linux-kernel - Re: [GIT PULL] Firmware files removal for 4.14-rc1

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Date:   Sat, 16 Sep 2017 09:55:35 -0700
From:   Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Markus Trippelsdorf <markus@...ppelsdorf.de>
Cc:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [GIT PULL] Firmware files removal for 4.14-rc1

On Sat, Sep 16, 2017 at 08:25:03AM +0200, Markus Trippelsdorf wrote:
> On 2017.09.16 at 06:51 +0200, Markus Trippelsdorf wrote:
> > On 2017.09.15 at 11:56 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> > > The following changes since commit 569dbb88e80deb68974ef6fdd6a13edb9d686261:
> > >
> > >   Linux 4.13 (2017-09-03 13:56:17 -0700)
> > >
> > > are available in the git repository at:
> > >
> > >   git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/driver-core.git/ tags/firmware_removal-4.14-rc1
> > >
> > > for you to fetch changes up to 5620a0d1aacd554ebebcff373e31107bb1ef7769:
> > >
> > >   firmware: delete in-kernel firmware (2017-09-14 14:49:41 -0700)
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Firmware removal patch for 4.14-rc1
> > >
> > > Many many years ago (at the kernel summit in Boston), we all came to the
> > > agreement that the firmware/ tree should be dropped from the kernel, and
> > > everyone use the linux-firmware package instead.  For some minor reason,
> > > David Woodhouse didn't send the pull request at that point in time, and
> > > everyone forgot about this.
> > >
> > > The topic came up in the hallway track at the Plumbers conference this
> > > week, so here's a single patch that drops the whole firmware tree.  The
> > > last firmware update was back in 2013, and all distros have been using
> > > linux-firmware instead since at least that year, if not before.  The
> > > only commits to that directory since 2013 was some kbuild fixups for
> > > various build tool issues.
> > >
> > > So lets finally drop this, we don't need to lug them around in the
> > > kernel source tree anymore, especially as no one wants or uses them.
> > 
> > Well, it is one thing to drop the redundant binary blobs. But is another
> > to break perfectly fine setups that worked for years, e.g.:
> > 
> > CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
> > CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
> > CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin radeon/R600_rlc.bin"
> > CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware"
> > 
> > Please restore the support for built-in firmware.

How did that break anything?  You are still using external firmware,
right?

> The following patch seems to work for me.
> 
>  Makefile             |  2 +-
>  drivers/base/Kconfig |  5 +----
>  firmware/.gitignore  |  6 +++++
>  firmware/Makefile    | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  4 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 firmware/.gitignore
>  create mode 100644 firmware/Makefile

That just adds an empty Makefile that doesn't actually build anything
into the kernel.  What error is this fixing?  I did a bunch of build
tests with the patch that I submitted, and nothing failed.

confused,

greg k-h