linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/1] firmware: smccc: add support for Live Firmware Activation (LFA)

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Message-ID: <b5fd72fa-fcde-4f7a-bfad-17465d7e3841@oss.qualcomm.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:35:37 -0800
From: Trilok Soni <trilokkumar.soni@....qualcomm.com>
To: Salman Nabi <salman.nabi@....com>, vvidwans@...dia.com,
        andre.przywara@....com, sudeep.holla@....com, mark.rutland@....com,
        lpieralisi@...nel.org
Cc: ardb@...nel.org, chao.gao@...el.com, linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
        linux-coco@...ts.linux.dev, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        sdonthineni@...dia.com, vsethi@...dia.com, vwadekar@...dia.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] firmware: smccc: add support for Live Firmware
 Activation (LFA)

On 1/19/2026 4:27 AM, Salman Nabi wrote:
> The Arm Live Firmware Activation (LFA) is a specification [1] to describe
> activating firmware components without a reboot. Those components
> (like TF-A's BL31, EDK-II, TF-RMM, secure paylods) would be updated the
> usual way: via fwupd, FF-A or other secure storage methods, or via some
> IMPDEF Out-Of-Bound method. The user can then activate this new firmware,
> at system runtime, without requiring a reboot.
> The specification covers the SMCCC interface to list and query available
> components and eventually trigger the activation.
> 
> Add a new directory under /sys/firmware to present firmware components
> capable of live activation. Each of them is a directory under lfa/,
> and is identified via its GUID. The activation will be triggered by echoing
> "1" into the "activate" file:
> ==========================================
> /sys/firmware/lfa # ls -l . 6c*
> .:
> total 0
> drwxr-xr-x    2 0 0         0 Jan 19 11:33 47d4086d-4cfe-9846-9b95-2950cbbd5a00
> drwxr-xr-x    2 0 0         0 Jan 19 11:33 6c0762a6-12f2-4b56-92cb-ba8f633606d9
> drwxr-xr-x    2 0 0         0 Jan 19 11:33 d6d0eea7-fcea-d54b-9782-9934f234b6e4

Can you please explain or add a note on why we don't have name of the firmware
as the directory name and why you have selected GUID as top-level
directory name? 

---Trilok Soni