From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755873Ab0I2Mob (ORCPT ); Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:44:31 -0400 Received: from mail.solarflare.com ([216.237.3.220]:46218 "EHLO exchange.solarflare.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755278Ab0I2Mo3 (ORCPT ); Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:44:29 -0400 Subject: Re: [RFC] Online firmware upgrade in non-embedded systems From: Ben Hutchings To: dedekind1@gmail.com Cc: netdev , linux-kernel , linux-mtd , sf-linux-drivers In-Reply-To: <1285763658.2437.112.camel@localhost> References: <1285696787.2282.45.camel@achroite.uk.solarflarecom.com> <1285763658.2437.112.camel@localhost> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Organization: Solarflare Communications Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:44:26 +0100 Message-ID: <1285764266.2283.10.camel@achroite.uk.solarflarecom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.30.2 (2.30.2-4.fc13) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 29 Sep 2010 12:44:29.0370 (UTC) FILETIME=[0EA6A9A0:01CB5FD4] X-TM-AS-Product-Ver: SMEX-8.0.0.1181-6.500.1024-17672.005 X-TM-AS-Result: No--24.088800-0.000000-31 X-TM-AS-User-Approved-Sender: Yes X-TM-AS-User-Blocked-Sender: No Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 2010-09-29 at 15:34 +0300, Artem Bityutskiy wrote: > On Tue, 2010-09-28 at 18:59 +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote: > > Currently the sfc network driver is optionally combined with an MTD > > driver (CONFIG_SFC_MTD) which exposes all upgradable firmware and > > configuration partitions in flash. This works nicely in kernels with > > MTD enabled, but since MTD is mainly used in embedded systems with > > on-board flash it is often disabled in distribution kernels and custom > > kernels alike. This leaves users of sfc unable to upgrade firmware > > without rebuilding the kernel or booting some other distribution. The > > lack of widespread MTD support is a regular cause of support requests. > > At least Fedora does have MTD enabled. But I guess commercial > distributions like RHEL might have it disabled (but I did not check), > and I think I could guess the reason for this. RHEL 4 and 5 have it; the first RHEL 6 beta did not but this was changed at my request. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job. They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.