linux-kernel - Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE

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Message-Id: <200608061319.00085@orion.escape-edv.de>
Date:	Sun, 6 Aug 2006 13:18:59 +0200
From:	Oliver Endriss <o.endriss@....de>
To:	v4l-dvb-maintainer@...uxtv.org
Cc:	Adrian Bunk <bunk@...sta.de>, Trent Piepho <xyzzy@...akeasy.org>,
	Zachary Amsden <zach@...are.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>, Jack Lo <jlo@...are.com>,
	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...l.org>,
	Dave Jones <davej@...hat.com>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>
Subject: Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE

Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 04:40:25PM -0700, Trent Piepho wrote:
> > On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 03:56:17PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote:
> > > > You're describing PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD.  The text Zach quoted is from
> > > > STANDALONE, which is something else completely.  That allows us to not
> > > > build drivers that pull in things from /etc and the like during compile.
> > > > (Whoever thought that was a good idea?)
> > >
> > > Is DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE really still required?
> > > ALL other drivers work without such an option.
> > 
> > The other DVB drivers that need firmware load it when the device is opened
> > or used (ie.  a channel is tuned).  At least for the ones I'm familiar
> > with.  If they are compiled directly into the kernel, they can still use
> > FW_LOADER since the loading won't happen until utill well after booting is
> > done.
> > 
> > For AV7110, it looks like the firmware loading is done when the driver is
> > first initialized.  If AV7110 is compiled into the kernel, FW_LOADER can
> > not be used.  The filesystem with the firmware won't be mounted yet.
> > 
> > So AV7110 has an option to compile a firmware file into the driver.
> 
> But is there a technical reason why this has to be done this way?
> 
> This is the onle (non-OSS) driver doing it this way, and Zach has a 
> point that this is legally questionable.

This option _is_ useful because it allows allows a user to build an
av7110 driver without hotplug etc. I NAK any attempt to remove it.

Sorry, a kernel option cannot cause a legal issue. Only the user does.
For non-distribution kernels there is no difference whether firmware is
loaded at run-time or compiled-in.

Obviously, there might be a difference for distribution kernels if you
are not allowed to distribute the firmware (imho not a problem in this
case, but IANAL). Simple solution: Do not enable the option.

I have no problem if you want to remove STANDALONE: Simply remove the
dependency to STANDALONE, but keep DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE with default 'n'.

CU
Oliver

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