Firmware Organization

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

Hi,

Prior to now, openSUSE has been packaging kernel firmware as a single entity; 
however, that package has reached a size that has a negative impact on small 
systems. Takashi Iwai has undertaken to split the firmware into a number of 
sub-packages. In a discussion on the developer's mailing list, we identified a 
major issue related to wireless, namely how to ensure that a given user will 
have network access in case their primary PCI device is not workable. To satisfy 
this situation, the following actions have been instituted. Takashi's comments 
are as follows:
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In short:

- atheros subpackage is split to ath10k and atheros; USB-devices
   belong to the latter

- marvell subpackage is split to marvell and mwifiex; this is just for
   size, as both contain USB-capable WiFi

- realtek and mediatek subpackages aren't changed, as they are already
   small enough

- a new usb-network subpackage is created to contain the rest USB WiFi
   and Ethernet drivers

So, for the USB hotpluggable networks, we have the following packages:
- atheros
- bluetooth
- marvell
- mediatek
- mwifiex
- realtek
- usb-network

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My questions to the wireless community are (1) Did we miss any issues that would 
hinder network access? (2) Does the above split handle the case of hardware or 
driver failure?

Thanks,

Larry