Re: [PATCH v2] brcmfmac: Add support for BCM43596 PCIe Wi-Fi

[Arend Van Spriel <arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com>]

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On December 7, 2022 12:38:10 AM Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@linaro.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 6, 2022 at 10:59 AM Konrad Dybcio <konrad.dybcio@linaro.org> wrote:
>
>> Yes, it does seem to work just fine! The kernel now looks for
>> brcm/brcmfmac4359c-pcie.sony,kagura-row.bin as we would expect.
>
> So the Sony kagura needs a special brcmfmac firmware like so many
> other mobile phones. There are a few Samsungs with custom firmware
> as well.

Hi Linus,

It is not so much the device requiring custom firmware, but the customer 
gets firmware with a set of feature that fulfills their functional 
requirements. The brcmfmac driver has feature detection so this doesn't 
necessarily pose any issues. When adding new device support we enable all 
revisions, current and future, until proven otherwise. When it doesn't we 
have to update the firmware mapping like what needs to done for sony kagura.

> Arend: what is the legal situation with these custom firmwares?
>
> I was under the impression that Broadcom actually made these,
> so they could in theory be given permission for redistribution in
> linux-firmware?

In theory we could. However, we can not ack/review firmware patches posted 
by the community. So we release firmware with a feature set that matches 
brcmfmac and verify it works with brcmfmac.

> Some that I have are newer versions than what is in Linux-firmware,
> e.g this from linux-firmware:
>
> brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.bin
> 4330b2-roml/sdio-ag-pool-ccx-btamp-p2p-idsup-idauth-proptxstatus-pno-aoe-toe-pktfilter-keepalive
> Version: 5.90.125.104 CRC: 2570e6a3 Date: Tue 2011-10-25 19:34:26 PDT
>
> There is this found in Samsung Codina GT-I8160:
> 4330b2-roml/sdio-g-p2p-aoe-pktfilter-keepalive-pno-ccx-wepso Version:
> 5.99.10.0 CRC: 4f7fccf Date: Wed 2012-12-05 01:02:50 PST FWID
> 01-52653ba9

Right. The firmware in linux-firmware seems to be dual and, ie. -ag- versus 
-g-.

> Or:
> brcmfmac4334-sdio.bin
> 4334b1min-roml/sdio-ag-pno-p2p-ccx-extsup-proptxstatus-dmatxrc-rxov-pktfilter-keepalive-aoe-vsdb-wapi-wl11d
> Version: 6.10.0.0 CRC: 31410dd4 Date: Tue 2012-06-26 11:33:07 PDT FWID
> 01-8ee3be86
>
> There is this found in Samsung Golden GT-I8190N:
> 4334b1-roml/sdio-ag-p2p-extsup-aoe-pktfilter-keepalive-pno-dmatxrc-rxov-proptxstatus-vsdb-mchan-okc-rcc-fmc-wepso-txpwr-autoabn-sr
> Version: 6.10.58.99 CRC: 828f9174 Date: Mon 2013-08-26 02:13:44 PDT
> FWID 01-e39d4d77
>
> So in some cases more than a year newer firmware versions
> compared to linux-firmware, I guess also customized for the
> phones, but I can't really tell because we don't have anything
> of similar date in linux-firmware.

I am actually preparing series of firmware patches. As most chips are EOL 
those are newer, but not recent.

Regards,
Arend



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