[PATCH] libertas: add sysfs hooks to update boot2 and persistent firmware

[Michail Bletsas]

libertas-dev-bounces at lists.infradead.org wrote on 06/03/2008 10:12:31 AM:

> On Mon, 2008-06-02 at 17:12 -0700, Brian Cavagnolo wrote:
> > To update boot2, copy the boot2 and firmware images to /lib/firmware 
and:
> > 
> > echo <boot2_image_name> > /sys/class/net/eth2/lbs_boot2
> > echo <firmware_image_name> > /sys/class/net/eth2/lbs_fw
> 
> So why are we doing this with the driver, and not the userspace update
> tool?  Marvell keeps wanting to do firmware update in the driver, and we
> (David and I at least) keep saying no.  If there are issues that prevent
> the userspace firmware update tool from working, then we need to fix
> those issues.  Firmware updates from the driver were a disaster the
> first time around, and I don't quite see how that may have changed this
> time?
> 
> If you really want, the userspace tool can be rewritten in C.
> 
It is not a matter of Python vs C.
The userspace tool is extremely awkward to use (since it requires the 
driver modules to be unloaded which in turn makes the identification of 
devices on the XO even more difficult) and it bricks wireless modules 
while the driver method doesn't. So the statement that "firmware updates 
from the driver were a disaster" is simply not true.

This is low level hardware functionality that needs to be implemented in a 
fail-safe manner. Out testing has showed that the driver/firmware method 
(the driver just controls the memory updating code on the firmware) is 
more robust than the userspace tool.


M.