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

[Hau <hau@realtek.com>]

+ 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
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 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/1092
> 
> 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>