Sender: =?UTF-8?Q?Timo_Ter=C3=A4s?= <timo.teras@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2016 16:25:18 +0300
From: Timo Teras <timo.teras@iki.fi>
To: Isaac Dunham <ibid.ag@gmail.com>
Cc: alpine-aports@lists.alpinelinux.org
Subject: Re: [alpine-aports] [RFC] Splitting linux-firmware
Message-ID: <20160403162518.213e9151@vostro>
In-Reply-To: <20160403052116.GA22996@newbook>
References: <20160403052116.GA22996@newbook>
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On Sat, 2 Apr 2016 22:21:18 -0700
Isaac Dunham <ibid.ag@gmail.com> wrote:

> I recently checked the size of installed packages on my system, and
> found that linux-firmware was the largest (~120 megabytes).
> I need the Realtek firmware, and perhaps could use the i915 firmware.
> So I figured it would be a significant cutdown in installed size,
> as well as a major reduction in downloads, if it were possible to just
> select firmware from a couple of manufacturers.
> 
> While I was in the process of doing this, I noticed a few smaller
> issues: -the non-firmware files that the APKBUILD tries to delete are
> actually located in /lib/firmware, not /usr/lib/firmware
> -the source for carl9170 firmware is included in the final package
> 
> Here's a tentative patch that fixes those issues and tries to split
> things up.
> 
> Does this look like a good idea?
> Should any further splitting be done? 
> For example:
> -splitting iwlwifi firmware off because it's the bulk of the intel
> firmware, but not the bulk of the users;
> -splitting qlogic, 3com, and chelsio firmware from -misc

Before doing this, a first step would be to delete the unneeded
firmwares.

We already do this for modloop. But to do it for the package, would
need a list of files needed to be maintained. I believe about half of
the package can be just deleted based on our module configuration and
specific kernel versions.

See http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/alpine-iso/tree/Makefile#n92 for
how to get info on what firmware is required by the kernel modules.

If the package is still too large after this, doing splitting might be
an idea.

Thanks,
Timo


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