Hi everybody, I'm developing a webcam driver which already supports a dozen of webcam models.
A user tried using the driver with an Apple iSight (USB model, integrated in Mac laptops), and found out the camera firmware had to be loaded by software after every cold boot. He thus patched the driver to upload the firmware when needed. When reviewing his code, I noticed the camera is based on a Cypress EZUSB-FX2 microcontroller. A Linux userspace utility, called fxload, can be used with the hotplug tools to load the firmware. This seemed a better approach to me, as the driver could then concentrate on being a webcam driver, and the firmware loader would take care about what it does best, loading the firmware (the device has a different product ID before and after firmware loading, so there should be no conflict). A few users didn't agree. They argued that it would be much easier for end-users if the driver took care of everything, including firmware loading. As I don't have much experience with firmware loading, I would like to ask other developers for their opinion. What should take care of loading the firmware ? The device driver (possibly using the firmware loading kernel API), or the userspace utility ? Remember that the webcam is really a different device after firmware loading. Thanks in advance for your comments. Cheers, Laurent Pinchart ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net To unsubscribe, use the last form field at: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-devel
