Christopher Head posted on Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:39:57 -0800 as excerpted: > On Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:49:03 -0800 Alec Warner <anta...@gentoo.org> > wrote: > >> Most external firmware is not needed to boot. If you need it to boot, >> you will have to stow it in the initramfs. > > For those of us who prefer monolithic kernels, virtually all firmware is > needed to boot. Even if a network interface doesn't need to be > operational for boot, the kernel insists that the firmware be available > right at boot or else it will fail and the interface will never appear.
I'm a monolithic kernel guy myself, and I simply build-in the firmware I need (three radeon firmware files, IIRC, used to be tg3 as well until that mobo died). Obviously there can be issues with distribution, but purpose-built monolithic kernels aren't generally practical for distribution anyway, and the GPL has always been clear that it doesn't interfere with end-user rights in terms of build-combining whatever they want, as long as there's no further distribution. And FWIW, I didn't really know about linux-firmware either, but google knew when I asked it about the files the kernel errors spit out. =:^) And I didn't actually install it, either. I simply grabbed the tarball and extracted the files I needed, placing them where the kernel could find them. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
