> it does not actually matter how you configured the driver -- built-in kernel > or > as module: everytime when driver operates the device, it checks whether > firmware > is loaded.
Are you sure about that? AFAIK firmware loading is only attempted once, when the driver is first initialized. > functionality of /lib/udev/firmware is controlled by USE=extras. That might have been the case at some point but now sys-fs/udev-164-r2 and sys-fs/udev-171-r1 both install the firmware-related stuff (rules and helper) even with USE=-extras andrea
