Re: Etch timeline is unrealistic because non-free firmware is NOT being dealt with

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 04:53:51PM +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote:
> On Aug 07, Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
> 
> > > No, because those are not linked together with the GPLed code, but are a mere
> > > aggregation of works inside the same media, i.e. the binary file. Those
> > > non-free firmware will never run inside the same memory space as the kernel,
> > > and are offloaded to a peripheral processor, and the communication media
> > > between the kernel and this peripheral processor running said firmware is
> > > clearly defined, there is no doubt that those non-free firmware do not break
> > > the kernel GPL.
> 
> > They are linked in, they have symbols, the code directly references
> > their address. Can you name one tool that will easily remove such
> No. They are a char array, it's data copied where the hardware wants it.
> It's not code called by other functions.

Yeah, exact, its mips or arm machine code, uploaded to the embedded core in
the chip used for the peripheral in question.

Err, you probably have a very different definition of code than me, or maybe
you have absolutely no clue about how hardware works, which is sincerely
doubt.

Friendly,

Sven Luther