Re: [9front] distproto: include the files in /lib/firmware/*

[hiro <23hiro@gmail.com>]

the reason i'd want it all built in is bec. then you can netboot over
wifi without needing an installation.

it feels wrong to put it into iso for purity reasons, but there is not
technical reason not to.
if some wifi firmware is outdated, bad luck, wrongly depending on wifi
serves you in that instance. if not, all the better, at least some
lucky souls can get going faster and do something useful instead of
managing their firmware files.

at first sigrid's argument convinced me, but now that i realize it
doesn't solve the problem i am even more convinced, there just isn't
enough of a downside to include it from the beginning.

and since i'm not here to convince but to enlighten i will add one
more counterargument, the only other downside that i missed till now:

it increases the size of the kernel image. might suck bec. tftp is already slow!

On 3/8/21, kemal <kemali13@protonmail.com> wrote:
> (also, is 9front ml shitting itself again? i take some messages late.)
>
>> Another way would be to have enough space on FAT parition to copy
>> firmware to ("firmware" directory on that partition) and to bind it on
>> top of /lib/firmware during boot process.  ISO stays the same, the
>> user is free to copy firmware as they please after writing the ISO to
>> USB flash drive or whatever.
>
> My original intention of this patch is very close to this. The diff
> changes distproto so that copydist will also copy firmwares in
> /lib/firmware/*.
> This way, user can put fws to /lib/firmware after writing the iso to the
> USB,
> then they don't have boot again to another OS/use another device to take
> fws.
> We would also warn the novice users to put fws before they boot up the USB
> in the FQA.
>
> If we are going to put fws to the distribution, we should put it into just
> ISO as some firmwares (8260 and 9260 fws) take 2MB of space. Putting this
> big of files into the repo is not a good idea.
>
>> There WILL be a point where it's going to be either old
>> or missing.
>
> Speaking of old... OpenBSD's fw tarball is outdated, they provide version
> 34 I think for 8260+ series but 8260's latest version is 36 and 9260 has
> version 46!!!!!!!! See:
>
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/
>
>> Maybe something like OpenBSD does where a tool will try to download the
>> firmwares after installation?
>
> The purpose of the diff was for the people who can access internet only
> through
> wifi and their card requires fw.
>
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