Re: [PATCH net-next] myri10ge: allow per-board firmware overriding

[Stanislaw Gruszka <sgruszka@redhat.com>]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:55:15 +0200
Brice Goglin <brice@myri.com> wrote:

> Stanislaw Gruszka wrote:
> > Providing module_param_id would address this issues, but I have some concerns
> > before doing it:
> >
> > - device have to access ID (like serial no) before initialization (at least
> >   before driver will need parameter)
> > - why nobody already done it - perhaps such thing would be totally useless
> >   
> 
> Per-nic module parameters are used in some Intel NIC drivers but it's
> not considered a very good solution in the general case:
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/index.php?q=mailarchive/linux-netdev/2008/10/24/3801824/thread
> 
> But again, when talking about changing the NIC firmware, ethtool and
> friends are not that easy.

I agree that device parameters, which are not needed during initialization
or can be changed at runtime shall not be module parameters. I agree also
that some parameters are needed during startup when driver loads and are
driver specific. For these modules parameters shall be used. Firmware is one
example, I think we have others.

Cheers
Stanislaw