Re: [PATCH] MODULE_FIRMWARE for binary firmware(s)

[Olaf Hering <olaf@aepfle.de>]

On Tue, Aug 29, Michael Buesch wrote:

> On Tuesday 29 August 2006 20:32, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 08:46:45AM -0700, David Lang wrote:
> > > On Mon, 28 Aug 2006, Greg KH wrote:
> > > 
> > > >I think the current way we handle firmware works quite well, especially
> > > >given the wide range of different devices that it works for (everything
> > > >from BIOS upgrades to different wireless driver stages).
> > > 
> > > the current system works for many people yes, but not everyone.
> > > 
> > > I'm still waiting to find a way to get the iw2200 working without having to 
> > > use modules.
> > 
> > Sounds like a bug you need to pester the iw2200 developers about then.
> > I don't think it has much to do with the firmware subsystem though :)
> 
> Well, yes and no.
> The ipw needs the firmware on insmod time (in contrast to bcm43xx
> for example, which needs it on ifconfig up time).
> So ipw needs to call request_firmware at insmod time. In case of
> built-in, that is when the initcall happens. No userland is available
> and request_firmware can not call the userspace helpers to upload
> the firmware to sysfs.

I dont use nor do I have access ipw hardware, but:
If it is an initcall, the initramfs should be usable at that time.
A creative CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE= will help, add the firmware and a
small helper that does the cat(1).