lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2005]   [Apr]   [5]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: non-free firmware in kernel modules, aggregation and unclear copyright notice.
Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 11:28:07AM +0200, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
>>One of the sticking points will be how people get the firmware; I can
>>see the point of a kernel-distributable-firmware project related to the
>>kernel (say on kernel.org) which would provide a nice collection of
>>distributable firmwares (and is appropriately licensed). Without such
>>joint infrastructure things will always be a mess and in that context I
>>can see the point of the driver authors not immediately wanting to
>>switch exclusively. Simply because they'll get swamped with email about
>>how the driver doesn't work...
>
>
> I agree. And that really doesn't need a lot of infrastructure,
> basically just a tarball that unpacks to /lib/firmware, maybe a specfile
> and debian/ dir in addition.


At the moment there is -zero- infrastructure that would allow my tg3 to
continue working, when I upgrade to a tg3 driver with external firmware.

The user has to put a file in some location manually.

That's a complete non-starter, from a usability standpoint.

Further, several firmwares, including tg3, are really a collection of
bits of information: .text, .bss, and random variables (start addr,
image size, ...). The current interface is complete crap for this sort
of setup.

The firmware loader really needs to be loading -archives- not individual
files.

We are a -long- way from moving the firmware out of the tg3 source code.

Jeff


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-04-06 13:31    [W:0.147 / U:2.084 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site