[Intel-gfx] kbl_guc and bxt_guc firmware missing from linux-firmware

[Seth Forshee]

On Wed, Mar 01, 2017 at 03:23:06PM +0200, Jani Nikula wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Feb 2017, Seth Forshee <seth.forshee at canonical.com> wrote:
> > Maybe it would be good to have something like MODULE_OPTIONAL_FIRMWARE
> > to identify firmware that isn't required but will be used by the driver
> > if available. Then mkinitramfs can try to copy those files along with
> > the module but know that there's no need to produce a warning if it's
> > not present.
> 
> The documentation for the current MODULE_FIRMWARE already says,
> "Optional firmware file (or files) needed by the module format is simply
> firmware file name."

That may have been the intention. But since it is the only thing
available it has been used for any firmware files, including many which
will cause device probe to fail if not present. Userspace tools seem to
treat the firmware files in modinfo to mean, "firmware files without
which the hardware may fail to function or may not function properly,"
because in many cases that is true. I'd argue that this is the de facto
definition of MODULE_FIRMWARE, and that the comment is at best
misleading.

Seth