Bug 234530 – emerge sys-apps/hotplug says my firmware should go to /lib/firmware but there's only /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE

[Description Oz 2008-08-12 08:00:31 UTC]

I recognized the problem with sys-apps/hotplug-20040923-r2 .

Here is the complete message:
 * WARNING: The hotplug init script is now gone (dead and buried).
 * WARNING: If you want to load modules for hardware that was already
 * WARNING: discovered at boot time, like the old hotplug init script
 * WARNING: did, then emerge the coldplug package, and add coldplug to
 * WARNING: a runlevel, e.g. # rc-update add coldplug boot

 * WARNING: All firmware loaded by the hotplug scripts needs to be
 * WARNING: moved to the /lib/firmware directory, as the scripts now
 * WARNING: expect it to be in that location.

 * If you still have the file /etc/hotplug/isapnp.rc on your system,
 * please delete it by hand, the file /etc/hotplug/pnp.rc supercedes it.


Now I don't know, whether to mkdir /lib/firmware and put my firmware there or to put them to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ , which exists and is pointed out by the vanilla-sources kernel config help text of CONFIG_DVB_AV7110 (DVB_AV7110 /usr/src/linux/drivers/media/dvb/ttpci/Kconfig), the script /usr/src/linux/Documentation/dvb/get_dvb_firmware and the examples in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/firmware_class/README .

What's wrong? What's right? I dunno! I'm puzzled.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge -av hotplug
2. ls -d /lib/firmware
3. ls -d /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
Actual Results:  
emerge -av hotplug:
[...]
 * WARNING: All firmware loaded by the hotplug scripts needs to be
 * WARNING: moved to the /lib/firmware directory, as the scripts now
 * WARNING: expect it to be in that location.
[...]
ls -d /lib/firmware:
ls: cannot access /lib/firmware: No such file or directory
ls -d /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/:
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

Expected Results:  
emerge -av hotplug:
[...]
 * WARNING: All firmware loaded by the hotplug scripts needs to be
 * WARNING: moved to the /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ directory, as the scripts now
 * WARNING: expect it to be in that location.
[...]

OR

ls -d /lib/firmware:
/lib/firmware

[Comment 1 Matthias Schwarzott 2008-08-12 10:31:21 UTC]

The output is fine. Do unmerge the hotplug package!

The firmware directory is /lib/firmware. This is the best place for firmware. No idea if udev does fallback to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware, but I doubt it.

Maybe we can change udev to mkdir /lib/firmware if too many people fail to use it.

Conclusion:
Do not use hotplug package! Do use udev for normal systems.
You did not attach emerge --info output.

[Comment 2 Oz 2008-08-12 21:51:30 UTC]

(In reply to comment #1)
> The output is fine. Do unmerge the hotplug package!
> [...]
> Conclusion:
> Do not use hotplug package! Do use udev for normal systems.

why? The Kernel wants /sbin/hotplug for loading firmware (vanilla-sources->Device Drivers->Generic Driver Options->UEVENT_HELPER_PATH=/sbin/hotplug). sys-apps/hotplug provides that and the "firmware.agent".
My udev has no firmware rules ATM, but I can't update it, yet.

[Comment 3 Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) 2008-08-12 22:03:24 UTC]

That actually does nothing in the kernel. It's simply if you don't have udev or mdev installed. It's pretty poorly documented however.

[Comment 4 Oz 2008-08-12 23:22:22 UTC]

Thank you all.
I will try to alter my udev or create my own script for loading the firmware.

BTW: Our mail adresses are visible for spam robots. I wrote mail about that to [e-mail] from a different adress, but I got no reply. Whenever I file a bug, the ammount of daily spam increases.
Even Google finds them: http://www.google.com/search?q=udev-bugs%40gentoo.org

[Comment 5 Matthias Schwarzott 2009-02-25 13:43:32 UTC]

Marking this bug as waiting for test results.