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

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Message-ID: <487D158B.90603@garzik.org>
Date:	Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:27 -0400
From:	Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>
To:	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
CC:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Marcel Holtmann <marcel@...tmann.org>,
	David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>,
	Frans Pop <elendil@...net.nl>, 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.

Willy Tarreau wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 04:26:41PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> To be extremely concrete, firmware-in-module is
>>
>> 	* add Kconfig option (kernel-wide or per-driver, dunno) asking
>> 	  "build firmware into drivers, as before?"
>>
>> 	* tweak build process to build firmware into foo.ko output,
>> 	  probably in a specially marked ELF section
>>
>> 	* get request_firmware() to automatically notice that the
>> 	  MODULE_FIRMWARE() was built into this driver, and to
>> 	  look at the special ELF section for its data
> 
> Jeff, just thinking, wouldn't it be slightly easier to move the firmware
> in a separate module on its own and just add a dependency, so that foo.ko
> automatically loads foo-fw.ko ? I know it will be slightly differente, but
> would not change in-site deployment workflows nor installed scripts.

Quite true.  That's definitely an option, but I feel that building the 
firmware into the driver module itself would be about the same level of 
difficulty, but carry with it additional benefits:

Users and distros can be _certain_ their driver setup will not break due 
to these changes, if you have Kconfig options available to reproduce 
exactly what 2.6.26 produced [firmware compiled into the driver itself].

If Kconfig options are set such that the outputs are the same in 2.6.26 
and 2.6.27 -- vmlinuz and kernel modules -- then that should close 
windows of regression both real and theoretical, by producing _exactly_ 
the same outputs.

	Jeff




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