From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755849AbYIKVPo (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:15:44 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752627AbYIKVPe (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:15:34 -0400 Received: from bombadil.infradead.org ([18.85.46.34]:47326 "EHLO bombadil.infradead.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752120AbYIKVPd (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:15:33 -0400 Subject: Re: [PATCH] firmware: Allow release-specific firmware dir From: David Woodhouse To: Greg KH Cc: Marcel Holtmann , Thierry Vignaud , David Miller , jeffm@suse.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org In-Reply-To: <20080911205738.GB11708@kroah.com> References: <48C68507.6000609@suse.com> <1221087719.13621.50.camel@macbook.infradead.org> <20080910.160505.14060698.davem@davemloft.net> <20080911134042.GB3293@kroah.com> <1221151165.6309.55.camel@californication> <20080911201541.GA18518@kroah.com> <1221165518.4077.17.camel@macbook.infradead.org> <20080911205738.GB11708@kroah.com> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:15:25 -0700 Message-Id: <1221167725.4077.34.camel@macbook.infradead.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 (2.22.3.1-1.fc9) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SRS-Rewrite: SMTP reverse-path rewritten from by bombadil.infradead.org See http://www.infradead.org/rpr.html Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, 2008-09-11 at 13:57 -0700, Greg KH wrote: > On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 01:38:38PM -0700, David Woodhouse wrote: > > On Thu, 2008-09-11 at 13:15 -0700, Greg KH wrote: > > > This is the firmware that is in the kernel source tree, that has been > > > moved to use request_firmware, and was originally tied tightly to the > > > kernel drivers themselves. > > > > Not really. Most of it hasn't changed for years; it isn't _really_ tied > > that closely to the kernel. > > Some are and some aren't (I have two in my -staging tree that are > changing as the driver changes, so it does happen.) That's fine. Just make sure the filename changes when an incompatible change is made to the firmware -- just like you handle sonames in libraries. It's not hard, and you should _always_ have been doing it. And it's a completely bogus example _anyway_, because you're not adding this extra firmware to the kernel tree. Remember, all recent drivers have been using request_firmware() for years anyway, and even the older drivers with active and on-the-ball maintainers have been switching to request_firmware(). All I've done _recently_ is a bit of a sweep on the stragglers. And because of the amount of stupid whining, I made it possible to keep it in the kernel tree rather than just evicting it, as we did in the past. > > You can just ignore what the kernel ships with, and install the firmware > > from the linux-firmware.git repository instead. > > So you are now forcing distros to ship the linux-firmware.git repo > instead? That's not nice and is a totally new dependancy for them to > handle. Not at all; that's the ideal situation, but nobody's forced to do it that way. > What about the very basic fact that kernel versions will stomp on files > from other kernel versions if you install multiple kernels on the same > machine? That's just bad and ripe for problems in any package > management system. Only if you do stupid things in your packaging. So don't do that. -- David Woodhouse Open Source Technology Centre David.Woodhouse@intel.com Intel Corporation