Kernel compilation && firmware.
 

Hi, all!

I have a rather simple question(I hope so).

I've got vanilla kernel 2.6.30.5. It was configured properly.
there is an option for "make firmware_install", called INSTALL_FW_PATH, which selects the path where firmware would be placed. I'm using CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=n, so my kernel will search firmware, if needed, on hdd. So a question. How to modify the sequence
to link my kernel to search firmware in lib/firmware/2.6.30.5-my?

The kernel does not load firmware files from a specific directory; it asks udev to give it a firmware blob, and some udev script is responsible to search and load it and to pass it to the kernel. Firmware blobs are identified by a name which is usually a file name relative to the firmware directory.
Have a look into /lib/udev/firmware.sh to see what directories your distribution uses and how to customize them.

Thanks for answer.

Well, I'll check the firmware.sh script.
But how then the kernel handles with devices while booting, when udev is not started yet?

Maybe you, cladisch, or somebody else would advise me some literature about driver subsystem of kernel?
Now reading Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers, but there is only list of functions.
Is Linux Device Drivers from O'Reilly a good choice?

Thanks, cladish for help. That script is really helpful. Also checked this article http://lwn.net/Articles/32997/ for more details. So, seems all is clear now.
I will test it in a few days.