firmware blobs

[ldoolitt@recycle.lbl.gov]

Kernel team (and lurkers) -

Binary-only firmware in the Linux kernel lives on in Debian's
anxiety closet.

I find 59 instances in linux-2.6_2.6.17.orig.tar.gz.  Please
review my analysis posted at
  http://doolittle.icarus.com/~larry/fwinventory/2.6.17.html

Unless something changes soon, we're looking at 59 RC bugs
in the linux-2.6 source package.  The good news (AFAICT) is
that ripping these non-SC-conforming files out of the kernel,
or putting conforming replacements back in, doesn't change
the kernel ABI, so this work could be considered consistent
with a release freeze.

     - Larry