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Subject: Re: [PATCH] firmware: Allow release-specific firmware dir
From: Marcel Holtmann <holtmann@linux.intel.com>
To: Faidon Liambotis <paravoid@debian.org>
Cc: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>, dwmw2@infradead.org, jeffm@suse.com,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org,
       torvalds@linux-foundation.org
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Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:20:37 +0200
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Hi Faidon,

> >> Firmware really _isn't_ version-specific.
> > 
> > Tell that to every Debian and Debian derived system on the planet.
> > 
> > To my knowledge, it is only fedora and possibly one or two other dists
> > that put the firmware files in a unary /lib/firmware location, rather
> > than a versioned /lib/firmware/$KERNELRELASE one.
> [not speaking on behalf of the project, the kernel team or the
> respective maintainers]
> 
> Apparently and afaik you are misinformed:
> 
> $ dpkg -L firmware-bnx2 (or [1])
> ...
> /lib/firmware/bnx2-06-4.0.5.fw
> /lib/firmware/bnx2-09-4.0.5.fw
> ...
> 
> $ dpkg -L firmware-iwlwifi (or [2])
> ...
> /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode
> /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-1.ucode
> /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode
> ...

that is different. It is the version of the firmware. It doesn't depend
on the version of the Linux kernel. Yes, there is a tiny dependency on
the kernel, but that comes from the driver requirements and we would
have MODULE_FIRMWARE to clearly indicate which drivers needs which
firmware.

Tying it to the kernel version is wrong. It depends on the version of
the driver.

Regards

Marcel