Re: [PATCH] net/r8169: Remove the firmware of RTL8111D

Francois Romieu
2010-12-06T22:04:54Z

Ben Hutchings <benh@debian.org> :
[...]
> I have reports that the RTL8111D/8168D hardware can work without this
> firmware, possibly with limited functionality or compatibility. (I
> assume it is a patch for the original firmware loaded from ROM or
> flash.) So I feel obliged to give users the choice to use the driver
> without installing non-free firmware. If you want to make the warning
> on failure of request_firmware() more explicit then that's OK with me.

I'll make it more explicit regarding what it loads, yes.

> If you make the failure fatal I will probably revert that in Debian.

I have no technical argument against yours to make the failure fatal
yet: even Realtek's wording is rather soft. I will reconsider it if
things turn ugly.

Btw, it is not too hard to build a firmware-of-freedom binary : all
zero should be fine here.

--
Ueimor