[Nix-dev] Re: Re: udev 151

[Tony White]

On 15 April 2010 18:59, Yury G. Kudryashov <urkud+nix at ya.ru> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> First of all, I talked upstream, and they don't want to search in
> getenv(something). OTOH, they will accept a patch that will add configure-
> time option "--with-firmware-path".
>
> My proposal:
> 1. write this patch (will do).
> 2. set --with-firmware-path=/var/lib/udev/firmware
> 3. nix system expression creates /nix/store/hash-firmware with all needed
> firmware files.
> 4. udev job creates symlinks /nix/store/hash-firmware into
> /var/lib/udev/firmware.
>
>
> Tony White wrote:
>> 2010/4/14 Lluís Batlle i Rossell <viriketo at gmail.com>:
>> Yeah, I agree with Lluís. /root/test-firmware is meant to be an impure
>> path used for testing firmware without any need for a rebuild. That
>> was my concern. Preserving the functionality.
> Do you want to write a patch and maintain it forever?
>> Please preserve the location and functionality if you can. There are
>> plenty of kernel modules out there which do require firmware but there
>> exists no nix expression in nixpkgs for. Many wireless adapters for
>> example.
> If you need some impure path, we can add ONE standard impure path
> (/root/test-firmware or /lib/firmware) to --with-firmware-path argument.
> Note that adding another argument will require full rebuild of all packages
> that depend on udev (for example, xorgserver).
>> It also makes no sense for certain firmware blobs to have an
>> expression in nixpkgs because of proprietary licensing terms. So it
>> needs to be as easy as possible for someone new to nix to just get on
>> line and build their own firmware derivations. Then they can use the
>> purity provided by the nix store and remove their required firmware
>> blob from the impure path.
> It is easy to make firmwareDirs = [ /another/impure/path ] option work (just
> copy them into /nix/store). And this will give you easy rollback.
>
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Hi all,
Sigh.
> Do you want to write a patch and maintain it forever?
No. I would kindly like to request that you maintain the current
functionality if at all possible.

> If you need some impure path, we can add ONE standard impure path
> (/root/test-firmware or /lib/firmware) to --with-firmware-path argument.
> Note that adding another argument will require full rebuild of all packages
> that depend on udev (for example, xorgserver).
There you go. You've answered the question and my concern.
Also, so what if it issues a rebuild. It is a big change, it's
upstream's "fault" If anything and you have volunteered to do the work
that will smash the bug that they have created when they have chose to
ignore the good programming practice of using pure paths.
At least they are willing to take a patch, many wouldn't and the
"maintain it forever" Nonsense could still have happened (Maybe.) They
still have to accept your patch and you still have to write it but I
do have every confidence that you can make it work.
The low level stuff that is replacing hal is going to be need to be
added to NixOS by someone in the future if we would like to use
xserver 1.8 (Something called upower and udisk or something) And that
will definitely trigger a big rebuild.
So why not two paths, if possible, it goes in stdenv updates and gets
merged when everyone is fully aware that a big rebuild will take
place, so then there isn't a problem with it causing a fuss.
Have I missed something or is stenv updates not being used for exactly
that purpose?

Thanks,
Tony