Re: LCC and blobs
Op za, 11-12-2004 te 16:59 +0100, schreef Goswin von Brederlow:
> md@Linux.IT (Marco d'Itri) writes:
>
> > On Dec 10, Matthew Palmer <mpalmer@debian.org> wrote:
> >
> >> > You may want to take a look at debian-legal, because some people there
> >> > think that even free drivers for hardware devices which need an
> >> > externally loaded firmware are not acceptable for main.
> >> I presume you're referring to drivers which are useless without a non-free
> >> firmware blob.
> > I know about no drivers which are useless without a non-free firmware,
> > while I know about a huge number of hardware devices which are useless
> > without a non-free firmware.
> >
> > --
> > ciao, |
> > Marco | [9701 brFkyuAiot0mo]
>
> So the drivers without the firmware are usefull (i.e. make the
> hardware work)
It is not the function of a driver to make the hardware work. It is the
function of the driver to talk to the hardware using a protocol as
defined by the engineers of the hardware.
The hardware will not function correctly (and, thus, will not talk back
or be useful) without the firmware blob, that is correct; but that does
not incapacitate the driver.
> but the hardware doesn't work without firmware
> (i.e. make the driver fail)?
No, the driver will still function correctly, it will not fail. It will
not be able to get the hardware to do anything useful, but that is not
the driver's fault.
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