User:Csfore/Handbook Staging

Workspace for me to stage and draft important Handbook changes to await feedback. Please ignore any broken links, these are likely due to Template:HandbookLink. Others are welcome to use this as well as a place to see what potential changes might look like with concrete link embedding instead of relying on the preview or a place to store wanted changes (if you do this, please link a talk).

Important
Remove all notes below that are prefixed with !!! before merging into the Handbook!

Mention sys-firmware/sof-firmware

Optional: Installing firmware and/or microcode

Firmware

Linux Firmware

Before getting to configuring kernel sections, it is beneficial to be aware that some hardware devices require additional, sometimes non-FOSS compliant, firmware to be installed on the system before they will operate correctly. This is often the case for wireless network interfaces commonly found in both desktop and laptop computers. Modern video chips from vendors like AMD, Nvidia, and Intel, often also require external firmware files to be fully functional. Most firmware for modern hardware devices can be found within the sys-kernel/linux-firmware package.

It is recommended to have the sys-kernel/linux-firmware package installed before the initial system reboot in order to have the firmware available in the event that it is necessary:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/linux-firmware

Note
Installing certain firmware packages often requires accepting the associated firmware licenses. If necessary, visit the license handling section of the Handbook for help on accepting licenses.

It is important to note that kernel symbols that are built as modules (M) will load their associated firmware files from the filesystem when they are loaded by the kernel. It is not necessary to include the device's firmware files into the kernel's binary image for symbols loaded as modules.

SOF Firmware

Sound Open Firmware (SOF) is a new open source audio driver meant to replace the proprietary Smart Sound Technology (SST) audio driver from Intel. Support for it requires enabling Kernel options which can be found below. 12th gen Intel CPUs, and maybe some AMD APUs, require this firmware to output audio. Their supported platforms matrix can be found here for more information.

root #emerge --ask sys-firmware/sof-firmware

Skip down to Manual Configuration

Enabling required options

Note
!!!Not sure where exactly to put this yet

KERNEL Enabling SOF Firmware support

Device Drivers --->
  Sound card support --->
    Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
      ALSA for SoC audio support --->
        [*] Sound Open Firmware Support --->
          < > SOF PCI enumeration support
          < > SOF ACPI enumeration support
          < > SOF support for AMD audio DSPs
          [ ] SOF support for Intel audio DSPs

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