failed to load firmware renesas_usb_fw.mem

[Zhanglei Mao]

the log show below:
xhci_hcd 0000:27:00.0: failed to load firmware renesas_usb_fw.mem, fallback to ROM

From this below, it seems just need to add renesas_usb_fw.mem into the initrd.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1922549#p1922549

When the firmware is required and is not present, kernel message: Direct firmware load for renesas_usb_fw.mem failed with error
When the firmware is required and is an empty file, kernel message: FW has invalid version, followed by the above message.

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

That firmware doesn't exist neither in upstream's nor Ubuntu's linux-firmware. Are you experiencing any issues or are you just worried about the message?

[Zhanglei Mao (zhanglei-mao)]

No issues related to this log warning. One of our vendors raise it to me and let me checking.

[Todor Manev (tmanev)]

If this firmware file is missing renesas_usb_fw.mem
I have an issue with a PCIE to USB 3.0 card ( Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720201 ) which stops working at 22 hourts after boot withtout this firmware file.
If I manually add it to /lib/firmaware/renesas_usb_fw.mem and load the firmware by reinitializing the PCIE card it works.
It is best if the firmware file is there and is loadded after boot.

Please, fix it....

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

We cannot fix that. We can't simply include binaries from and unknown origin with unknown licensing. That's a legal time bomb waiting to explode...

[Boris Gjenero (boris-gjenero)]

I'm not sure that this error message causes problems. My card had firmware in its non-volatile memory, and worked without this. After I updated its firmware to 2.0.2.6 with the chip vendor's Windows tool, I didn't have problems with the card itself after suspend. https://dreamlayers.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-firmware-upgrade-fixed-linux-usb-3.html

Sometimes however particular USB devices, like an Arduino Uno clone, didn't work after suspend, and I wondered if providing that firmware could help. So, I put that same 2.0.2.6 firmware extracted from k2026fwup1.exe as /lib/firmware/renesas_usb_fw.mem in /boot/initrd.img. This did remove the error message, but then after a suspend the card stopped working. Even fully cutting power isn't enough to make it work. Only using upd72020x-check-and-init from https://github.com/markusj/upd72020x-load makes it work.

So, apparently supplying this firmware is dangerous, because it can corrupt the flash or otherwise mess up a USB 3 card.

Edit: I fixed my card using the 2026 firmware and these instructions https://github.com/markusj/upd72020x-load/issues/15#issuecomment-798889799