Re: [PATCHv2] qla2xxx: Correct compilation issues when CONFIG_MOUDLES=n.

[James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@suse.de>]

On Fri, 2009-09-11 at 21:33 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 07:56:23PM -0700, Andrew Vasquez wrote:
> > On Fri, 11 Sep 2009, Greg KH wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 05:38:08PM -0700, Andrew Vasquez wrote:
> > > > Randy Dunlap noted:
> > > > 
> > > >   when CONFIG_MODULES=n:
> > > > 
> > > > 	drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla_os.c:2685: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
> > > > 
> > > >   in
> > > > 
> > > > 	kobject_uevent_env(&(&vha->hw->pdev->driver->driver)->owner->mkobj.kobj,
> > > > 		KOBJ_CHANGE, envp);
> > > > 
> > > > Trigger kobject event on the 'struct device' hanging off the pci_dev.
> > > 
> > > Um, why?  What are you trying to do here?  kobject change should not be
> > > for a device, or a "normal" kobject.
> > > 
> > > What do you expect userspace to do with this?  Where have you documented
> > > it?
> > 
> > The purpose was described here:
> > 
> > 	http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.scsi/54155
> > 
> > Basically we'd like to instruct user-space to retrieve a blob of data
> > automatically.
> 
> Hm, like a firmware object perhaps?
> 
> > Original implementation used the kboject hanging off
> > the module which does not exist when CONFIG_MODULES=n.  It was
> > suggested that perhaps an alternative would be to use 'struct device'
> > kobj.  Any tips on how to trigger such a driver-specific event,
> > perhaps a dedicated kobject exported by the driver itself???
> 
> Why not use the firmware interface for it, that is what it is designed
> for, and you will not have to craft any new udev rules.

The data is going the wrong way to use the current firmware interface,
which is designed to load data from userspace into the kernel.  For this
interface, we want the data to go the other way (i.e. the kernel has a
blob of dump data it would like userspace to save if it can).

I'd be amenable to updating the firmware interface to do this, but it
looks like adding a completely new codepath, which it's not clear even
belongs there.

James