On Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 06:43:40AM +0200, Dragan Simic wrote: > On 2024-07-28 22:57, Andrew Lunn wrote: > > > In other words, this patch doesn't subtract anything. Instead, it > > > just > > > adds a weakdep link between the lan78xx and micrel modules, so the > > > kernel > > > itself can report that dependency, which may actually result in one > > > more > > > PHY driver added to a generated initial ramdisk. > > > > So at the moment, does the initramfs contain all PHY modules? I guess > > it does, because you have no knowledge which are actually needed. And > > this does not help you in any way, as you said, it does not subtract > > anything. > > Basically, an initial ramdisk shouldn't contain any PHY modules that > aren't automatically detected as needed on a particular system, for > which the initial ramdisk is built. That's how selecting modules > while building the initial ramdisks works. On the other hand, if it's > some initial ramdisk built by a Linux distribution and intended to > support multiple systems or boards, it may contain whatever the > distribution sees fit. > > Having weakdeps defined actually does help here. For example, a Linux > distribution mentioned above no longer needs to hand-craft the rules > for initial ramdisk generation for the PHY modules that should be put > into an initial ramdisk together with the lan78xx driver, if the Linux > distribution chooses to include the lax78xx driver. Having weakdep(s) > defined makes the kernel do that instead. Also, there's no point in > including every single PHY driver module, because not all of them are > needed for a particular selection of MAC drivers, which comes from the > intended purpose of the initial ramdisk built by a Linux distribution, > i.e. the target architecture, supported board category, etc. > > Let's also keep in mind that including all PHY modules into an initial > ramdisk inevitably makes it larger, which often isn't an option for > resource-constrained embedded systems. > resource-constrained embedded systems know their dependancies and their hardware configurations, so I don't see how the weak-deps help at all here. You are arguing two different things it seems, neither of which this change helps out at all with, so I will provide a: Nacked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> here until it gets straightened out. thanks, greg k-h
