[ewg] shipping firmware with ofed

[Woodruff, Robert J]

If this is the case, then why not just build the firmware into the driver
and submit it with the driver when the driver is sent upstream to kernel.org. 

I have seen firmware imbedded into source code before, in the form of
a header file that contains the firmware code in hex. Something like,

unsigned long firmware[] =  {
         0xfefefefe,
         0xdededede,
             .
             .
             .
}


-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Rimmer [mailto:todd.rimmer at qlogic.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:38 AM
To: John Russo; Woodruff, Robert J; Steve Wise; tziporet at dev.mellanox.co.il
Cc: OpenFabrics EWG
Subject: RE: [ewg] shipping firmware with ofed

I have encountered many customers whose clusters are purposely not on the internet and hence could not perform a download.

It would be best if the FW was included in the release.  I think there is precedence with other Linux drivers which have included binary images of ASIC FW without having to release the source code.

Todd Rimmer
Chief Architect 
QLogic Network Systems Group
Voice: 610-233-4852     Fax: 610-233-4777
Todd.Rimmer at QLogic.com  www.QLogic.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org [mailto:ewg-
> bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On Behalf Of John Russo
> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 1:19 PM
> To: Woodruff, Robert J; Steve Wise; tziporet at dev.mellanox.co.il
> Cc: OpenFabrics EWG
> Subject: RE: [ewg] shipping firmware with ofed
> 
> How about something along the lines of a firmware update tool built into
> OFED that checks the HCA for the proper firmware and gives the user to
> download the current version.  It could automatically pull from Mellanox's
> site and therefore avoid the licensing issue while still providing a
> customer service.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org [mailto:ewg-
> bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On Behalf Of Woodruff, Robert J
> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 1:17 PM
> To: Steve Wise; tziporet at dev.mellanox.co.il
> Cc: OpenFabrics EWG
> Subject: RE: [ewg] shipping firmware with ofed
> 
> Steve Wrote,
> 
> >I request that we do add this.  Forcing customers to download firmware
> >isn't very user friendly.
> 
> >It should be fairly easy to do, yes?  I would take on the work involved
> >to add the infrastructure needed...
> 
> >All that would be needed, I think, is to make a src rpm that allows
> >generating an rpm that will install the firmware in /lib/firmware.  Each
> >provider could manage their own.  Or we could have a "firmware" src rpm
> >that holds all the providers' firmware images...
> 
> >Thoughts?
> 
> >Steve.
> 
> 
> If people submit firmware to ofed, then would it have to be submitted
> under the dual BSD/GPL license as agreed to in the OFA bylaws. If so,
> then you would probably have to submit the firmware source code as well,
> and I am not sure if you are willing to do that...
> 
> woody
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