From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "David S. Miller" Subject: Re: ipw2100: firmware problem Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 12:43:32 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <20050608.124332.85408883.davem@davemloft.net> References: <20050608142310.GA2339@elf.ucw.cz> <200506081744.20687.vda@ilport.com.ua> <42A7268D.9020402@linux.intel.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: vda@ilport.com.ua, pavel@ucw.cz, jgarzik@pobox.com, netdev@oss.sgi.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, ipw2100-admin@linux.intel.com Return-path: To: jketreno@linux.intel.com In-Reply-To: <42A7268D.9020402@linux.intel.com> Sender: netdev-bounce@oss.sgi.com Errors-to: netdev-bounce@oss.sgi.com List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org From: James Ketrenos Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 12:10:37 -0500 > My approach is to make the driver so it supports as many usage models as > possible, leaving policy to other components of the system. I don't see how this kind of firmware load setup handles something like an NFS root over such a device that requires firmware. And let's not mention that I have to setup an initrd to make that work, that's rediculious. This is the kind of crap that happens when drivers in the kernel are not self contained, and need "external stuff" to work properly. It means that simple things like NFS root over the device do not work in a straightforward, simple, and elegant manner. I am likely to always take the position that device firmware belongs in the kernel proper, not via these userland and filesystem loading mechanism, none of which may be even _available_ when we first need to get the device going.