* Fore 200 firmware
@ 2010-05-31 8:06 Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 14:37 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Meelis Roos @ 2010-05-31 8:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Chas Williams; +Cc: netdev
Hello,
commit 9c54004ea717116a10886e254e26502ffb1136e9 (atm: [fore200e]
convert to use request_firmware()) made the fore driver user
request_firmware() but also removed the building of firmware image.
So the current state is that drivers/atm contains the C dump of fore 200
firmware in drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c but this firmware is not built
and not installed by make install. It's also not present in
linux-firware tree/packages so the fore driver can not load its firmware
from anywhere. I guess this is not the intended outcome.
Should we move the firmware to linux-firmware repository and remove
drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c or should we convert and install the
firmware in kernel build system?
--
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Fore 200 firmware
2010-05-31 8:06 Fore 200 firmware Meelis Roos
@ 2010-06-01 14:37 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
2010-06-01 14:52 ` Meelis Roos
0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR) @ 2010-06-01 14:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Meelis Roos; +Cc: netdev
In message <alpine.SOC.1.00.1005311058180.2805@math.ut.ee>,Meelis Roos writes:
>So the current state is that drivers/atm contains the C dump of fore 200
>firmware in drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c but this firmware is not built
>and not installed by make install. It's also not present in
>linux-firware tree/packages so the fore driver can not load its firmware
>from anywhere. I guess this is not the intended outcome.
this firmware is in the linux-atm source tree now. the 2.5.1 release
should have the firmware.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-atm/files/
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Fore 200 firmware
2010-06-01 14:37 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
@ 2010-06-01 14:52 ` Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 15:49 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Meelis Roos @ 2010-06-01 14:52 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: chas3; +Cc: netdev
> >So the current state is that drivers/atm contains the C dump of fore 200
> >firmware in drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c but this firmware is not built
> >and not installed by make install. It's also not present in
> >linux-firware tree/packages so the fore driver can not load its firmware
> >from anywhere. I guess this is not the intended outcome.
>
> this firmware is in the linux-atm source tree now. the 2.5.1 release
> should have the firmware.
2.5.1 does not seem to contain the firmware.
Even if it will be there in the next release, we should still do
something to distribute it to the user so that any modern distro has the
firmware available (in linux-firmware or via similar means) so the user
does not have to redo the detective work I am doing. Packaging it along
with linux-atm packages (atm-tools in Debian) does not seem correct, so
do we need to make a special firmware package out of it or just add to
some other firmware repo that is packaged already?
What's the licence of the firmware anyway - unknown likely?
And we can probably remove drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c if we
distribute the firmware out of kernel tree.
--
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Fore 200 firmware
2010-06-01 14:52 ` Meelis Roos
@ 2010-06-01 15:49 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
2010-06-01 16:09 ` Meelis Roos
0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR) @ 2010-06-01 15:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Meelis Roos; +Cc: netdev
In message <alpine.SOC.1.00.1006011747570.22519@math.ut.ee>,Meelis Roos writes:
>2.5.1 does not seem to contain the firmware.
oops -- i didnt commit it to the repo.
>does not have to redo the detective work I am doing. Packaging it along
>with linux-atm packages (atm-tools in Debian) does not seem correct, so
>do we need to make a special firmware package out of it or just add to
>some other firmware repo that is packaged already?
i dont care which happens really. i would to think it is part of
atm-tools since the fore200e driver really isnt useful with the
atm tools.
>What's the licence of the firmware anyway - unknown likely?
it says the firmware is gpl. look at fore200e_firmware_copyright
in one of the old kernel distros.
>And we can probably remove drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c if we
>distribute the firmware out of kernel tree.
i dont think it is in the current net-next-2.6 tree?
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Fore 200 firmware
2010-06-01 15:49 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
@ 2010-06-01 16:09 ` Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 17:12 ` Ben Hutchings
0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Meelis Roos @ 2010-06-01 16:09 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: chas3; +Cc: netdev
> >does not have to redo the detective work I am doing. Packaging it along
> >with linux-atm packages (atm-tools in Debian) does not seem correct, so
> >do we need to make a special firmware package out of it or just add to
> >some other firmware repo that is packaged already?
>
> i dont care which happens really. i would to think it is part of
> atm-tools since the fore200e driver really isnt useful with the
> atm tools.
OK, so we should push the distro maintainers of it to create a suggested
firmware package or just include the fore firmware unconditionally -
once it is in released linux-atm.
> >What's the licence of the firmware anyway - unknown likely?
>
> it says the firmware is gpl. look at fore200e_firmware_copyright
> in one of the old kernel distros.
Well, there is no source to fulfill the GPL... but there also should be
no problem redistributing it.
> >And we can probably remove drivers/atm/fore200e_pca_fw.c if we
> >distribute the firmware out of kernel tree.
>
> i dont think it is in the current net-next-2.6 tree?
Oops, you are right - I have updated my tree over several years and the
old files were just not removed from disk. But theay are gone from the
git, yes.
Thnak yo for your work on ATM - I intend to get a demo ATM network
running here in my computer museum.
--
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Fore 200 firmware
2010-06-01 16:09 ` Meelis Roos
@ 2010-06-01 17:12 ` Ben Hutchings
0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Ben Hutchings @ 2010-06-01 17:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Meelis Roos; +Cc: chas3, netdev
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 06:03:31PM +0100, Meelis Roos wrote:
> > >does not have to redo the detective work I am doing. Packaging it along
> > >with linux-atm packages (atm-tools in Debian) does not seem correct, so
> > >do we need to make a special firmware package out of it or just add to
> > >some other firmware repo that is packaged already?
> >
> > i dont care which happens really. i would to think it is part of
> > atm-tools since the fore200e driver really isnt useful with the
> > atm tools.
>
> OK, so we should push the distro maintainers of it to create a suggested
> firmware package or just include the fore firmware unconditionally -
> once it is in released linux-atm.
>
> > >What's the licence of the firmware anyway - unknown likely?
> >
> > it says the firmware is gpl. look at fore200e_firmware_copyright
> > in one of the old kernel distros.
>
> Well, there is no source to fulfill the GPL... but there also should be
> no problem redistributing it.
[...]
The GPL says (approximately) that people are allowed to redistribute binaries
only if they also redistribute source. If the source is not available to the
public then anyone redistributing it is relying on the assumption that the
copyright holder didn't really mean this condition and will not enforce it.
At any time the copyright holder could sue them for copyright infringement,
and they would have to rely on a defence such as laches.
This is a common problem with firmware images that were added to the kernel
long ago. To reduce legal risk, Debian has been removing these images and
will not include them in any future releases, even in the non-free archive
section, unless this is fixed. Please do not try to add this firmware to
Debian without getting an appropriate licence.
Ben.
--
Ben Hutchings
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
- Albert Camus
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2010-06-01 17:12 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
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2010-05-31 8:06 Fore 200 firmware Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 14:37 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
2010-06-01 14:52 ` Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 15:49 ` Chas Williams (CONTRACTOR)
2010-06-01 16:09 ` Meelis Roos
2010-06-01 17:12 ` Ben Hutchings
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