Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers.

Jeff Garzik
2008-07-15T17:31:05Z

Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> I'm curious how that works, especially given that you have claimed the _exact
>> opposite_ in years past, by pointing out how firmware separation could mean
>> no-boot.
>
> Umm. Firmware separation _could_ mean non-boot.
>
> DavidW &co fixed it. You can now build it in.
>
> You seem to ignore that things change, and _have_ changed.

Already addressed -- you and David seem to be ignoring the common case
where you may update the driver but not the kernel, making that feature
far less useful than it appears.

Inability to update the kernel image (vmlinuz) is the case with just
about every enterprise distro out there, including ones to be based on
>= 2.6.27.

Driver disks and our own in-tree build-module-out-of-tree support are
built precisely for this purpose: to build a new driver against an
existing kernel, because so often you cannot update the core vmlinuz image.

(rather, you _can_ update vmlinuz, but that would fail on the next
automated update, so its not a realistic option)

Jeff