Some thoughts about firmware inclusion.

[Hans de Goede]

Jeremy Katz wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 10:06 -0400, Jon Masters wrote:
>> On a tangent, I would like to have a discussion about in-kernel firmware
>> as it becomes split out and loaded using request_firmware. So that third
>> parties can supply different firmware updates, can we agree that it's
>> worthwhile having one firmware package for each firmware file set needed
>> by the kernel package, in the longer term?
> 
> This is fine (well, not for F8 obviously, but we can make it okay for
> F9), with a few caveats:
> 1) The module *MUST* have the needed firmware tagged appropriately so
> that we can figure out what firmware to pull into initrds, the
> installer, etc
> 2) We should probably follow the path being blazed with wireless
> firmware where we include the multiple, incompatible firmware versions
> in one package.  Otherwise, the fact that multiple kernels can be
> installed leads to a a bit of a quagmire
> 3) Care needs to be taken so that upgrades will work correctly once the
> firmware has moved.  A requires is one answer, and maybe the best, but
> there definitely needs to be some thought
> 

4) This effort must be done upstream using the current standard kernel firmware
    mechanisms and then trickle down into Fedora from upstream. I can already
    hear Dave J. screaming in the night if we are going to carry Fedora specific
    kernel patches for this.

Regards,

Hans