Re: [PATCH] firmware_loader: Add /lib/firmware/vendor paths for Apple ARM platforms

[Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Thu, Jul 30, 2026 at 10:55:00AM -0400, Neal Gompa wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2026 at 2:01 AM Greg Kroah-Hartman
> <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 29, 2026 at 08:42:58PM -0400, Neal Gompa wrote:
> > > On Apple ARM machines (branded Apple Silicon Macs), there is
> > > non-redistributable firmware provided in macOS that is required
> > > for Linux to leverage the hardware to run properly.
> > >
> > > The firmware covers Wi-Fi+BT support, USB, hardware ISP, the touchbar
> > > touchscreen, and the trackpad.
> > >
> > > In order to ensure this firmware can be installed without messing
> > > with firmware provided by linux-firmware and other packages that
> > > put things in the tree, the empty "vendor" subdirectory was created
> > > to serve this purpose. This directory is used by the asahi dracut
> > > module as part of the Asahi Linux installation process to transfer
> > > firmware from macOS to the newly installed Linux system.
> >
> > Why is this needed when there is the ability for userspace to add their
> > own firmware search path to the list today?
> >
> > We aren't going to keep adding random paths here, please use the option
> > that is designed specifically for this:
> >
> > >  * fw_path_para - module parameter - default is empty so this is ignored
> >
> > Right there.
> 
> I was not familiar with this feature, and I had inherited the patch as
> part of our cleanup effort to upstream the Asahi work. Sorry about
> that!
> 
> Based on the documentation, this is the patch I've created for our
> dracut module: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/asahi-scripts/pull/72
> 
> Is this how it is supposed to be used?

If it works, yes :)