Kernel Firmware - Adding Right way??

DISCUSSION Michael D. Setzer II 2 participants 4 messages Nov 11, 2012

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Michael D. Setzer II

author

2012-11-11 07:57 UTC #0 lore raw

I've been the maintainer of the g4l project since about 2004, and have had issues with a few users that have hardware that requires firmware that isn't included in the kernel.org kernel.

I want to do this the right way, since this is what it shows in the kernel firmware directory.

	DO NOT ADD FIRMWARE TO THIS DIRECTORY.
	======================================

This directory is only here to contain firmware images extracted from old device drivers which predate the common use of request_firmware().

Problem is that when I manually add the missing firmware to the firmware directory, and add it to the list in the Makefile it works just fine, but I then tried to add the new firmware file directory to the cd it doesn't find the firmware.

User reports this in dmesg.

firmware 0000:04:00.0: firmware: requesting bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
PM: Removing info for No Bus:0000:04:00.0
bnx2x: bnx2x_init_firmware:11647(eth0)Can't load firmware file bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
bnx2x: bnx2x_func_hw_init:5477(eth0)Error loading firmware
bnx2x: bnx2x_nic_load:2136(eth0)HW init failed, aborting

The firmware is download using

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.
git

and files and subdirectories are placed in the /lib/firmware directory except for the .git directory.

So, not sure why it isn't finding the the kernel files.

The options involving FIRMWARE are currently
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
# CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL is not set
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""
# CONFIG_HOSTAP_FIRMWARE is not set
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_MEMMAP=y
# CONFIG_GOOGLE_FIRMWARE is not set

The project builds all options in the kernel instead of using moduals since it includes a number of kernels to support various hardware and has most nics and disk adapters selected.

link to the latest config file.

ftp://amd64gcc.dyndns.org/bz3x6.6.config

I've search over the web, and have even been communicating with the maintainer of the bnx2x firmware that is the issue.

I'm hoping it is just some simple setting or option that needs to be set. Adding the 40M of firmware required increasing the ramdisk size for 64M to 128M to make room, but would like to have the firmware available for users that might need it to have the project work on there hardware.

Thanks.

+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor      
  Guam Community College  Computer Center                  
  mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]
http://www.guam.net/home/mikes
Guam - Where America's Day Begins
G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+----------------------------------------------------------+

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu (Original)

Number of Seti Units Returned:  19,471
Processing time:  32 years, 290 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes

(Total Hours: 287,489)

BOINC@HOME CREDITS

SETI        13233290.532525   |   EINSTEIN     9012033.029852
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Ming Lei

2012-11-11 08:57 UTC #1 lore raw

Quoted 48 lines · Michael D. Setzer II

I've been the maintainer of the g4l project since about 2004, and have had issues with a few users that have hardware that requires firmware that isn't included in the kernel.org kernel.
I want to do this the right way, since this is what it shows in the kernel firmware directory.
DO NOT ADD FIRMWARE TO THIS DIRECTORY.
======================================
This directory is only here to contain firmware images extracted from old device drivers which predate the common use of request_firmware().
Problem is that when I manually add the missing firmware to the firmware directory, and add it to the list in the Makefile it works just fine, but I then tried to add the new firmware file directory to the cd it doesn't find the firmware.
User reports this in dmesg.
firmware 0000:04:00.0: firmware: requesting bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
PM: Removing info for No Bus:0000:04:00.0
bnx2x: bnx2x_init_firmware:11647(eth0)Can't load firmware file bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
bnx2x: bnx2x_func_hw_init:5477(eth0)Error loading firmware
bnx2x: bnx2x_nic_load:2136(eth0)HW init failed, aborting
The firmware is download using
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.
git
and files and subdirectories are placed in the /lib/firmware directory except for the .git directory.
So, not sure why it isn't finding the the kernel files.
The options involving FIRMWARE are currently
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
# CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL is not set
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""
# CONFIG_HOSTAP_FIRMWARE is not set
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_MEMMAP=y
# CONFIG_GOOGLE_FIRMWARE is not set

Quoted 2 lines

The project builds all options in the kernel instead of using moduals since it includes a number of kernels to support various

Maybe building the driver into kernel causes your problem because the rootfs is not ready when requesting, or the firmware is not included into initrd.

As far as I know, now the preferred approach is to build the driver as module for the issue, or you can introduce probe deferral in driver to solve the problem.

Quoted 37 lines

hardware and has most nics and disk adapters selected.
link to the latest config file.
ftp://amd64gcc.dyndns.org/bz3x6.6.config
I've search over the web, and have even been communicating with the maintainer of the bnx2x firmware that is the issue.
I'm hoping it is just some simple setting or option that needs to be set. Adding the 40M of firmware required increasing the ramdisk size for 64M to 128M to make room, but would like to have the firmware available for users that might need it to have the project work on there hardware.
Thanks.
+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor
  Guam Community College  Computer Center
mailto:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.guam.net/home/mikes
Guam - Where America's Day Begins
G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+----------------------------------------------------------+
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu (Original)
Number of Seti Units Returned:  19,471
Processing time:  32 years, 290 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes
(Total Hours: 287,489)
BOINC@HOME CREDITS

Quoted 8 lines

SETI        13233290.532525   |   EINSTEIN     9012033.029852
ROSETTA      5329761.808862   |   ABC         15417521.047462
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Thanks,

Signature · 1 line

Ming Lei

Michael D. Setzer II

author

2012-11-11 09:58 UTC #2 lore raw

On 11 Nov 2012 at 16:57, Ming Lei wrote:

Date sent:      	Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:57:42 +0800
Subject:        	Re: Kernel Firmware - Adding Right way??
From:           	Ming Lei <[email protected]>
To:             	"Michael D. Setzer II" <[email protected]>
Copies to:      	[email protected]

