[arch-dev-public] linux-firmware package, some thoughts

[Giancarlo Razzolini]

Em setembro 27, 2021 16:46 Jelle van der Waa via arch-dev-public escreveu:
> On 27/09/2021 21:13, Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) via arch-dev-public 
> wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 8:30 PM Tobias Powalowski via arch-dev-public <
>> arch-dev-public at lists.archlinux.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi guys,
>>> lately did a lot of archboot hacking and stumbled over our firmware
>>> package.
>>> It needs installed 750 MB, download size is 130 MB.
>>> I tried to get it smaller and uploaded the archboot-linux-firmware package
>>> for my purposes.
>>> Our linux kernel needs only 180 MB installed size, download size is about
>>> 37 MB.
>>> Wouldn't it make sense to provide for each kernel we ship, a separate
>>> firmware package?
>>> Just my 2 cwnts,
>>> greetings
>>> tpowa
>>>
>> 
>> The method used there wouldn't produce a usable firmware package for me.
>> For example, `modinfo -F firmware iwlwifi` lists
>> `iwlwifi-Qu-c0-hr-b0-64.ucode` but linux-firmware does not contain that
>> file. The driver will fall back to the next lower version,
>> `iwlwifi-Qu-c0-hr-b0-63.ucode`, which is in linux-firmware but not in the
>> modinfo output.
>> 
>> I think the best we can do is split some of the more obscure vendors that
>> have large firmware sets, like Netronome, Qualcomm, Mellanox, Marvell,
>> Cavium, QLogic and NXP.
> 
> 
> I second this, the biggest firmware sizes are from these fancynetwork 
> equipemnt folks such as netronome. An alternative is enabling xz 
> compression for the firmware itself this should save space as well, but 
> it depends on support in the LTS kernel.
> 

Can't we do both? Enable xz and split the larger firmwares? Or LTS don't have
plans to support xz for firmware?

Regards,
Giancarlo Razzolini
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