• Bjørn Mork's avatar
    net: e100: ucode is optional in some cases · 8b0d2f9e
    Bjørn Mork authored
    commit 9ac32e1b firmware: convert e100 driver to request_firmware()
    
    did a straight conversion of the in-driver ucode to external
    files.  This introduced the possibility of the driver failing
    to enable an interface due to missing ucode. There was no
    evaluation of the importance of the ucode at the time.
    
    Based on comments in earlier versions of this driver, and in
    the source code for the FreeBSD fxp driver, we can assume that
    the ucode implements the "CPU Cycle Saver" feature on supported
    adapters.  Although generally wanted, this is an optional
    feature. The ucode source is not available, preventing it from
    being included in free distributions. This creates unnecessary
    problems for the end users. Doing a network install based on a
    free distribution installer requires the user to download and
    insert the ucode into the installer.
    
    Making the ucode optional when possible improves the user
    experience and driver usability.
    
    The ucode for some adapters include a bugfix, making it
    essential.  We continue to fail for these adapters unless the
    ucode is available.
    Signed-off-by: default avatarBjørn Mork <bjorn@mork.no>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
    8b0d2f9e
e100.c 91.5 KB