Alexandre Oliva wrote:
On Mar 22, 2008, Rahul Sundaram <sundaram@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for stepping forward with this.
NP, sorry that it took me so long to get to it.
Wouldn't it be better to change the spec file so that the firmware you
have removed is moved into a sub package and we can retain the same
kernel?
Err... This would mean that whoever distributes the kernel binaries
would be required to ship the corresponding sources containing
non-Free Software, which is precisely the sort of thing I'd like to
avoid, such that I and others who refuse to distribute non-Free
Software can promote Fedora at least to some extent.
Pardon my ignorance, but I honestly don't see a risk in shipping
*sources* which contain hex-coded firmware blobs that have been licensed
for distribution, as is the case with anything that has firmware merged
in the upstream kernel. Shipping the *binaries* creates a potential
liability, depending on your precise interpretation of the GPL, but some
people have already decided to assume that risk, and ship those binaries
today.
If you created a spec file that would build kernel and kernel-firmware
packages from the same SRPM, distributors could decide for themselves
whether or not they want to ship the binary blobs, and everyone would
still be using the same core kernel. We could actually consider merging
a patch like that.
The advantage is that it doesn't have the overhead of maintaining a
additional kernel package.
This overhead is mostly unavoidable, and in general removing the
offending modules is much easier than separating the firmware out of
them. Hopefully having them removed will at least serve as an
incentive for those who'd like to have them included to split them out
such that the firmware can be supplied separately. I don't think I'd
have the time to do that myself.
If you'd like that incentive to carry any weight, perhaps you should
write a patch that has a chance of getting accepted into Fedora proper.
Not everyone agrees with your interpretation of the GPL, and plenty of
people are happy to distribute binary blobs. If you make it easy and
obvious for people to decide whether or not they're going to distribute
them, within the core distribution, it will go much further to shame the
offenders than maintaining your personal fork that nobody will use.
Personally, I just want to install the package called "kernel". Unless
I have an absolutely compelling reason, I'm not going out of my way for
anything else, be it "kernel-libre" or "kernel-firmware".
-- Chris
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