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

Arjan van de Ven
2008-07-15T16:05:27Z

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:57:09 +0200
Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> wrote:

> Linus Torvalds wrote:
> > On Mon, 14 Jul 2008, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> >> IMO the newly added /inability/ to build firmware into kernel
> >> modules is a clear regression.
> >
> > IMO you're being stupid.
> >
> > How about explainign why it makes any difference what-so-ever?
> >
> > If you can load the module, you can load the firmware. Claiming
> > anything else is just _stupid_.
>
> Sure, in theory it's that simple. Here's a concrete example that
> shows how things are harder in practice.
>
> I use the 'make deb-pkg' target (from scripts/package) to build my
> Debian kernel packages from git. So that needs to be adapted to
> include /lib/firmware. No real problem so far.
>
> So then I build 2.6.27-rc1 and install it. Great.
>
> You release 2.6.27-rc2 and I build it. Ouch! It fails to install, at
> least if I want to install it _alongside_ 2.6.27-rc1 or other kernels
> (which I do!). Why does it fail? Because dpkg's package management
> does not allow one package to overwrite files already "owned" by
> another package.
>

question: how do you deal with this with the dozens of drivers that use
request_firmware() even before yesterday ?
the answer is critical in how to deal with this "new" situation as
well ;-)