Christian,
A question regarding adding carl9170-1.fw to the openSUSE firmware package is
being discussed on the oS kernel mailing list; however, I do not see that one in
the linux-firmware git repo. Should it be there? Is there a legal problem with
redistribution?
Thanks,
Larry
On 04/17/2012 01:35 PM, Christian Lamparter wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 07:25:25 PM Larry Finger wrote:
>> Christian,
>>
>> A question regarding adding carl9170-1.fw to the openSUSE firmware package is
>> being discussed on the oS kernel mailing list; however, I do not see that one
>> in the linux-firmware git repo. Should it be there?
> Does the repo take source code releases? [much like the work we do for the
> kernel driver, or have you ever seen a binary release on this ML :D ]. The
> files on<http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170#Firmware_binary>
> are just for convenience.
AFAIK, the repo only takes binary files. With the source under GPL2, that should
not be a problem; however, the fact that there are two versions with the same
name would be trouble. Adding under that name has the possibility of breaking
all the systems that use the other version.
Too bad that the newer firmware was not renamed carl9170-2.fw. Then both could
be added to the repo and the driver could load whichever one it needed.
Unfortunately, making that change now would be difficult to propagate back to
all the stable versions, but you might consider it for V3.5 and forward. In
conjunction with that change, submit the newer firmware to the firmware repo
with the -2 name. That won't break anyone's system. Users for kernels up to 3.4
will still see what they did before.
>> Is there a legal problem with redistribution?
> Not that I know of.
With a GPLv2 license, there will be no problem.
Larry
> Regards,
> Christian
>
On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 07:25:25 PM Larry Finger wrote:
> Christian,
>
> A question regarding adding carl9170-1.fw to the openSUSE firmware package is
> being discussed on the oS kernel mailing list; however, I do not see that one
> in the linux-firmware git repo. Should it be there?
Does the repo take source code releases? [much like the work we do for the
kernel driver, or have you ever seen a binary release on this ML :D ]. The
files on <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170#Firmware_binary>
are just for convenience.
> Is there a legal problem with redistribution?
Not that I know of.
Regards,
Christian
On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 09:27:53 PM Larry Finger wrote:
> On 04/17/2012 01:35 PM, Christian Lamparter wrote:
> > On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 07:25:25 PM Larry Finger wrote:
> >> A question regarding adding carl9170-1.fw to the openSUSE firmware package is
> >> being discussed on the oS kernel mailing list; however, I do not see that one
> >> in the linux-firmware git repo. Should it be there?
> > Does the repo take source code releases? [much like the work we do for the
> > kernel driver, or have you ever seen a binary release on this ML :D ]. The
> > files on<http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170#Firmware_binary>
> > are just for convenience.
>
> AFAIK, the repo only takes binary files. With the source under GPL2, that should
> not be a problem; however, the fact that there are two versions with the same
> name would be trouble. Adding under that name has the possibility of breaking
> all the systems that use the other version.
I think I would need to read the opensuse ML discussion first to know why this
is a "big" deal suddenly. (do you have a link?)
On the other hand: I don't like the idea of supporting "old" & "new" firmwares.
Usually they get mixed up and then you end up with "new" reports for
"old" bugs. In fact, p54 users' complain about that alot.
Regards,
Chr
On 04/18/2012 01:26 PM, Christian Lamparter wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 09:27:53 PM Larry Finger wrote:
>> On 04/17/2012 01:35 PM, Christian Lamparter wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 07:25:25 PM Larry Finger wrote:
>>>> A question regarding adding carl9170-1.fw to the openSUSE firmware package is
>>>> being discussed on the oS kernel mailing list; however, I do not see that one
>>>> in the linux-firmware git repo. Should it be there?
>>> Does the repo take source code releases? [much like the work we do for the
>>> kernel driver, or have you ever seen a binary release on this ML :D ]. The
>>> files on<http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170#Firmware_binary>
>>> are just for convenience.
>>
>> AFAIK, the repo only takes binary files. With the source under GPL2, that should
>> not be a problem; however, the fact that there are two versions with the same
>> name would be trouble. Adding under that name has the possibility of breaking
>> all the systems that use the other version.
> I think I would need to read the opensuse ML discussion first to know why this
> is a "big" deal suddenly. (do you have a link?)
>
> On the other hand: I don't like the idea of supporting "old"& "new" firmwares.
> Usually they get mixed up and then you end up with "new" reports for
> "old" bugs. In fact, p54 users' complain about that alot.
If the filename that the driver requests is changed, that should reduce the
complaints. I would think that the current setup with two different,
incompatible versions having the same name would be trouble.
The thread is at http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-kernel/2012-04/msg00040.html.
Larry