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

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Message-Id: <1216152377.26991.10.camel@shinybook.infradead.org>
Date:	Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:06:17 -0700
From:	David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>
To:	Marcel Holtmann <marcel@...tmann.org>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>, david@...g.hm,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>,
	Andrew Morton <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 Tue, 2008-07-15 at 22:00 +0200, Marcel Holtmann wrote:
> I really think we should use /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/. I do see the
> point here that I don't wanna overwrite existing firmware from other
> installed kernels. Especially if modules_install will install the
> firmware files.
> 
> So in case of non-Ubuntu distros we have to push a fix to udev, but that
> is not a big deal. It should be a one-line change if I am not mistaken.

My concern with that is that even though it's a one-line change, it's a
one-line change which people don't already _have_. We really do need to
remain compatible with existing setups.

For _now_, I think it's much better to leave it in /lib/firmware where
existing upstream udev will find it. Let's change udev ASAP and then we
can talk about when it makes sense to change the default setting of
$(INSTALL_FW_PATH) to match.

I'm not too worried about overwriting existing firmware
in /lib/firmware. We very rarely change firmware anyway, when we _do_
change it it's almost always compatible rather than having ABI changes.
On the rare occasions that remain, the incompatibly changed firmware
really ought to have a new filename so that older drivers don't pick it
up when they want the old one.

It's not a _complete_ non-problem, but it's fairly close. And the
incompatibility with existing upstream udev would be much more of an
issue, I think.

-- 
dwmw2

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