Re: mainline aic94xx firmware woes

From: Jesper Juhl
Date: Mon Sep 25 2006 - 06:35:18 EST


On 25/09/06, Muli Ben-Yehuda <muli@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,

The recently merged aic94xx in mainline requires external firmware
support. This, in turn, necessitates an initrd/initramfs environment
that includes firmware support to load the firmware. Will a patch to
optionally include the firmware inline in the kernel and thus not
having to use an initramfs be acceptable?

It's not my call, but I'd say that if the firmware is not GPL and the
source for that firmware is not available then the answer will be NO
(which would also be my personal opinion btw).

Also, aic94xx does not compile unless FW_LOADER is set in .config due
to missing 'request_firmware'. What's the right thing to do here -
aic94xx selecting it, depending on it, or FW_LOADER providing empty
request_firmware() in case it's compiled out (the last one violates
the principle of least surprise IMHO).

I'd say aic94xx depending on it with a note in the help text that it
requires it. But that's just my personal opinion.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@xxxxxxxxx>
Don't top-post http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/