Re: [gNewSense-users] Suitability of the Debian Squeeze (and later) Linux kernel for gNewSense. Was (no subject)

[Karl Goetz]

On Mon, 4 Apr 2011 16:19:37 +0100
Ben Hutchings <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 04, 2011 at 09:51:16PM +0930, Karl Goetz wrote:
> > On Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:52:39 +0100
> > Michael Dorrington <address@hidden> wrote:
> [...]
> > > AFAICT, the Debian kernel complies with the DFSG (or is extremely
> > > close). However, it retains drivers that require a firmware in
> > > order to be functional and where no free firmware currently
> > > exists for them. So if you don't considered Debian to be a "Free
> > > GNU/Linux distribution" then, I think, you won't considered the
> > > Debian kernel to be suitable for gNewSense.
> > 
> > Does this mean 'retained in tree', or is it the stuff with no free
> > firmware in the non-free packages?
> 
> Practically all modern peripherals run firmware, usually loaded from
> EEPROM or flash, and almost always non-free.  So the question is not
> whether a driver relies on non-free firmware but whether that firmware
> is required to be installed in the host filesystem and loaded via the
> driver.

Thanks for clarifying that, my wording was quite sloppy (sorry about
that).

> The drivers included in upstream kernel releases that load non-free
> firmware are retained as part of the linux-2.6 source package and most
> of them are included in the binary packages.  (Some are excluded due
> to quality considerations or because they rely on firmware embedded
> within the driver, which we remove.)  If we were to package these
> drivers separately, they would belong in the 'contrib' archive section
> (free software with non-free or unpackaged dependencies).  Since we do
> not, and since the kernel in general does not have non-free
> dependencies, these drivers remain in the 'main' archive section.

Thanks for this clarification.
kk

-- 
Karl Goetz, (Kamping_Kaiser / VK5FOSS)
Debian contributor / gNewSense Maintainer
http://www.kgoetz.id.au
No, I won't join your social networking group

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