-------- Original Message -------- From: - Mon Jul 18 15:34:09 2005 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00800000 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:34:07 -0400 From: Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: Debian Thunderbird 1.0.2 (X11/20050331) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: David S. Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [PATCH 2.6.13-rc3] tg3: Move tg3 firmware into separate file References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.91.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
David S. Miller wrote: > From: "Nathanael Nerode" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 07:55:45 -0400 > > >>This is partly for the purpose of doing firmware loading in the future, >>but it's also a matter of tidiness. > > > So make the change when we do the loading like that in the > future. > > The fact that you are forcing the issue right now makes Not "forcing"; do what you think best, of course! > me suspicious of your real reason for desiring this change. OK, the "real" reason is that it makes life slightly easier for Debian. Sorry I didn't mention that; I've been a bit flaky lately. Gory details follow. Debian's policy means that it can't ship the firmware in its kernel source package, because that goes in "main" and has to satisfy all kinds of requirements. Instead the plan is to ship the firmware in a separate package in the "non-free" section (which is nearly ready to go, actually). Debian already has a form of firmware loading working, but apparently that is not sufficiently ready to be accepted upstream, which is why it hasn't been submitted yet. (I'm working on it. IIRC, necessary elements for acceptance upstream include transitional code which will fall back to the built-in firmware if loadable firmware isn't available, and an automatic installation system for loadable firmware files. Right?) Debian policy further means that the "upstream tarball" portion of its kernel source package shouldn't contain files which differ from the versions in the real upstream tarball. (Simple deletions or additions are acceptable in a pinch, but changes belong in the "Debian local" portion.) So due to the current file structure, the tg3.c file is deleted from the upstream tarball, and an entirely new copy is added in the "Debian local" portion. With the firmware in a separate file, the tg3_firmware.h file could be deleted from the upstream tarball, and a (small) diff to tg3.c could be included in the "Debian local" portion. Which would make life easier for the Debian maintainers and help avoid accidental version skew in tg3.c versus upstream. In addition, having the firmware in a separate file will make it more straightforward to construct the separate package which will contain the firmware; the source file can then be used as-is, which it can't now. tg3 isn't the only driver for which Debian is doing this sort of thing, but all the others have the firmware in separate files, causing the package maintainers to swear rather more about tg3. I figured it wouldn't hurt to submit this change now rather than waiting until the firmware loading code was ready. I am a habitual code tidier anyway. Hope this helps, Nathanael Nerode - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html