[Buildroot] [PATCH] wf111: Add mdev dependency

Charles Manning cdhmanning at gmail.com
Wed Aug 12 05:16:35 UTC 2015


>> On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 11:40 PM, Baruch Siach <baruch at tkos.co.il> wrote:
>> > On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 07:17:02PM +1200, Charles Manning wrote:
>> >> wf111 really needs mdev
>> >
>> > Please explain why.
>On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 4:38 PM, Baruch Siach <baruch at tkos.co.il> wrote:
> Hi Charles,
>
> On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 08:11:08AM +1200, Charles Manning wrote:
>> Are you saying I should explain here or in the commit notice?
>
> In commit log.

Ok, I will resubmit...

>
>> Actually udev would work too.
>
> Recent kernels gained the ability to load firmware directly without any help
> form userspace, so this is probably another option.

Well not without rewriting the wf111 driver and the associated
prebuilt "helper" binaries it comes with...

The wf111 buildroot package unwraps a tarball from Bluegiga, does an
out of tree build of the kernel modules then copies the modules +
binaries into the file system tree.

This isn't "pure" or anything like that, but it gets the job done....

This is why there is quite a bit of "funkiness" to the wf111 package.

>
>> The wf111 driver set uses hotpug to perform the firmware patching
>> (loading .xbv files).
>>
>> From what I have experienced, fw patching is required when you first
>> fire up a new module and when you change modes (sta only vs ap).
>
> Since there are different ways to load the firmware we generally don't make
> firmware or driver packages build depend on any specific firmware loading
> mechanism.

In general you are right, but I think this is a special case.

wf111 driver + associated files  is built out of tree by a special package.

That package already has other dependencies that are nothing to do
with the kernel. eg.BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC because of those prebuilt
binaries.

The prebuilt binaries (and therefore the whole wf111 package) does not
result in a functioning wf111 subsystem unless there is udev or mdev
(I've only tested with mdev)., therefore let's be helpful and add the
dependency.

Regards

Charles


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