Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE

Adrian Bunk
2006-08-13T16:36:06Z

On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 01:18:59PM +0200, Oliver Endriss wrote:
> Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 04:40:25PM -0700, Trent Piepho wrote:
> > > On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 03:56:17PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote:
> > > > > You're describing PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD. The text Zach quoted is from
> > > > > STANDALONE, which is something else completely. That allows us to not
> > > > > build drivers that pull in things from /etc and the like during compile.
> > > > > (Whoever thought that was a good idea?)
> > > >
> > > > Is DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE really still required?
> > > > ALL other drivers work without such an option.
> > >
> > > The other DVB drivers that need firmware load it when the device is opened
> > > or used (ie. a channel is tuned). At least for the ones I'm familiar
> > > with. If they are compiled directly into the kernel, they can still use
> > > FW_LOADER since the loading won't happen until utill well after booting is
> > > done.
> > >
> > > For AV7110, it looks like the firmware loading is done when the driver is
> > > first initialized. If AV7110 is compiled into the kernel, FW_LOADER can
> > > not be used. The filesystem with the firmware won't be mounted yet.
> > >
> > > So AV7110 has an option to compile a firmware file into the driver.
> >
> > But is there a technical reason why this has to be done this way?
> >
> > This is the onle (non-OSS) driver doing it this way, and Zach has a
> > point that this is legally questionable.
>
> This option _is_ useful because it allows allows a user to build an
> av7110 driver without hotplug etc. I NAK any attempt to remove it.

If you look at the dependencies of DVB_AV7110 and the code in av7110.c
you'll note that your statement "it allows allows a user to build an
av7110 driver without hotplug" is not true.

> Sorry, a kernel option cannot cause a legal issue. Only the user does.
> For non-distribution kernels there is no difference whether firmware is
> loaded at run-time or compiled-in.
>
> Obviously, there might be a difference for distribution kernels if you
> are not allowed to distribute the firmware (imho not a problem in this
> case, but IANAL). Simple solution: Do not enable the option.

The general direction in Linux kernel development is to load the
firmware at runtime.

> I have no problem if you want to remove STANDALONE: Simply remove the
> dependency to STANDALONE, but keep DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE with default 'n'.

The point of STANDALONE are working allmodconfig/allyesconfig compiles.

Removing the dependency on STANDALONE therefore implies that it compiles.

> CU
> Oliver

cu
Adrian

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