Re: 2.6.28-git8: tg3 doesn't work due to firmware not loading (-git7 is ok)

From: Alessandro Suardi
Date: Fri Jan 09 2009 - 17:30:39 EST


On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 11:04 PM, David Miller <davem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: "Alessandro Suardi" <alessandro.suardi@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:30:40 +0100
>
>> Clearly the requirement changed in -git8, AFAICS.
>
> Because -git8 is where the firmware requirement got added.

OK, thanks.

> If you build the TG3 driver statically into your kernel,
> the only way to get the firmware properly loaded is to
> enable that CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL option.
>
> Your filesystem isn't mounted when the driver initializes
> in that case, therefore there is no way to get at the
> firwware that might be present there.

And indeed I do build tg3 in-kernel. But since the config
option was present previously, perhaps it would have
been the case to change the help text for tg3 explaining
that now a non-modular build requires an extra step ?

Or maybe kbuild allows to select FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL
if tg3 is built non-modular ?

My only observation is that a make oldconfig shouldn't
change a working setup to a non-working one (though
it already happened once to me in a couple of weeks,
the other being I915 DRM being silently skipped as a
consequence of becoming dependent on CONFIG_FB)
with a new kernel patch.

Clearly, if there is no easy way to avoid such a situation,
it's okay - LKML and the other Linux-related lists are
always helpful.

Thanks again, ciao,

--alessandro

"Sun keeps rising in the west / I keep on waking fully confused"

(The Replacements, "Within Your Reach")
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/