[packagekit] udev installing firmware? insanity or super cool?

[David Zeuthen]

On Fri, 2008-03-14 at 16:00 +0100, Klaus Kaempf wrote:
> >  type_mediacodec = <mime-type-of-codec-or-something>
> >  type_firmware = <name of file missing in /lib/firmware>
> >  type_driver = <modalias>
> 
> Yes, this seems to be the right level of abstraction. Except for the
> type_firmware which seems to imply some device:filename mapping in the
> calling application.

IIRC the way the Linux firmware interface works it's basically a flat
namespace (e.g. driver asks for a file that is supposed to be
in /lib/firmware). But I'm not an expert and the above was just an
example. 

(Btw, an observation or nitpick if you want: probably the mapping needs
to be driver:filename since it's the actual driver, not the device, that
asks for the firmware.)

> Looking at the 'driver backport' project at Linux Foundation, I think
> there is acceptance to do this in a more generic way. So instead of
> leaving it up to the backend to find the package, there should be
> package dependencies (e.g. RPM 'Provides') expressing what the package
> contains. Like
> 
> mp3 codec:           Provides: codec(audio/mpeg)
> 3945 wlan firmware:  Provides: firmware(8086:4227)
> 3945 wlan driver:    Provides: modalias(kernel-default:pci:v00008086d0000422[27]sv*sd*bc*sc*i*)

Yep that makes sense but I'd still like to encode this knowledge in
vendor specific configuration of whatever packaging format backend of
PackageKit they are using. Ideally distros will standardize on something
(and LF's efforts is a means to that end) but I wouldn't want to assume
anything just yet.

> Well, the user should have some way to configure if he wants support for
> a specific device or not. E.g. With WLAN virtually everywhere, I do not
> want to install modem drivers on my laptop.

(Sure. Until you're in a location without WLAN, no other network
connectivity, no install media...)

Currently the default install in most distros ship with tons of drivers
and firmware so the users won't have to click-through pointless dialogs
like on Windows every time the user plugs in a new device. And that
works just fine, in fact it works _a lot_ better than e.g. not
installing modem drivers to save, what, 100kb? 1MB? Remember, Moore's
law is still here: disk space is cheap and will continue to get cheaper.
Conclusion: the whole idea is a bit silly. 

(Oh, and I had a four paragraph rant about free software and why the
whole idea is fundamentally misguided and evil but I left that out.)

     David