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authorDaniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org>2008-02-12 13:49:42 +0000
committerJohn W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>2008-02-29 15:37:15 -0500
commit19ae3a6a96859c0e64d9dd5d35515a6f23a9cad8 (patch)
treecc237911d23d4cc4af0e05a705f80b4c50f53f4f /drivers/net/wireless
parent5200e8cdf26e32d15f7a125fd75310150f9b2812 (diff)
ipw2100/ipw2200: note firmware loading caveat in Kconfig help text
Most wireless drivers load their firmware at interface open time, which generally occurs after the filesystem is available. However, the ipw drivers load their firmware at probe time because firmware is required to read the device MAC address. When built-in, probe happens before the filesystem is available, hence device init will only complete successfully if the user has made special arrangements (including firmware plus a loader in the initramfs). Note all this in the kconfig help text for both drivers. Signed-off-by: Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org> Signed-off-by: Reinette Chatre <reinette.chatre@intel.com> Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'drivers/net/wireless')
-rw-r--r--drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig26
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig b/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
index cfedbda81e3..3c3ef966c95 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
@@ -146,12 +146,15 @@ config IPW2100
configure your card:
<http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html>.
+
+ It is recommended that you compile this driver as a module (M)
+ rather than built-in (Y). This driver requires firmware at device
+ initialization time, and when built-in this typically happens
+ before the filesystem is accessible (hence firmware will be
+ unavailable and initialization will fail). If you do choose to build
+ this driver into your kernel image, you can avoid this problem by
+ including the firmware and a firmware loader in an initramfs.
- If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be
- inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want),
- say M here and read <file:Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt>.
- The module will be called ipw2100.ko.
-
config IPW2100_MONITOR
bool "Enable promiscuous mode"
depends on IPW2100
@@ -201,11 +204,14 @@ config IPW2200
configure your card:
<http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html>.
-
- If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be
- inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want),
- say M here and read <file:Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt>.
- The module will be called ipw2200.ko.
+
+ It is recommended that you compile this driver as a module (M)
+ rather than built-in (Y). This driver requires firmware at device
+ initialization time, and when built-in this typically happens
+ before the filesystem is accessible (hence firmware will be
+ unavailable and initialization will fail). If you do choose to build
+ this driver into your kernel image, you can avoid this problem by
+ including the firmware and a firmware loader in an initramfs.
config IPW2200_MONITOR
bool "Enable promiscuous mode"