Fair enough. I find it's easier to pretend the driver doesn't exist unless it's packaged, and do whatever I would otherwise do.

If you were using debian or ubuntu, they removed the firmware from ALSA for legal reasons. Ugh, I know; it would be nice if they warned someone. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/26294 or http://forum.soft32.com/linux2/Bug-434592-alsa-firmware-load...

However, I wouldn't expect anyone else to figure out which package to add either. But for you and I, this is at least a step up from recompiling.