> I think the firmware loader is a separate program, not part of Linux, > so we do not control it. However, there must be a function in Linux > which somehow invokes that program. Maybe we could modify that > function so it sees this and prints the error message "Device not > supported".
But we don't want to do that unconditionally. That's what we do now, and we decided to change it. We want to do that only if the kernel somehow knows that the user hasn't installed firmware with that name. Yes, that's right. introducing some means for userland to tell the kernel which pieces of firmware are available, so that the kernel does not even ask for those that aren't. Now I see the logic of it. However, it still seems to me that the directory which normally holds firmware files could effectively be that list. Here is how it would work: The function that requests loading firmware look in the firmware directory for the relevant file name. If it finds a file, it requests loading the firmware. Otherwise, if the firmware file is free, it requests loading the firmware. But if the file is nonfree and not present, it gives an error message, "Device not supported". Wouldn't this do the job? -- Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org