Now that more drivers are being converted to load firmware
at initialisation time, curmudgeons like me who prefer to build a
non-modular kernel are increasingly troubled.  Fortunately, initramfs
allows us to stick with what we know instead of having to deal with
these newfangled module thingies.  If you're using a distro that has
its own initramfs scripts, you should probably follow their method.
But if you're the kind of person who builds their own custom kernels,
this howto is just what you're looking for.

Here's how to get things working.  First, you need to replicate what
the kernel would put into your initramfs.  Starting from the root of an
unpacked kernel tree, put these three lines into usr/default-files:

dir /dev 0755 0 0
nod /dev/console 0600 0 0 c 5 1
dir /root 0700 0 0

Second, create the directory structure for our initramfs:

mkdir usr/root usr/root/firmware usr/root/sbin usr/root/bin usr/root/sys

Third, get some firmware to put in it.  I'll use the qlogic firmware in
this example:

wget -P usr/root/firmware ftp://ftp.qlogic.com/outgoing/linux/firmware/ql2300_fw.bin

Fourth, we need something to load that firmware.  We could write this as
a compiled binary (or a perl/python/ruby/... script), but a shell script
is traditional.  I used Documentation/firmware_class/hotplug-script as a
base for this, but it needs some modifications (to mount sysfs and to
cope with being called for non-firmware events.  Place the following script
in usr/root/sbin/hotplug:

#!/bin/sh

load_firmware() {
	if [ ! -e /firmware/$FIRMWARE ]; then
		echo $FIRMWARE not found >/dev/console
		return
	fi
	echo Loading $FIRMWARE into $DEVPATH >/dev/console
	mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
	echo 1 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading
	cat /firmware/$FIRMWARE > /sys/$DEVPATH/data
	echo 0 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading
	umount /sys
}

case $ACTION in
	add)
		case "$FIRMWARE" in
			"") ;;
			*) load_firmware ;;
		esac
	;;
esac

Fifth, we need a POSIX shell to run it.  sash won't do, as it doesn't support
redirection; I ended up using busybox-static, but you can use whatever you
like as long as it's static or you add the dynamic linker and the libraries
it uses.

cd usr/root
wget ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/b/busybox/busybox-static_1.1.3-3_ia64.deb
ar x busybox-static_1.1.3-3_ia64.deb 
rm control.tar.gz debian-binary busybox-static_1.1.3-3_ia64.deb
tar -zxf data.tar.gz
rm -rf usr
ln -s busybox bin/sh
rm data.tar.gz
cd ../..

Sixth, change CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE to "usr/default-files usr/root", the
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_UID and CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_GID as appropriate,
and run make.

You should now be able to boot your kernel and have firmware load at
initialisation time.

NOTE!

A couple of the things I mention here don't work right.  You need to
apply this patch to current Linus kernels:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.19-rc5/2.6.19-rc5-mm2/broken-out/initramfs-handle-more-than-one-source-dir-or-file-list.patch

Also, echoing to /dev/console doesn't work.  I don't know why.  This
makes debugging hard.