From: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
To: Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>
Cc: richard -rw- weinberger <richard.weinberger@gmail.com>,
Xose Vazquez Perez <xose.vazquez@gmail.com>,
Daniel Drake <dsd@laptop.org>,
Ulrich Kunitz <kune@deine-taler.de>,
David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>,
linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] linux-firmware: add MISSING file
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:31:32 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1358731892.24121.238.camel@deadeye.wl.decadent.org.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20130114175533.4f184cd3@mj>
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1976 bytes --]
On Mon, 2013-01-14 at 17:55 -0500, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:09:46 +0100
> richard -rw- weinberger <richard.weinberger@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > +This file attempts to document the reason why a firmware is not
> > > present +in this bundle.
> >
> > From the user's point of view this not really helpful.
> > Wouldn't a in-kernel table of known but missing firmware files make
> > more sense? The kernel could write a log like "Yeah, I know this
> > firmware but sadly I don't have it because of ..."
>
> The firmware file may be absent on the system even if it's in the
> linux-firmware tree. Conversely, the firmware may be present on the
> system but not in the linux-firmware tree.
>
> The kernel doesn't know whether the firmware is missing due to
> licensing issues or due to misconfiguration. The kernel cannot know
> that. And I don't think the kernel should include as much information
> as the MISSING file would include.
I can see some value in an index explaining where to get firmware,
whether it's available from the copyright holder or some licensee or
must be extracted from Windows drivers with a particular tool.
I'm not sure whether linux-firmware.git is the right place for that,
though. Would distributions include this in their packages and would
users be able to find it there? Would a wiki page be more useful?
Putting my Debian hat, I can say that we don't distribute any of the
older files that are 'GPL but no source visible', while we do distribute
some files not included in linux-firmware.git that require click-wrap
licences. I also prune files that aren't referenced by the kernel
version in any current release. So a file that says what's missing from
linux-firmware.git would not be that useful to Debian users, for
example.
Ben.
--
Ben Hutchings
Q. Which is the greater problem in the world today, ignorance or apathy?
A. I don't know and I couldn't care less.
[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 828 bytes --]
prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-01-21 1:31 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-01-12 22:39 Xose Vazquez Perez
2013-01-12 23:09 ` richard -rw- weinberger
2013-01-14 22:55 ` Pavel Roskin
2013-01-21 1:31 ` Ben Hutchings [this message]
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=1358731892.24121.238.camel@deadeye.wl.decadent.org.uk \
--to=ben@decadent.org.uk \
--cc=dsd@laptop.org \
--cc=dwmw2@infradead.org \
--cc=kune@deine-taler.de \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=proski@gnu.org \
--cc=richard.weinberger@gmail.com \
--cc=xose.vazquez@gmail.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox
all inboxes | Powered by JetHome®