On Sat, 2011-11-19 at 11:05 -0800, Greg KH wrote: > On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 05:22:10PM +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote: > > On Fri, 2011-11-18 at 16:02 -0800, Greg KH wrote: > > > 3.1-stable review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know. > > > > > > ------------------ > > > > > > [This patch is supposed to be applied in 3.1 (and maybe older) branches only.] > > > > > > New kernels support newer firmware that users may try to incorrectly use > > > with older kernels. Display error and explain the problem in such a case > > > > > > Signed-off-by: RafaÅ MiÅecki <zajec5@xxxxxxxxx> > > > Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxx> > > > > > > --- > > > drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c | 7 +++++++ > > > 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) > > > > > > --- a/drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c > > > +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c > > > @@ -2508,6 +2508,13 @@ static int b43_upload_microcode(struct b > > > b43_print_fw_helptext(dev->wl, 1); > > > err = -EOPNOTSUPP; > > > goto error; > > > + } else if (fwrev >= 598) { > > > + b43err(dev->wl, "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO NEW. Support for " > > > + "firmware 598 and up requires kernel 3.2 or newer. You " > > > + "have to install older firmware or upgrade kernel.\n"); > > > + b43_print_fw_helptext(dev->wl, 1); > > > + err = -EOPNOTSUPP; > > > + goto error; > > [...] > > > > Again, I strongly object to this way of handling the incompatibility. > > The revision check is fine, but the solution must be to assign a > > different filename for the newer revisions. The changes to 3.0/3.1 > > should be deferred until this is resolved. > > You can object, however the driver author and maintainer wants it done > this way for now, so that's a valid solution that I have to accept. It > solves real bugs that people have already hit when running the 3.0 and > 3.1 kernels. The revision check fixes a bug, yes. What I'm concerned about is the cop-out error message: 'We didn't deal with versioning properly, so you get to solve the problem.' It should be possible to reboot between multiple installed kernel versions without modifying files. > Propagating a userspace tool change for those systems > would be much harder, if not impossible, don't you think? It would also > require a much more intrusive change to the driver infrastructure to > handle such a proposed change. It is the new kernel version and firmware files that should be changed, not the old ones. There is another option which is to use the /lib/firmware/<kernel-ver> directories to separate incompatible firmware versions. That is not nearly as good as using a API/ABI number in the filename, but it would work and the error message could suggest it. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings The world is coming to an end. Please log off.
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