linux-kernel - Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers.

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Message-Id: <1216090479.27455.180.camel@shinybook.infradead.org>
Date:	Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:54:38 -0700
From:	David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>
To:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Cc:	torvalds@...ux-foundation.org, david@...g.hm, arjan@...radead.org,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from
	in-kernel, use it in more drivers.

On Mon, 2008-07-14 at 18:50 -0700, David Miller wrote:
> From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:33:58 -0700 (PDT)
> 
> > The only reliable way to handle it is to load the firmware before the 
> > suspend happens - preferably by simply never unloading it in the first 
> > place.
> 
> That's what we were told was the huge benefit of moving some
> of these drivers over to this request_firmware() stuff, it would
> save memory.

There _are_ RAM benefits for a number of drivers, even when you load the
firmware just once at initialisation time and keep it resident all the
time the device is active (and no, I won't slap myself for saying it).

The tg3 driver is a prime example -- it contains three separate firmware
images for different revisions of the card, but you'll almost never
actually need all three. Mostly you'll only need _one_ of them.

-- 
dwmw2

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