Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers. | From | David Woodhouse <> | Date | Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:23:55 -0700 |
| |
On Mon, 2008-07-14 at 19:17 -0700, David Miller wrote: > When module support was added, guess what? I could still build a > completely static kernel image like I always could. > > And in fact, to this day, that's what I personally do because that's > how I like my kernels.
Good. You can still do precisely that, and build the firmware into your kernel. You can have exactly what you like. Hey, you can build even _more_ firmware into your kernel now. You can have NFS-root on devices you previously had to use an initrd for. hth.
> But this request_firmware() change does not allow one to get what he > could get before, which is a completely self-contained driver module > object file. > > This is the difference between providing an option and making > something mandatory. This firmware split up is now mandatory.
In all the years we've been using request_firmware(), nobody ever asked for a way to build the firmware _into_ the .ko file, until now. Why is it suddenly so important for a small handful of older network drivers, when nobody else has ever seen the need for it -- even in modern network drivers?
-- dwmw2
| |