Building dell_rbu module

[Josh Boyer]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2015 at 2:48 PM, Major Hayden <major at mhtx.net> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I've rebuilt quite a few Fedora kernels to enable the dell_rbu module for firmware updates on various Dell servers, workstations, and laptops that are running Fedora 21 and 22.  Would it be possible to have it enabled in the normal kernel builds?
>
> I found a bugzilla ticket[1] referenced in the kernel config[2] that points to some installation issues in Fedora 20.  I can't tell if the bug was within dell_rbu or perhaps in systemd-udevd from the ticket.  However, I've had success loading the module on various Dell equipment over the last 18 months or so.
>
> If we enable it, could we ensure that it's not enabled by default?  I wondered if a kernel subpackage would be helpful but that seems a bit like overkill.

I will have to dig into the history to remember the exact details, but
the reason this driver is disabled is because it is one of the two or
three drivers left in the kernel that cannot use the direct firmware
loading mechanism.  It requires the older userspace helper callout,
and udev stopped supporting that quite some time ago.  When it is
enabled and is loaded in the kernel, I believe we get the nasty 60
second hang/timeout issue still.

I'll try and review it in more detail again.

josh