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

Marcel Holtmann
2008-07-15T19:44:45Z

Hi Linus,

> > Personally I am against hacking file loading from within the kernel.
> > This is why we involved udev (or hotplug in the beginning). It allows
> > you to have userspace policy for the search paths etc.
>
> Well, I'm personally against _forcing_ people to use udev.
>
> Yes, desktop distros generally will do so, since there are lots of complex
> issues etc. But I don't think we've generally forced it on people if they
> don't want it (ie I haven't tried it personally since the distro I used
> started using udev, but I think you can still just ignore udev events and
> set everything up statically).
>
> And I don't think that's wrong. Which implies that setup things should
> still generally at least allow us to avoid udev.
>
> (But maybe I'm wrong, and everybody already uses udev just because they
> couldn't be bothered not to).

I actually think that is the case here. udev is so lightweight and
really slim nowadays that not using it is a big drawback. There might be
some system out there that are still using a static /dev directory, but
for sure there are not many and even the embedded world doesn't really
mind.

Also I think the /sbin/hotplug thing is still available (not verified
this) and thus calling a firmware loading helper script with a udev
replacement would be possible. Someone correct me here if I am wrong.

Regards

Marcel