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

[Tobias Powalowski]

Hi,
according to google in 5.3 the xz compression was introduced so all kernels
we ship should support it.
greetings
tpowa

Am Mo., 27. Sept. 2021 um 21:54 Uhr schrieb Giancarlo Razzolini via
arch-dev-public <arch-dev-public at lists.archlinux.org>:

> 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
>


-- 
Tobias Powalowski
Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa)
http://www.archlinux.org
tpowa at archlinux.org