From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ben Hutchings Subject: Re: [RFC] Online firmware upgrade in non-embedded systems Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:10:50 +0100 Message-ID: <1285765850.2283.15.camel@achroite.uk.solarflarecom.com> References: <1285696787.2282.45.camel@achroite.uk.solarflarecom.com> <4CA26F35.6060408@gmx.net> <1285763700.2283.6.camel@achroite.uk.solarflarecom.com> <4CA334FA.2080707@gmx.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev , linux-kernel , linux-mtd , sf-linux-drivers , flashrom To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger Return-path: In-Reply-To: <4CA334FA.2080707@gmx.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Wed, 2010-09-29 at 14:45 +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote: > On 29.09.2010 14:35, Ben Hutchings wrote: > > On Wed, 2010-09-29 at 00:41 +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote: > > > >> [adding flashrom@flashrom.org to CC, senders will be whitelisted after a > >> short delay] > >> > >> On 28.09.2010 19:59, Ben Hutchings wrote: > >> > >>> Network and disk controllers normally have at least some firmware in > >>> flash to support their use as boot devices. [...] > >>> > >>> > >> Given that the flashrom utility (GPLv2) > >> supports flashing many network cards, SATA/PATA controllers, graphics > >> cards, and of course the main system firmware/BIOS/EFI, and it does that > >> from userspace without any kernel support, > >> > > [...] > > > > I'm looking for a clean solution, not a hack. > > > > What would qualify as a clean solution? One where hardware access is mediated by the kernel, and doesn't involve unloading or potentially conflicting with the driver for that hardware. > And is cross-platform code one of your goals? Not at this level. At the application level, yes, but we already have a working application so I'm not interested in using flashrom for that. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job. They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.