Quoted 50 lines

Quoted 48 lines · Michael D. Setzer II
I've been the maintainer of the g4l project since about 2004, and have had issues with a few users that have hardware that requires firmware that isn't included in the kernel.org kernel.
I want to do this the right way, since this is what it shows in the kernel firmware directory.
DO NOT ADD FIRMWARE TO THIS DIRECTORY.
======================================
This directory is only here to contain firmware images extracted from old device drivers which predate the common use of request_firmware().
Problem is that when I manually add the missing firmware to the firmware directory, and add it to the list in the Makefile it works just fine, but I then tried to add the new firmware file directory to the cd it doesn't find the firmware.
User reports this in dmesg.
firmware 0000:04:00.0: firmware: requesting bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
PM: Removing info for No Bus:0000:04:00.0
bnx2x: bnx2x_init_firmware:11647(eth0)Can't load firmware file bnx2x/bnx2x-e2-7.2.51.0.fw
bnx2x: bnx2x_func_hw_init:5477(eth0)Error loading firmware
bnx2x: bnx2x_nic_load:2136(eth0)HW init failed, aborting
The firmware is download using
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.
git
and files and subdirectories are placed in the /lib/firmware directory except for the .git directory.
So, not sure why it isn't finding the the kernel files.
The options involving FIRMWARE are currently
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
# CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL is not set
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""
# CONFIG_HOSTAP_FIRMWARE is not set
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_MEMMAP=y
# CONFIG_GOOGLE_FIRMWARE is not set

Quoted 7 lines

Quoted 2 lines
The project builds all options in the kernel instead of using moduals since it includes a number of kernels to support various
Maybe building the driver into kernel causes your problem because the rootfs is not ready when requesting, or the firmware is not included into initrd.

The project currently includes 10 different kernels, and prior to my taking it over in 2004, it was the same basic setup. Don't really know the whole proces that would be required to convert the standalone kernels to kernels using moduals. Setting up the moduals and the process to load them, which the kernel now does automatically. Project has 800 to 1000+ downloads per week.

I see it load the firmware, and the it shows loading the ramdisk file, before the probing happens, but don't know if loading the ramdisk is the same as making the rootfs available with the /lib/firmware directory. Know that is the directory that distros seem to use, but perhaps the kernel is using other location. Message doesn't specify where it was looking for kernel?

Quoted 4 lines

As far as I know, now the preferred approach is to build the driver as module for the issue, or you can introduce probe deferral in driver to solve the problem.

Don't write the drivers, so don't know if this is an option. I've only heard of this issue with the bnx2x driver with HP servers and only with a couple of users. So, perhaps just manually adding the bnx2x.

Quoted 40 lines

Quoted 40 lines
hardware and has most nics and disk adapters selected.
link to the latest config file.
ftp://amd64gcc.dyndns.org/bz3x6.6.config
I've search over the web, and have even been communicating with the maintainer of the bnx2x firmware that is the issue.
I'm hoping it is just some simple setting or option that needs to be set. Adding the 40M of firmware required increasing the ramdisk size for 64M to 128M to make room, but would like to have the firmware available for users that might need it to have the project work on there hardware.
Thanks.
+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor
  Guam Community College  Computer Center
mailto:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.guam.net/home/mikes
Guam - Where America's Day Begins
G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+----------------------------------------------------------+
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu (Original)
Number of Seti Units Returned:  19,471
Processing time:  32 years, 290 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes
(Total Hours: 287,489)
BOINC@HOME CREDITS
SETI        13233290.532525   |   EINSTEIN     9012033.029852
ROSETTA      5329761.808862   |   ABC         15417521.047462

Quoted 10 lines

Quoted 5 lines
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To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Thanks,
Signature · 1 line
Ming Lei

+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor      
  Guam Community College  Computer Center                  
  mailto:[email protected]

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu (Original)

Number of Seti Units Returned:  19,471
Processing time:  32 years, 290 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes

(Total Hours: 287,489)

BOINC@HOME CREDITS

SETI        13233290.532525   |   EINSTEIN     9012033.029852
ROSETTA      5329761.808862   |   ABC         15417521.047462

Ming Lei

2012-11-11 10:51 UTC #3 lore raw

Quoted 8 lines · Michael D. Setzer II

The project currently includes 10 different kernels, and prior to my taking it over in 2004, it was the same basic setup. Don't really know the whole proces that would be required to convert the standalone kernels to kernels using moduals. Setting up the moduals and the process to load them, which the kernel now does automatically. Project has 800 to 1000+ downloads per week.

Quoted 5 lines

I see it load the firmware, and the it shows loading the ramdisk file, before the probing happens, but don't know if loading the ramdisk is the same as making the rootfs available with the
From the log, looks your kernel loads firmware from fs directly, so

it should be same between ramdisk and rootfs.

Quoted 3 lines

/lib/firmware directory. Know that is the directory that distros seem to use, but perhaps the kernel is using other location. Message doesn't specify where it was looking for kernel?

Below is the default path to search firmware by kernel:

static const char *fw_path[] = {
        "/lib/firmware/updates/" UTS_RELEASE,
        "/lib/firmware/updates",
        "/lib/firmware/" UTS_RELEASE,
        "/lib/firmware"
};

Quoted 10 lines

Quoted 5 lines
As far as I know, now the preferred approach is to build the driver as module for the issue, or you can introduce probe deferral in driver to solve the problem.
Don't write the drivers, so don't know if this is an option. I've only heard of this issue with the bnx2x driver with HP servers and only with a couple of users. So, perhaps just manually adding the bnx2x.

You can try to make bnx2x as module to see if you problem can be fixed, and probe deferral for loading firmware is still not ready.

Thanks,

Signature · 1 line

Ming Lei