From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:05:59 -0800 From: Greg KH To: Ben Hutchings Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org, greg@kroah.com, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, b43-dev@lists.infradead.org, roman-vl@meta.ua, =?utf-8?B?UmFmYcWCIE1pxYJlY2tp?= Subject: Re: [17/26] b43: refuse to load unsupported firmware Message-ID: <20111119190559.GC30197@suse.de> References: <20111119000329.419617905@clark.kroah.org> <1321723330.2885.145.camel@deadeye> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <1321723330.2885.145.camel@deadeye> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 05:22:10PM +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote: > On Fri, 2011-11-18 at 16:02 -0800, Greg KH wrote: > > 3.1-stable review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know. > > > > ------------------ > > > > [This patch is supposed to be applied in 3.1 (and maybe older) branches only.] > > > > New kernels support newer firmware that users may try to incorrectly use > > with older kernels. Display error and explain the problem in such a case > > > > Signed-off-by: Rafał Miłecki > > Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman > > > > --- > > drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c | 7 +++++++ > > 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) > > > > --- a/drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c > > +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c > > @@ -2508,6 +2508,13 @@ static int b43_upload_microcode(struct b > > b43_print_fw_helptext(dev->wl, 1); > > err = -EOPNOTSUPP; > > goto error; > > + } else if (fwrev >= 598) { > > + b43err(dev->wl, "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO NEW. Support for " > > + "firmware 598 and up requires kernel 3.2 or newer. You " > > + "have to install older firmware or upgrade kernel.\n"); > > + b43_print_fw_helptext(dev->wl, 1); > > + err = -EOPNOTSUPP; > > + goto error; > [...] > > Again, I strongly object to this way of handling the incompatibility. > The revision check is fine, but the solution must be to assign a > different filename for the newer revisions. The changes to 3.0/3.1 > should be deferred until this is resolved. You can object, however the driver author and maintainer wants it done this way for now, so that's a valid solution that I have to accept. It solves real bugs that people have already hit when running the 3.0 and 3.1 kernels. Propagating a userspace tool change for those systems would be much harder, if not impossible, don't you think? It would also require a much more intrusive change to the driver infrastructure to handle such a proposed change. thanks, greg k-h