Re: [PATCH v2] qe: add ability to upload QE firmware

Arnd Bergmann wrote:

Of course, that approach does not help you if the blob is not GPL compatible
and you are relying on the dts file to be linked into the kernel, 

Well, the blobs will never be GPL compatible, which is why I created the 
firmware binary format.  Previously, the firmware was shipped as header files 
with code like this:

#define MPC8323_R1_0_UC_PATCH   \
{   \
	  0xb3ff0006   \
	, 0xffffffff   \
	, 0xb3ff0009   \
	, 0xffffffff   \
	, 0xb3ff000c   \
	, 0xffffffff   \

and so on.

To address the issue of loading the firmware before the kernel boots, I have 
ported qe_upload_firmware() to U-Boot, and provided a command-line command for 
uploading a firmware at an address in flash.  The blob can be placed in flash, 
and then a boot script will load it.  The U-Boot version of qe_upload_firmware() 
will also create the 'firmware' node in the device tree.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux kernel developer at Freescale