Re: [net-next PATCH 00/15] eth: fbnic: Add network driver for Meta Platforms Host Network Interface

Edward Cree
2024-04-09T16:53:45Z

On 05/04/2024 15:24, Alexander Duyck wrote:
> Why not? Just because we are not commercially selling it doesn't mean
> we couldn't look at other solutions such as QEMU. If we were to
> provide a github repo with an emulation of the NIC would that be
> enough to satisfy the "commercial" requirement?
>
> The fact is I already have an implementation, but I would probably
> need to clean up a few things as the current setup requires 3 QEMU
> instances to emulate the full setup with host, firmware, and BMC. It
> wouldn't be as performant as the actual hardware but it is more than
> enough for us to test code with. If we need to look at publishing
> something like that to github in order to address the lack of user
> availability I could start looking at getting the approvals for that.
Personally I think that this would vitiate any legitimate objections
anyone could have to this driver. The emulation would be a functional
spec for the device, and (assuming it's open source, including the
firmware) would provide a basis for anyone attempting to build their
own hardware to the same interface. As long as clones aren't
prevented by some kind of patent encumbrance or whatever, this would
be more 'open' than many of the devices users _can_ get their hands on
today.
The way this suggestion/offer/proposal got dismissed and ignored in
favour of spurious arguments about DMABUF speaks volumes.

-e