From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Denys Vlasenko Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] bnx2: factor out gzip unpacker Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:43:40 +0100 Message-ID: <200709212343.41160.vda.linux@googlemail.com> References: <200709211201.24475.vda.linux@googlemail.com> <200709212018.06553.vda.linux@googlemail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, David Miller , jeff@garzik.org, mchan@broadcom.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org To: Krzysztof Oledzki Return-path: Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com ([66.249.92.171]:34873 "EHLO ug-out-1314.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932812AbXIUWnt (ORCPT ); Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:43:49 -0400 Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id z38so597429ugc for ; Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:43:48 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Friday 21 September 2007 20:33, Krzysztof Oledzki wrote: > > On Fri, 21 Sep 2007, Denys Vlasenko wrote: > > > On Friday 21 September 2007 19:36, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote: > >> On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:05:23 BST, Denys Vlasenko said: > >> > >>> I plan to use gzip compression on following drivers' firmware, > >>> if patches will be accepted: > >>> > >>> text data bss dec hex filename > >>> 17653 109968 240 127861 1f375 drivers/net/acenic.o > >>> 6628 120448 4 127080 1f068 drivers/net/dgrs.o > >>> ^^^^^^ > >> > >> Should this be redone to use the existing firmware loading framework to > >> load the firmware instead? > > > > Not in every case. > > > > For example, bnx2 maintainer says that driver and > > firmware are closely tied for his driver. IOW: you upgrade kernel > > and your NIC is not working anymore. > > Firmware may come with a kernel. We have a "install modules", we can also > add "install firmware". Install where? I boot my machine over NFS, and it has no hard drive. > > Another argument is to make kernel be able to bring up NICs > > without needing firmware images in initramfs/initrd/hard drive. > > It is not possible to bring up things like FC or WiFi without firmware, > what special is in classic NICs? Nothing. It is just not (yet?) decreed from The Very Top that all and every firmware image should be loaded using request_firmware(). Also people may want to gzip something else than firmware. -- vda