Hi,
Prior to now, openSUSE has been packaging kernel firmware as a single entity;
however, that package has reached a size that has a negative impact on small
systems. Takashi Iwai has undertaken to split the firmware into a number of
sub-packages. In a discussion on the developer's mailing list, we identified a
major issue related to wireless, namely how to ensure that a given user will
have network access in case their primary PCI device is not workable. To satisfy
this situation, the following actions have been instituted. Takashi's comments
are as follows:
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In short:
- atheros subpackage is split to ath10k and atheros; USB-devices
belong to the latter
- marvell subpackage is split to marvell and mwifiex; this is just for
size, as both contain USB-capable WiFi
- realtek and mediatek subpackages aren't changed, as they are already
small enough
- a new usb-network subpackage is created to contain the rest USB WiFi
and Ethernet drivers
So, for the USB hotpluggable networks, we have the following packages:
- atheros
- bluetooth
- marvell
- mediatek
- mwifiex
- realtek
- usb-network
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My questions to the wireless community are (1) Did we miss any issues that would
hinder network access? (2) Does the above split handle the case of hardware or
driver failure?
Thanks,
Larry