RE: RTL8367S DW8051 SerDes firmware: license clarification for linux-firmware inclusion

[Jeff_Hung <jeff_hung@realtek.com>]

+PM SC



-Jeff

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-----Original Message-----
From: Hau <hau@realtek.com> 
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2026 4:17 PM
To: Johan Alvarado <contact@c127.dev>; Switchfae <Switchfae@realtek.com>
Cc: linusw@kernel.org; alsi@bang-olufsen.dk; dmitry.baryshkov@oss.qualcomm.com; linux-firmware@kernel.org
Subject: RE: RTL8367S DW8051 SerDes firmware: license clarification for linux-firmware inclusion

+ Switch Team FAE

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Johan Alvarado <contact@c127.dev>
> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2026 1:12 AM
> To: nic_swsd <nic_swsd@realtek.com>
> Cc: linusw@kernel.org; alsi@bang-olufsen.dk; 
> dmitry.baryshkov@oss.qualcomm.com; linux-firmware@kernel.org
> Subject: RTL8367S DW8051 SerDes firmware: license clarification for 
> linux-firmware inclusion
> 
> 
> External mail : This email originated from outside the organization. 
> Do not reply, click links, or open attachments unless you recognize 
> the sender and know the content is safe.
> 
> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am the author of a patch series currently under review on netdev, 
> adding SGMII/HSGMII support for the RTL8367S switch to the mainline 
> Linux rtl8365mb DSA driver:
> 
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/0100019eb0b1822e-ffc5626c-1b9f-4c8a-8a1
> a-759a9e665f4f-000000@email.amazonses.com/
> 
> Bringing up the SerDes on this chip requires loading a small firmware 
> blob
> (1233 bytes) into the embedded DW8051 microcontroller. The driver 
> requests it via the kernel firmware API as realtek/rtl8367s-sgmii.bin.
> 
> The only public source of this blob is the rtl8367c vendor SDK as 
> distributed in GPL source code releases by Realtek's customers (in my 
> case the Mercusys MR80X v2 GPL code drop), where it is embedded as a 
> byte array (Sgmii_Init[] in rtl8367c_asicdrv_port.c).
> 
> I submitted the blob to linux-firmware:
> 
> 
> https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linux-firmware/-/merge_requests/109
> 2
> 
> but it cannot be accepted in its current state: the surrounding SDK 
> code is GPL-licensed, yet the actual source code of the 8051 microcode 
> has never been published, so the effective license of the blob is 
> unclear and GPL compliance cannot be met by redistributing it (see 
> review by Dmitry Baryshkov in the MR above).
> 
> May I ask Realtek for one of the following:
> 
>   1. Submit the firmware to linux-firmware directly, with an
>      appropriate redistribution license, as the Realtek NIC team
>      already does for the rtl_nic firmware files; or
> 
>   2. Provide an explicit license statement permitting redistribution
>      of this firmware via linux-firmware, and ACK the merge request
>      above.
> 
> If this mailbox is not the right contact for the switch product line, 
> I would be very grateful if you could forward this request to the team 
> responsible for the RTL8367S / rtl8367c SDK, or point me to the right contact.
> 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
> Best regards,
> Johan Alvarado <contact@c127.dev>