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Bug 816618

Summary: sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin: CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER should not be set
Product: Gentoo Linux Reporter: Anton Bolshakov <anton.bugs>
Component: Current packagesAssignee: Distribution Kernel Project <dist-kernel>
Status: UNCONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal CC: bugzilla, cedk, me
Priority: Normal    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---

Description Anton Bolshakov 2021-10-06 09:26:32 UTC
Hello,

sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin

My system has been forced to migrate to udev today, and it displayed the following message:
 * Messages for package sys-fs/udev-249-r3:

 *   CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER:       should not be set. But it is.
 * Please check to make sure these options are set correctly.
 * Failure to do so may cause unexpected problems.

emerge --info
Portage 3.0.20 (python 3.9.6-final-0, default/linux/amd64/17.1, gcc-10.3.0, glibc-2.33-r7, 5.10.61-gentoo-dist x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-5.10.61-gentoo-dist-x86_64-QEMU_Virtual_CPU_version_2.5+-with-glibc2.33
KiB Mem:     4004592 total,   1178484 free
KiB Swap:    1048572 total,    889224 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Wed, 06 Oct 2021 05:45:01 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: 4e34c497a443df6ee819907e4a32bf0e360ef606
Head commit of repository pentoo: c1d90b7ee44d463837d0ffe8440467587a174f16

sh bash 5.1_p8
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.37_p1 p0) 2.37
app-shells/bash:          5.1_p8::gentoo
dev-java/java-config:     2.3.1::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:            5.34.0-r2::gentoo
dev-lang/python:          3.9.6_p2::gentoo
dev-util/cmake:           3.20.5::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:      2.7::gentoo
sys-apps/openrc:          0.43.5::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:         2.24::gentoo
sys-devel/autoconf:       2.69-r5::gentoo, 2.71-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/automake:       1.13.4-r2::gentoo, 1.16.4::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:       2.37_p1::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:            10.3.0-r2::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:     2.4::gentoo
sys-devel/libtool:        2.4.6-r6::gentoo
sys-devel/make:           4.3::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 5.10::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:           2.33-r7::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /usr/portage
    sync-type: rsync
    sync-uri: rsync://rsync2.au.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage/
    priority: -1000
    sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes
    sync-rsync-extra-opts: 
    sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1
    sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 24

local-overlay
    location: /usr/local/portage
    masters: gentoo
    priority: 0

pentoo
    location: /var/lib/layman/pentoo
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/pentoo/pentoo-overlay
    masters: gentoo
    priority: 50

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="@FREE"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/easy-rsa /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"
FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/gentoo/"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
USE="acl amd64 bzip2 cli crypt dri fortran gdbm headless headless-awt iconv ipv6 libglvnd libtirpc multilib mysql ncurses nls nptl openmp pam pcre readline seccomp split-usr ssl tcpd unicode xattr zlib" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gnat_2019" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx sse sse2" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" GRUB_PLATFORMS="pc" INPUT_DEVICES="libinput" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php7-3 php7-4" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres12 postgres13" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_9" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_9" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby26" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu fbdev intel nouveau radeon radeonsi vesa dummy v4l" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq proto steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  CC, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, RUSTFLAGS
Comment 1 Mike Gilbert gentoo-dev 2021-11-28 20:47:20 UTC
*** Bug 827715 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Reva Denis 2021-11-29 07:32:59 UTC
I also reproduced it with sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel (source-based ones).
Comment 3 Will Simoneau 2022-02-14 22:33:38 UTC
This probably affects *all* kernel variants if certain kernel config options are set, CONFIG_DELL_RBU in particular.

For example, in kernel v5.16.9 (vanilla kernel.org + irrelevant local patchset):

Symbol: FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER [=y]
Type : bool
Defined at drivers/base/firmware_loader/Kconfig:71
Prompt: Enable the firmware sysfs fallback mechanism
Depends on: FW_LOADER [=y]
Location:
Main menu
-> Device Drivers
-> Generic Driver Options
-> Firmware loader
-> Firmware loading facility (FW_LOADER [=y])
Selects: FW_LOADER_PAGED_BUF [=y]
Selected by [m]:
- DELL_RBU [=m] && X86_PLATFORM_DEVICES [=y] && X86_PLATFORM_DRIVERS_DELL [=y] && X86 [=y]
Selected by [n]:
- LEDS_LP55XX_COMMON [=n] && NEW_LEDS [=y] && LEDS_CLASS [=m] && (LEDS_CLASS_MULTICOLOR [=n] || !LEDS_CLASS_MULTICOLOR [=n]) && OF [=n] && I2C [=m]

Note the "selected by" field: I can't disable CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER unless I also disable DELL_RBU.  However, I definitely want to keep DELL_RBU enabled -- I administer ~70 Dell systems for a university and would strongly prefer to retain the capability to install BIOS updates on live systems...
(The alternative is visiting those ~70 systems in person to manually boot each one from removable media and install the BIOS update, which also implies ~10min+ downtime per system that a remote BIOS update could have completely avoided. Ugh.)

That being the case, I'm not convinced that it makes much sense to have sys-fs/udev warn about CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER=y.  Maybe change the loglevel to "info" & rephrase "should not be set. But it is" to something like "is not supported by ${PF}"?  (A more appropriate log level would lie somewhere between "warning" and "info" IMO :/)

Presumably sys-fs/udev might not actually support the file-loading mechanism that CONFIG_DELL_RBU & CONFIG_LEDS_LP55XX_COMMON use, but who says I'm relying on udev for that functionality?  The current warning effectively hardcodes the assumption that I am.

The counter-argument is "it's just a warning, if you know what you're doing you can ignore it" -- which isn't entirely wrong.  It's just a bit jarring to receive a warning while merging sys-fs/udev about an implied "incorrect" kernel config setting which isn't necessarily incorrect in practice.
(Jarring enough that I actually took the time to look for, find, and reply to this bug even though I already know I can ignore it on my systems)