netdev - Re: Proposal: r8152 firmware patching framework

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Date:   Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:24:02 -0700
From:   Prashant Malani <pmalani@...omium.org>
To:     Hayes Wang <hayeswang@...ltek.com>,
        David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        bambi.yeh@...ltek.com, amber.chen@...ltek.com, ryankao@...ltek.com,
        jackc@...ltek.com, albertk@...ltek.com, marcochen@...gle.com
Cc:     nic_swsd <nic_swsd@...ltek.com>,
        Grant Grundler <grundler@...omium.org>
Subject: Re: Proposal: r8152 firmware patching framework

(Adding a few more Realtek folks)

Friendly ping. Any thoughts / feedback, Realtek folks (and others) ?

On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 11:40 AM Prashant Malani <pmalani@...omium.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> The r8152 driver source code distributed by Realtek (on
> www.realtek.com) contains firmware patches. This involves binary
> byte-arrays being written byte/word-wise to the hardware memory
> Example: grundler@...omium.org (cc-ed) has an experimental patch which
> includes the firmware patching code which was distributed with the
> Realtek source :
> https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+/1417953
>
> It would be nice to have a way to incorporate these firmware fixes
> into the upstream code. Since having indecipherable byte-arrays is not
> possible upstream, I propose the following:
> - We use the assistance of Realtek to come up with a format which the
> firmware patch files can follow (this can be documented in the
> comments).
>        - A real simple format could look like this:
>                +
> <section1><size_in_bytes><address1><data1><address2><data2>...<addressN><dataN><section2>...
>                 + The driver would be able to understand how to parse
> each section (e.g is each data entry a byte or a word?)
>
> - We use request_firmware() to load the firmware, parse it and write
> the data to the relevant registers.
>
> I'm unfamiliar with what the preferred method of firmware patching is,
> so I hope the maintainers can help suggest the best path forward.
>
> As an aside: It would be great if Realtek could publish a list of
> fixes that the firmware patches implement (I think a list on the
> driver download page on the Realtek website would be an excellent
> starting point).
>
> Thanks and Best regards,
>
> -Prashant