Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 05 Apr 2005 08:09:26 -0400 | From | Jeff Garzik <> | Subject | Re: non-free firmware in kernel modules, aggregation and unclear copyright notice. |
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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
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