Re: [REVIEW] NVM Express driver

From: Alan Cox
Date: Fri Mar 04 2011 - 07:43:57 EST


On Thu, 3 Mar 2011 14:22:26 -0800
> > How would the driver know that it should call request_firmware()?
> > Do it every 60 seconds in case somebody's downloaded some new firmware?
>
> Ick, no, just use the function provided that lets you create a firmware
> request and be notified when it is written to,
> request_firmware_nowait(). That is what it is there for.

Bunkum

It's there for automated loading of needed firmware

> Anyway, just use request_firmware_nowait(), you will be fine.

Not really. You've got no way with the request_firmware interface for the
user space and kernel space to reliably time objects together eg to do
user side work before a firmware load.

Almost all the other stuff in the kernel which is for firmware
programming as opposed to automatic loading is not using request_firmware
- and for good reasons like needing to be able to specify the path to the
object reliably - which cannot be done with namespaces.

>From a security perspective, a correctness perspective, for reliability
and managability request_firmware is the wrong interface for flashing new
firmware.

Alan
--
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/