linux-firmware is going on a diet

[Tim Gardner]

http://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/979887

So, the folks that mint the LiveCD are complaining about the amount of 
space consumed by linux-firmware. I had a quick look and was able to 
save 5MB by just dropping some obsolete firmware files in iwlwifi, bnx2, 
and bnx2x. I'm currently looking at all of the files in linux-firmware 
to see if I can match them to actual request_firmware() calls in a 
kernel driver. To aid that process I added some code to the Precise 
getabi script to produce a list of all modinfo firmware references, 
though not all of the kernel drivers are rigorous about describing them 
in a MODULE_FIRMWARE statement. Also, there are likely some drivers 
built into the kernel that require firmware that my getabi check has 
missed. Is there a way to get firmware modinfo on vmlinuz ?

Is there any reason to keep a firmware file that is not in use by _any_ 
of the kernel drivers ?

rtg
-- 
Tim Gardner tim.gardner at canonical.com