Re: vanilla kernel + firmware

[Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com>]

On 9/12/2013 12:41 PM, laurent debian wrote:
...
> 2) My question was only if the procedure describe in first message is a
> proper way to compile a vanilla kernel using the firmware form
> kernel.org ( ?
...
>>>>>> cd linux
>>>>>> git pull
>>>>>> make clean
>>>>>> cp /boot/configXXX .config   (+ make menuconfig and exit ...)
>>>>>> make deb-pkg
>>>>>> cd ..
>>>>>> dpkg -i linux-libc-dev_3.11.0-rc6_amd64.deb
>>>>>>           linux-firmware-image_3.11.0-rc6_amd64.deb
>>>>>>           linux-headers-3.11.0-rc6+_3.11.0-rc6_amd64.deb
>>>>>>           linux-image-3.11.0-rc6+_3.11.0-rc6_amd64.deb

This procedure should be fine, but it would probably be better, cleaner,
if you include firmware in the kernel instead of as modules.

CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_MEMMAP=y

There are many procedures that may work fine, including the Debian:
http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html

But the larger issue here I think, which is why I provided the earlier
link, is why are you installing RC kernels?

"Prepatch or "RC" kernels are mainline kernel pre-releases that are
mostly aimed at other kernel developers and Linux enthusiasts. They must
be compiled from source and usually contain new features that must be
tested before they can be put into a stable release. Prepatch kernels
are maintained and released by Linus Torvalds."

You're clearly not a kernel developer.  So that would put you in the
enthusiast category.  Are you running RC for the hellofit, or do you
need specific hardware functionality not found it vanilla stable or the
Debian distro kernels?

Running into problems like this is more the norm with -RC kernels, not
the exception.  This tree exists so folks can find such problems and fix
them before the stable release.  -RC kernels are not for daily use.

-- 
Stan