Kernel firmware questions

[Alex]

Hi all,

I'm trying to learn more about the kernel building process and how it
relates to the loading of firmware files for network controllers. I
have a tigon tg3 card, and occasionally see "failure to load firmware"
messages. The card eventually works, but there is a very long delay
while (I think) it tries to load the firmware.

Where can I find more information about this process? What is the udev
package for? Does it relate to this in some way?

What are the relevant kernel options that must be configured to
support this? I see CONFIG_FW_LOADER, CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL,
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE, and CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD. Should the
kernel be able to load the proper firmware on its own, or are
userspace programs other than insmod/modprobe needed?

I'm using kernel 2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64. The spec file shows there
is a "bootwrapper" package, but it's not installed, and yum can't find
it. Where can I find more information about this package?

How can I generate the /etc/modules.d/ and
/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/modules* files, based on the modules
that are currently loaded on the system?

Ideas greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Alex