netdev - RE: Proposal: r8152 firmware patching framework

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Message-ID: <BAD4255E2724E442BCB37085A3D9C93AEEA087DF@RTITMBSVM03.realtek.com.tw>
Date:   Tue, 3 Sep 2019 09:01:48 +0000
From:   Bambi Yeh <bambi.yeh@...ltek.com>
To:     Hayes Wang <hayeswang@...ltek.com>,
        Amber Chen <amber.chen@...ltek.com>,
        Prashant Malani <pmalani@...omium.org>
CC:     David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        Ryankao <ryankao@...ltek.com>, Jackc <jackc@...ltek.com>,
        Albertk <albertk@...ltek.com>,
        "marcochen@...gle.com" <marcochen@...gle.com>,
        nic_swsd <nic_swsd@...ltek.com>,
        Grant Grundler <grundler@...omium.org>
Subject: RE: Proposal: r8152 firmware patching framework

Hi Prashant:

We will try to implement your requests.
Based on our experience, upstream reviewer often reject our modification if they have any concern.
Do you think you can talk to them about this idea and see if they will accept it or not?
Or if you can help on this after we submit it?

Also, Hayes is now updating our current upstream driver and it goes back and forth for a while.
So we will need some time to finish it and the target schedule to have your request done is in the end of this month.

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
Bambi Yeh

-----Original Message-----
From: Hayes Wang <hayeswang@...ltek.com> 
Sent: Monday, September 2, 2019 2:31 PM
To: Amber Chen <amber.chen@...ltek.com>; Prashant Malani <pmalani@...omium.org>
Cc: David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>; netdev@...r.kernel.org; Bambi Yeh <bambi.yeh@...ltek.com>; Ryankao <ryankao@...ltek.com>; Jackc <jackc@...ltek.com>; Albertk <albertk@...ltek.com>; marcochen@...gle.com; nic_swsd <nic_swsd@...ltek.com>; Grant Grundler <grundler@...omium.org>
Subject: RE: Proposal: r8152 firmware patching framework

Prashant Malani <pmalani@...omium.org> 
> >
> > (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/kern
> el
> /+/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>...<address
> N
> ><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 plan to finish the patches which I am going to submit, first. Then, I could focus on this. However, I don't think I would start this quickly. There are many preparations and they would take me a lot of time.

Best Regards,
Hayes