Removal of firmware blob from tg3.c in linux-2.6 2.6.23-1; Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5788

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Hi,

here is what lspci says about my NIC:

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)

Looking in the changelog I see:

   [ Bastian Blank ]
   ...
   * Remove binary only firmwares for:
   ...
     - Broadcom Tigon3 support

Indeed, the blob that was in tg3.c is gone.

and in the same changelog:

   [ Bastian Blank ]
   ...
   * Add stable release 2.6.23.5:
   ...
     - TG3: Fix performance regression on 5705.

I'd like to ask a few questions:

1) will I need the firmware blob to make my NIC work?
2) If so, how can I tell whether or not I need the firmware?
3) Does the package bcm5700-source contain the appropriate firmware?
4) If not, will there be another non-free package containing the firmware?

Thanks a lot.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.