RFC: aleksander/qmi-firmware-update branch

[Bjørn Mork]

Dan Williams <dcbw at redhat.com> writes:
> On Thu, 2016-12-08 at 23:42 +0100, Aleksander Morgado wrote:
>> Hey,
>> 
>> One interesting thing I noticed; unlike the 9200 or the 9x15 devices
>> I've played with, in the MC7455 (a 9x30) you can run the
>> qmi-firmware-update program to flash multiple firmware image pairs
>> (modem+pri) and they are all kept stored in the device; i.e. you can
>> have more than one image at the same time stored, and then you can
>> use
>> --dms-list-stored-images, --dms-select-stored-image and
>> --dms-delete-stored-image to play with them. You can also have for
>> example the base 02.20.03.00 firmware image and per-carrier
>> ATT/Rogers/Bell/Generic pri images all stored in the device, and
>> switch between them without needing to run the flashing tool. This is
>> a usecase which was already supported and tested with libqmi and
>> ModemManager since a some time ago (but tested only with one
>> Foxconn/Novatel device and without being able to upload new
>> firmware).
>
> I think that's something the card maker can choose when they build the
> firmware.  Some Gobi 3K devices do it, and Sierra MC7700/MC7750 also
> have the capability.

Yes, I think the only new about the MC7455 generation is more flash,
allowing them to store 4 full images.  This is nice, but I'm still
looking for an actual use case :)

AFAICS, you don't really want to have the bootloader switch firmware
versions when you change carrier.  It's just unnecessarily confusing.
And it does take significant time.


Bjørn