Re: LCC and blobs
Anthony DeRobertis <anthony@derobert.net> wrote:
> Hmmm, I have a CF card. Upon it are files, and in every meaningful way
> it is a disk. Therefor, that data is software.
>
> Yet, CF is actually chips --- often the same chips as used to hold
> firmware distributed with hardware. Thus, it's all hardware.
As an even more extreme real-life example - I have an MP3 player that
can be plugged in as a USB mass storage device. It has a single
partition that does not cover the entirity of the flash. One block at
the beginning contains the firmware used to make the player work. If I
extend the partition over the entirity of the device, I can overwrite
the firmware with any filesystem I want. Alternatively, I can add an
entry to the FAT that makes it look like the firmware is a file.
Is it firmware if it's outside the partition? If so, does it become
software when I force it kicking and screaming into a filesystem?
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.legal@srcf.ucam.org
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