Re: Bug#751339: RFP: ath9k-htc-firmware -- free firmware for Atheros AR7010/AR9271 wireless adapters
On Fri 2015-01-23 07:46:14 -0500, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Jun 2014, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
>> ath9k-ftc-firmware provides a free implementation of firmware for two
>> available wireless chipsets.
> [...]
>> It would be great to ship these firmware modules in debian now that we
>> have the source. If we can make it easier for people to improve them,
>> that would be great.
>>
>> Unfortunately, the build process appears to be a little bit involved:
>> https://trisquel.info/en/forum/how-install-ath9k-htc-firmware-atheros-communications-inc-ar9271
> [...]
>
> While this looks like complicated to package independently, the firmwares
> are available in
> http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/
>
> Could they thus not be included as-is in firmware-free or at least
> firmware-non-free ? (ccing kernel team for this question)
shipping in firmware-non-free would be a shortcut to ensure that we have
them available for users (which would be good), but it would feel a
little bit ironic to label them non-free just because we haven't sorted
out how to manage the build chain yet, and seems like it might risk
upsetting the good people who've done the work to make them free (which
would be bad). seems like that route might need to be done delicately
and with very clear communication about why it's being done, and with a
plan for how to transition it into the main archive.
I don't know what the rules are for inclusion in firmware-free.
looking in the LICENSE file for firmware-free, i see:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Driver: dsp56k - Atari DSP56k support
File: dsp56k/bootstrap.bin
Source: dsp56k/bootstrap.asm
Licence: GPLv2 or later
Copyright Frederik Noring
DSP56001 assembler, possibly buildable with a56 from
http://www.zdomain.com/a56.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
and while a56 is in the debian archive, it's not a build-dep of
firmware-free (bootstrap.bin is shipped directly in the source package).
So maybe ath9k-htc-firmware is no worse than this?
> It would be a first step and a big service for users who opted to buy
> such freedom-respecting devices.
yes, agreed!
--dkg
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