Re: No iwm interface in current.

On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:59:53 -0700
Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 27, 2024, 1:53 AM Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:43:22 +0100
> > Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >  Hi,
> > >
> > > On Thu, 26 Dec 2024 23:55:24 +0100
> > > Fernando Apesteguía <fernando.apesteguia@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > I updated to today's current from a version from Nov 18th.
> > > >
> > > > I had these lines in loader.conf:
> > > >
> > > > iwm7265Dfw_load="YES"
> > > > if_iwm_load="YES"
> > > >
> > > > And with those the kernel panics. Then I saw the entry 20241216 in
> > > > UPDATING. Can't reproduce it here since I'm writing in my phone, but it
> > > > says the iwm firmwares are now shipped as raw files.
> > > > So, how can I get the firmware loaded to make my nic work?
> > > >
> > > > Cheers
> > >
> > >  Without panic trace it's hard to really know what's going on but I
> > > think that the problem is that the firmware wasn't loaded by loader and
> > > iwm panics since root fs isn't there yet.
> > >  Just removing those lines will make iwm works again or you can use :
> > > iwm7265Dfw_load="YES"
> > > iwm7265Dfw_name="/boot/firmware/iwm7265Dfw"
> > > iwm7265Dfw_type="firmware"
> > >
> > >  Cheers,
> > >
> > > --
> > > Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> <manu@freebsd.org>
> > >
> >
> >  https://reviews.freebsd.org/D48211 will help too.
> >
> >  P.S.: Note that I don't understand why anyone wants to load wifi
> > driver in loader, was it suggested somewhere at some point ?
> >

What I can only imagine is that the computer is network-booted and
doesn't have wired network, thus, need WiFi driver and its firmware
to mount actual remote root fs (rootfs provided by, i.e, pxe is quite
minimalistic and need remounting / with actual one).
But I don't wamt to configure in such a way.


> Many people want to run minimal + their drivers and load them all from the
> loader. With the firmware shift, we may need to defer drivers that need
> firmware until after mountroot generally.

I'm recommending (mostly on forums.freebsd.org) keeping
/boot/loader.conf as lean as possible (let modules only essential
to boot kernel and/or mountroot in it) and let other modules to be
loaded via /etc/rc.conf[.local].

This is because tooooooooooo many panics [on computers and/or users]
trying to load everything including huge monstors like GPU drivers,
graphics/drm-*-kmod, x11/nvidia-driver* and graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod
which can easily make staging area overflow especially with zfs.ko.

And another idea for loader only firmwares (in cases loading via
/etc/rc.conf[.local] is too late), introducng new variable for loader
such as module_fs could help.
It shall be any file system that loader can read and specified not
only with partition/pool but also with directory relative to the fs
root that contains firmware/ directory.

For example, if
  Root on ZFS in local diks with pool name zroot,
  module filesystem dataset is MODULE/default,
  in MODULE/default, firmwares are in boot/firmware,
module_fs is set to "zfs:zroot/MODULE/default/boot/", where "firmware/"
directory exists.

Treating ESP specially would ease UEFI boot, if possible.
If ESP can be specified with "ESP:" and firmware/ directory is in
EFI/freebsd/firmware/, mocule_fs could be "ESP:EFI/freebsd/".

Not sure if there really be such a need or not.
And could be difficult for BIOS boots (does size of loader allow?).
But historically, I haven't heared of such an actual needs in pre-UEFI
era. So I assume BIOS boots doesn't need such an extentions.


> 
> Warnet
> 
> -- 
> > Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> <manu@freebsd.org>


-- 
Tomoaki AOKI    <junchoon@dec.sakura.ne.jp>