On Sun, Jun 09, 2024 at 04:57:35PM +0800, Richard chien wrote: > This patch adds support for firmware update to the in-tree ixgbe driver and > it is actually a port > from the out-of-tree ixgbe driver. In-band firmware update is one of the > essential system maintenance > tasks. To simplify this task, the Intel online firmware update utility > provides a common interface > that works across different Intel NICs running the igb/ixgbe/i40e drivers. > Unfortunately, the in-tree > igb and ixgbe drivers are unable to support this firmware update utility, > causing problems for > enterprise users who do not or cannot use out-of-distro drivers due to > security and various other > reasons (e.g. commercial Linux distros do not provide technical support for > out-of-distro drivers). > As a result, getting this feature into the in-tree ixgbe driver is highly > desirable. > > Signed-off-by: Richard chien <richard.ch...@hpe.com>
How about you work on one driver at a time, to learn about the processes for submitting to the Linux kernel. https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/maintainer-netdev.html#netdev-faq https://docs.kernel.org/process/submitting-patches.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/coding-style.html I would also think about why Intel has not submitted this code before? Maybe because it does things the wrong way? Please look at how other Ethernet drivers support firmware. Is it the same? It might be you need to throw away this code and reimplement it to mainline standards, maybe using devlink flash, or ethtool -f. One additional question. Is the firmware part of linux-firmware? Given this is Intel, i expect the firmware is distributeable, but have they distributed it? Andrew
