Re: Staging: sxg: Add support to download the firmware using request_firmware()

[Greg KH <gregkh@suse.de>]

On Mon, Apr 06, 2009 at 10:10:26AM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > Firmware isn't "crap", it's needed by devices, and I don't see the
> > problem of distributing it within the kernel tree, especially when the
> > license of the firmware is just fine, like these files are.
> 
> For one firmware doesn't tie to the kernel release cycle so any
> serious distribution has to split the two packages apart even if the
> kernel community didn't.

So you are calling distros that don't do this "non-serious" now?  :)

What is the release cycle for this firmware tree?  And where is it
released at?

> For a second it keeps a lot of irrelevant, unreviewable enormous hex file
> changesets *off* the kernel lists and out of the git tree tracking.

git can handle this kind of thing trivially, that should not be an
issue.  And I have not posted firmware updates to the kernel lists
either, they probably just filter them out due to the size anyway.

So for now, as the majority of the distros don't have a separate
firmware package for the kernel, and there seems to not be any
"kernel-wide policy" yet in place, I'll stick to the in-tree location
for new drivers that need such a thing, as long as their firmware is
allowed to be proper redistributed.

thanks,

greg k-h

> 
> 
> Alan