On Tue, 2020-09-29 at 16:29 -0400, Ben Cotton wrote:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/CompressKernelFirmware
== Summary ==
Compress Kernel Firmwares to reduce on disk size
== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:pbrobinson| Peter Robinson]]
* Email: [mailto:pbrobinson@fedoraproject.org| pbrobinson(a)fedoraproject.org]
== Detailed Description ==
Since the linux 5.3 kernel there has been support for loading firmware
from xz compressed firmware. The upstream linux-firmware respository
is now over 900Mb, not including other kernel firmware that are in
Fedora but come from other sources. By compessing the firmware with
"xz -C crc32", the only option currently supported in the kernel, we
can reduce the ondisk size of the firmware by almost half.
I wonder if this can
also help make the boot isos and installation images smaller ? I'm sure they haver
some firmware on
them. Or alternatively we could reduce the potentially quite meintenance intensive
firmware culling we do at the moment.
== Benefit to Fedora ==
Reduced on disk size of the firmware used by the kernel.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
** Add support upstream to the linux-firmware copy-firmware script to
compess the firmware and create the symlinks to the compressed
firmware
** Enable the upstream support in the Fedora linux-firmware package to
compress the firmware at build time
** Enable compressing firmware in packages that contain firmware used
by the kernel: eg alsa-sof-firmware, atmel-firmware, zd1211-firmware
** Enable the CONFIG_FW_LOADER_COMPRESS kernel option (long complete)
* Other developers:
** No impact
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
There should be no upgrade impact, the support was added to the
generic firmware loader interface in the kernel.
== How To Test ==
Check devices that need firmware still work. Some devices that need
firmware include:
* GPU drivers such as nvidia, AMD and i915
* Wireless drivers such as those from Intel, Broadcom/Cyprus, TI,
Qualcomm and Marvel
* Wired network interfaces
* Storage drivers
* USB controllers and drivers
== User Experience ==
Generally users should notice little to no difference.
== Dependencies ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: Don't compress kernel firmware
* Contingency deadline: GA
* Blocks release? No.
* Blocks product? No.
== Documentation ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Release Notes ==
N/A
--
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Senior Program Manager, Fedora & CentOS Stream
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis
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