Re: [v4l-dvb-maintainer] Options depending on STANDALONE

From: Trent Piepho
Date: Mon Aug 14 2006 - 17:14:14 EST


On Sun, 13 Aug 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 01:18:59PM +0200, Oliver Endriss wrote:
> > Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 04:40:25PM -0700, Trent Piepho wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > > > On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 03:56:17PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote:
> > > > > > You're describing PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD. The text Zach quoted is from
> > > > > > STANDALONE, which is something else completely. That allows us to not
> > > > > > build drivers that pull in things from /etc and the like during compile.
> > > > > > (Whoever thought that was a good idea?)
> > > > >
> > > > > Is DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE really still required?
> > > > > ALL other drivers work without such an option.
> > > >
> > > > The other DVB drivers that need firmware load it when the device is opened
> > > > or used (ie. a channel is tuned). At least for the ones I'm familiar
> > > > with. If they are compiled directly into the kernel, they can still use
> > > > FW_LOADER since the loading won't happen until utill well after booting is
> > > > done.
> > > >
> > > > For AV7110, it looks like the firmware loading is done when the driver is
> > > > first initialized. If AV7110 is compiled into the kernel, FW_LOADER can
> > > > not be used. The filesystem with the firmware won't be mounted yet.
> > > >
> > > > So AV7110 has an option to compile a firmware file into the driver.
> > >
> > > But is there a technical reason why this has to be done this way?

Is there another way to load firmware in a driver compiled into the kernel?

> > > This is the onle (non-OSS) driver doing it this way, and Zach has a
> > > point that this is legally questionable.

I know there are other DVB drivers that can have firmware compiled in
instead of using FW_LOADER. They just don't show that ability in Kconfig,
you have to edit the driver to enable compiled in firmware.

> > This option _is_ useful because it allows allows a user to build an
> > av7110 driver without hotplug etc. I NAK any attempt to remove it.
>
> If you look at the dependencies of DVB_AV7110 and the code in av7110.c
> you'll note that your statement "it allows allows a user to build an
> av7110 driver without hotplug" is not true.

Looks like a mistake in the Kconfig file:
- select FW_LOADER
+ select FW_LOADER if DVB_AV7110_FIRMWARE=n
-
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