On Thu, 2005-06-02 at 10:37 -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote: > Taking off debian-legal, since this is so not legal discussion anymore. > > Andres Salomon wrote: > > > I think they said they'd accept a patch which loaded the firmware but fell > > > back to firmware built into the kernel if it wasn't present, as a > > > "transitional" requirement. Ugh squared. But I can do it; I can even do > > > it in such a way that the tg3 patch to the kernel would consist of a > single > > > file deletion. > > > > Are they looking for a transition, or are they just looking for proof that > > the firmware loading will actually work? Transition code doesn't sound > > overly useful to me. > > They said they were looking for a transition. (And I agree, it doesn't sound > that useful to me either.) > > I believe, however, that the idea was to avoid causing difficulties for > people > who didn't know where to find the firmware or how to install it. If the > kernel installation files were changed to properly install firmware files in > the right place per default, that would likely satisfy them. (I can
Yes, that's what I was thinking. Vendors will be taking care of firmware file installation; kbuild should be handling it when running modules_install. Perhaps a firmware_install target that takes care of the various firmware blobs? > integrate my generate-binary-firmware-file-from-hex code into the kernel > patch if this sort of solution is desired.) Fixing up the installation files > is just a little bit beyond what I'm personally willing to do at the moment, > though, since I haven't yet figured out the kernel installation file system. > So someone else would have to write that part. > I can do that, if necessary. What form was broadcom supplying firmware in in the first place? If it's a binary firmware file, there's no need to have a hex code converter; we can just throw the binary firmware file in the directory tree. > If anyone's volunteering to do so :-), I believe we'd decided that the "right > place" was: > /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/tg3/5701_a0-0.0.0 > /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/tg3/tso-1.4.0 > /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/tg3/tso_5705-1.1.0 > (This forms the beginnings of a namespace and conventions for loadable > firmware files, and is where my existing code puts them.) > I haven't bothered looking at other drivers in the tree that support firmware loading; are paths hardcoded in there, or is the firmware location simply a module/kernel arg? > > Keep in mind the patch we'd have would have to simply readd the tg3 > > driver; the patch can't delete the file. > Oh, what I was thinking was this: > (1) reorganize the upstream kernel driver so that the included firmware was > in > a separate file (#included, for instance), as is done in most such drivers This alone would go a long way towards making my life easier, if upstream accepted it. > (2) include the firmware loading code upstream I assume the following is missing? (2.5) Add binary firmware file, generated from hex code in header. > (3) Debian's tar.gz.orig simply omits the firmware-containing file > (4) The patch simply removes the references to it in the driver file > *nod*. > > As such, it would still need to > > be maintained (although shouldn't be too complex, as long as it doesn't > > include firmware loading features and such). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
