netdev - Re: pull-request: wireless-next-2023-04-21

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Message-ID: <20230425071848.6156c0a0@kernel.org>
Date:   Tue, 25 Apr 2023 07:18:48 -0700
From:   Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>
To:     Kalle Valo <kvalo@...nel.org>
Cc:     Ping-Ke Shih <pkshih@...ltek.com>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org" <linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: pull-request: wireless-next-2023-04-21

On Tue, 25 Apr 2023 08:38:17 +0300 Kalle Valo wrote:
> IIRC we discussed this back in initial rtw88 or rtw89 driver review (not
> sure which one). At the time I pushed for the current solution to have
> the initvals in static variables just to avoid any backwards
> compatibility issues. I agree that the initvals in .c files are ugly but
> is it worth all the extra effort and complexity to move them outside the
> kernel? I'm starting to lean towards it's not worth all the extra work.

I don't think it's that much extra work, the driver requires FW
according to modinfo, anyway, so /lib/firmware is already required.
And on smaller systems with few hundred MB of RAM it'd be nice to not
hold all the stuff in kernel memory, I'd think.

We have a rule against putting FW as a static table in the driver
source, right? Or did we abandon that? Isn't this fundamentally similar?

> For me most important is that backwards compatibility is not broken,
> that would be bad for the users. So whatever we decide let's keep that
> in mind.

Right, not for existing devices, only when new device is added.