Re: firmware separation filesystem (fwfs)

[Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

On Iau, 2003-04-17 at 02:23, David Gibson wrote:
> > But so would loading it from hotplug via ioctl. It might be we want
> > a clean hotplug way to ask for 'firmare for xyz'.
> 
> True, but ioctl()s are horrid.  And the driver needs to set up a
> suitable device to which the ioctl() is applied, and deal with binding
> the right image to the right instance, which can get messy in some

You are ignoring the main issue of discussion. I don't care if its
ioctl, tcp/ip over carrier pigeon or a pipe.

fwfs is a broken idea because it leaves the data in kernel space. On
a giant IBM monster maybe nobody cares about a few hundred K of cached
firmware in the kernel, but the rest of us happen to run real world
computers.

Catting the firmware to a device node also works fine for me as an 
API, but keep the firmware in userspace.



Alan