Subject: firmload(9) kernel memory use (was Re: Signedness/Size consistency ?)
To: None <tech-kern@NetBSD.org>
From: David Young <dyoung@pobox.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 07/16/2007 10:13:22
On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 01:35:09AM +0000, Arnaud Lacombe wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 12:21:52AM +0200, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> > For file size, off_t is also the natural argument. How do you want to
> > handle/detect that a 4GB file is copied to the firmware directory otherwise?
> Do you know a lot of firmware that are 4GB big ? Common firmware are about
> 100kB, it's more than 10^7 times smaller than the 4GB limit. And even if such
> firmware exist one day, you would need to have 4GB of kernel memory to load it
> directly from the filesystem in 1 vn_rdwr() call.

It is not really necessary for firmload(9) to use enough kernel memory
to fit the entire firmware, is it?  I have not seen a firmware that you
could not load 1kB or fewer bytes at a time.

Dave
 
-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung@ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933 ext 24