Re: [PATCH 2/2] Using LP firmware for taking advantage of the low-power capabilities.
From: Jarl Friis <hidden>
Date: 2012-09-19 18:54:01
Also in:
netdev
Thanks for feed back. 2012/9/19 Larry Finger [off-list ref]:
I have some questions about this patch. Where did you get the information needed to make these changes?
To be completely honest: I didn't get any information, it is based purely on practical experiments: I experienced some inconsistency wrt. performance on my hp6735b. I had some time to look at the driver (it's 15 years since I patched the kernel last time). Anyway I saw the filename pattern for firmware and saw that `b43-fwcutter broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o -w` contained similar files ending on "16". So I simple tried it out (for version 16), and so far it seems to work better. It also seems to wake up faster after a sleep.
Did it come from reverse engineering some Broadcom code
No!
or did you look at their actual code?
No!
There is a great deal of difference relative to our "clean-room" status. Anyone that has seen non-GPL Broadcom material cannot contribute code to b43.
I have not seen any Broadcom code at all (apart from the stuff that is already in the linux source tree)
Have you tested this code on devices with rev>=16?
Yes on my HP6735b having this chip integrated: [ 1577.549270] b43-phy1: Broadcom 4322 WLAN found (core revision 16) [ 1577.592117] b43-phy1 debug: Found PHY: Analog 8, Type 4, Revision 4 [ 1577.592158] b43-phy1 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2056, Revision 3 I guess the part of the patch for PHY_LP has not been reached. I will submit a new series of patches that separates things
Now for some comments: This patch also needs the "b43:" added to the subject.
Sorry. It's long ago I have submitted patches to the kernel.
In addition, you appear to have at least one white-space error in the MODULE_FIRMWARE line.
I am not sure what you mean here. Is this a mail issue... (I wrote it just like the other ones around it)
Is the addition of your copyright to the driver warranted by this change?
As far as I understand the copyright law: Yes, but I'm not an expert. Neither am I 100% sure what you mean.
For example, I have made much larger contributions to b43 over the years before I started doing reverse-engineering on this driver, but I never added my copyright.
I suggest you do.
Your "Signed-off-by" implies copyright for the patch.
The fact that I authored the patch implies copyright (even without Signed-off-by) Jarl