Re: integration of opensource firmware with b43 kernel driver

[Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>]

Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> we have been testing the firmware for a week now and it seems stable. I
> personally tested it also on a Linksys WRT54GL and it works both in
> station and in AP modes. I collected the feedbacks that some of you sent
> and it seems that the firmware now runs on these board:
> 
> - 4306, 4311, 4318, 4320

As a point of clarification, I think this is restricted to the 4311/1
as the 4311/2 uses ucode13, not ucode5. If you need a tester for an
open-source version of the 13 firmware, I'm available.

> I was considering the suggestions you all gave me a few days ago and
> other questions related to the possible integration of this firmware
> into the kernel, and I came to these conclusions/questions (please
> forgive me for this long message :-) )
> 
> - change the name of the initvals for the opensource firmware: this
> seems a little bit complicated as now the decision about the
> initval-files' names and the detection of the firmware type are
> respectively based on the phy type and on the firmware date. This means
> that initval-files' names can be determine as soon as the hardware type
> has been probed, while the firmware needs to be started before the
> kernel can determine if it is opensource or not: at this time, however,
> the initvals have already been uploaded. What can we do?

The driver can certainly be coded to look for the open-source firmware
names before trying to load vendor firmware. That way there will not
be any confusion.

> - detection of the opensource firmware capabilities: are you really sure
> we cannot use a shm location that the bcm proprietary firmware uses for
> some other purpose? Once, in fact, the kernel has determined that the
> firmware is opensource it can also use a given location in a different
> manner than it would do for a proprietary firmware. However this is not
> a problem at all :-) as we can use one location in the "high" shm-memory
> area, let's say > 0xb00, just choose one.

I think it best to choose an unused location.

Larry