[LUCID][linux-firmware] Please pull rt2870.bin reversion

[Ben Hutchings]

On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 09:53:05AM -0400, Chase Douglas wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-05-31 at 02:34 +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 13:48 -0400, Chase Douglas wrote:
> > > Tim,
> > > 
> > > The 1.34.1 update pushed to -proposed modified rt2870.bin as part of an
> > > upstream commit that added in rt3070.bin and rt3071.bin. No bug reports
> > > have been filed to have the rt2870.bin firmware file updated, so, in the
> > > interest of reducing regression potential, the file has been reverted to
> > > the previous version. Please review and upload to -proposed again.
> > [...]
> > 
> > This is just wrong.  No upstream version of Linux before 2.6.34 uses
> > rt2870.bin.  The commit you're reverting updated it to match the version
> > previously embedded in the rt2870sta driver, which I removed from the
> > driver in 2.6.34.
> 
> Ok, it does seem that the rt2870 driver we ship as part of 10.04 doesn't
> use the rt2870.bin firmware file. However, it's possible that people are
> using the firmware with a self-compiled driver or maybe through our
> linux-backports-modules package, which has wireless drivers from 2.6.34.
> If there's a chance people are using it without issue, then we should
> consider not updating it until an issue arises. If 10.04 weren't already
> released this would be a different issue, and in Maverick we have pulled
> in the updated rt2870.bin firmware file.

The previous version of rt2870.bin, added to linux-firmware by me in commit
4618e53cccab720a8e74f9a3c9db362736fc8d01, is only useful with some versions
of the Debian kernel package which have an earlier version of the firmware
loading patch for rt2870sta.

All mainline kernel versions where rt2870sta loads external firmware have
a minimum version check for version 17, which is what was previously
embedded in it and which I copied into linux-firmware in commit
a1deff1f10974707739264269a4a16c73b4b2df9.

Given that you are including the updated rt2870sta in Lucid, you must
update the firmware there as well.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
                                                              - Albert Camus