Re: [PATCH 0/3] firmware_loader: Fix shutdown ordering and reference counting

[Russ Weight]

On Tue, Mar 31, 2026 at 02:47:23PM -0700, Dan Williams wrote:
> Chao Gao raised a module reference circular dependency report resulting
> from *correct* usage of the firmware_upload_register() API [1]. The
> module reference count is not necessary nor sufficient for protecting
> against racing unregister against in-flight requests. After that is
> fixed, a couple more cleanups fall out.
> 
> [1]: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260326084448.29947-1-chao.gao%40intel.com?patch=10705
> 
> 
> Dan Williams (3):
>   firmware_loader: Stop pinning modules on registration
>   firmware_loader: Stop pinning parent device per workqueue invocation
>   treewide: firmware_loader: Drop the unused @module argument
> 
>  .../driver-api/firmware/fw_upload.rst         |  2 +-
>  include/linux/firmware.h                      | 15 +++---
>  drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c   | 48 ++++++++-----------
>  drivers/cxl/core/memdev.c                     |  4 +-
>  drivers/firmware/microchip/mpfs-auto-update.c |  2 +-
>  drivers/fpga/intel-m10-bmc-sec-update.c       |  4 +-
>  drivers/greybus/gb-beagleplay.c               |  2 +-
>  drivers/media/i2c/thp7312.c                   |  2 +-
>  drivers/net/pse-pd/pd692x0.c                  |  4 +-
>  lib/test_firmware.c                           |  3 +-
>  10 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-)
> 
> 
> base-commit: f338e77383789c0cae23ca3d48adcc5e9e137e3c

Hi Dan,

Thanks for making these changes! Overall, the changes look good to
me. However, when I apply these changes to the specified base-commit
and attempt to build, I'm getting these errors:

drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c:229:24: warning: unused variable ‘fw_dev’ [-Wunused-variable]
  229 |         struct device *fw_dev = &fw_sysfs->dev;
      |                        ^~~~~~
drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c: In function ‘firmware_upload_register’: 
drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c:323:34: error: ‘module’ undeclared (first use in this function)
  323 |         fw_upload_priv->module = module;
      |                                  ^~~~~~


Thanks,
- Russ