Re: [bug?] tg3: Failed to load firmware "tigon/tg3_tso.bin"

From: Jeff Garzik
Date: Fri Jul 04 2008 - 10:06:55 EST


Alan Cox wrote:
Why is it so difficult to see the value of KEEPING STUFF WORKING AS IT WORKS TODAY?

Sure Jeff. Lets delete libata, that caused all sorts of problems when it
was being added. We could freeze on linux 1.2.13-lmp, that was a good
release - why break it ?

There are good sound reasons for having a firmware tree, the fact tg3 is
a bit of dinosaur in this area doesn't make it wrong.

I never said it was wrong.

I have said repeatedly that separating out the firmware is the right thing to do.

But... you don't need to force the switchover. You don't need to break things that work today, in order to accomplish this.

It is quite feasible to do both -- keep things working as they work today, _and_ add /lib/firmware infrastructure. Then we can work to switch distros over to the new system.

Further, it is not only feasible, but the only "nice" thing to do to other developers, users, and distros: permit them to choose when to stop the decades-old practice of building firmware into some drivers.

Perform the transition in a sane, staged, planned manner that doesn't result in tons of non-working drivers. I have already provided many real world examples where people, doing the same things they do today, will be greeted with non-working drivers upon the next boot. Without any warning or error messages along the way, hinting that something might be wrong.

Or, for the cheap seats:

End goal: good

dwmw2's current path: very easy to produce dead driver

Needed resolution: first step should /not/ produce regressions;

current evidence demonstrates current
implementation is full of regressions
that seasoned kernel hackers are hitting

It /is/ possible to add /lib/firmware gadgetry while avoiding the obvious low-hanging-fruit regressions and flag-day conversions that have been pointed out here.

Just say no to flag-day changes like this. It is possible for each distro and boot image script to have their own flag-day. Give them that choice.

Jeff

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