firmware: revamp firmware documentation
Understanding this code is getting out of control without any
notes. Give the firmware_class driver a much needed documentation love,
and while at it convert it to the new sphinx documentation format.
v2: typos and small fixes
Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/built-in-fw.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/built-in-fw.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7300e66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/built-in-fw.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+=================
+Built-in firmware
+=================
+
+Firmware can be built-in to the kernel, this means building the firmware
+into vmlinux directly, to enable avoiding having to look for firmware from
+the filesystem. Instead, firmware can be looked for inside the kernel
+directly. You can enable built-in firmware using the kernel configuration
+options:
+
+ * CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE
+ * CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR
+
+This should not be confused with CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL, this is for drivers
+which enables firmware to be built as part of the kernel build process. This
+option, CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL, will build all firmware for all drivers
+enabled which ship its firmware inside the Linux kernel source tree.
+
+There are a few reasons why you might want to consider building your firmware
+into the kernel with CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE though:
+
+* Speed
+* Firmware is needed for accessing the boot device, and the user doesn't
+ want to stuff the firmware into the boot initramfs.
+
+Even if you have these needs there are a few reasons why you may not be
+able to make use of built-in firmware:
+
+* Legalese - firmware is non-GPL compatible
+* Some firmware may be optional
+* Firmware upgrades are possible, therefore a new firmware would implicate
+ a complete kernel rebuild.
+* Some firmware files may be really large in size. The remote-proc subsystem
+ is an example subsystem which deals with these sorts of firmware
+* The firmware may need to be scraped out from some device specific location
+ dynamically, an example is calibration data for for some WiFi chipsets. This
+ calibration data can be unique per sold device.
+