the image, so pre-compilation would have meant inventing both a compiler tool and an intermediate format for the driver to read and process. Putting all the srec processing in the driver was more expedient (just meant porting existing userspace code into driver space). Karl