Bug 261228

Summary:	rtwnfw(4) number agreement in last sentence of first DESCRIPTION paragraph
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Pau Amma <pauamma>
Component:	Manual Pages	Assignee:	freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status:	Open ---
Severity:	Affects Some People	CC:	bz, doc, grahamperrin
Priority:	---
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any
See Also:	https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=261227

Description Pau Amma 2022-01-15 13:48:46 UTC

"They may be statically linked into the kernel, or loaded as a modules."

Context suggests this should read "as modules", not "as a module".

Spotted while looking at https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=261227.

Comment 1 Bjoern A. Zeeb freebsd_committer

2022-01-15 13:53:48 UTC

For a couple of wifi drivers rtwn, iwn, iwm, ...

If you compile the driver into the kernel it's rtwn  if you compile the firmware into the kernel too it is device rtwnfw   (see sys/conf/files) and it will compile all firmware images in based on that single line.

If you compile them as modules you get one kernel object (module) per firmware image instead of one for all.

You would probably load only one module of all the firmware once in addition to the driver one.

Hope that clarifies the technicallity;  I'll leave the language to you.

Comment 2 Pau Amma 2022-01-15 23:37:55 UTC

(In reply to Bjoern A. Zeeb from comment #1)
Would "They may be statically linked into the kernel as a single unit with both the driver code and all firmware variants, or used as modules (one per firmware variant plus the driver proper) in which case only one firmware module would normally need to be loaded." work for you? I think this is what you meant, but it may be too much detail.

Comment 3 Bjoern A. Zeeb freebsd_committer

2022-01-16 17:01:16 UTC

(In reply to PauAmma from comment #2)

Do we need that sentence at all given the SYNOPSIS?

Also In the synopsis or description I'd suggest when it comes to loading modules that it gets at least hinted that normally one only needs one of these firmware modules and not all (or only the ones for the chipset one has).


Lastly given I scrolled through the man page, the license ACK got disabled in 2016 by avos in 7453645f2a .

Comment 4 Graham Perrin freebsd_committer

2022-01-16 17:54:36 UTC

(In reply to Bjoern A. Zeeb from comment #3)

> … normally one only needs one of these firmware modules and 
> not all (or only the ones for the chipset one has). …

+1 to hints such as this. 

(For a different driver, I confess to mistakenly (?) loading _all_ modules, for years. Synopses misunderstood. Oops.)

Comment 5 Pau Amma 2022-01-17 15:56:33 UTC

(In reply to Bjoern A. Zeeb from comment #3)

I'll leave it to you whether my suggested elaboration is needed, but either way, the number agreement should get fixed.