Re: [gNewSense-users] iwl firmware

[al3xu5 / dotcommon]

Il giorno sabato 30/01/2010 11:31:25 CET
Jason Self <address@hidden> ha scritto:

> On Jan 30, 2010, at 11:13 AM, Michael Stevens <address@hidden>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 11:11:09AM -0800, Jason Self wrote:
> >> On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 10:54 AM, Michael Stevens  
> >> <address@hidden> wrote:
> >>
> >>> a) I've cocked up my install and it's not coming from gnewsense  
> >>> (seems
> >>>        unlikely, but this machine did have ubuntu on before)
> >>
> >> My machine also has these files and never had Ubuntu on it.
> >
> > I'm getting increasing confidence this stuff's nonfree so I created
> > a bug on savannah.
> 
> I believe the Intel firmware is distributed under a "free to  
> distribute but not modify" license.

the drivers are under GPL2... *BUT* they require a *non-free* software
firmware to be loaded...

see: http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=FAQ&s=license

<cite>
Q. What license covers these drivers?
A. The wireless drivers themselves are licensed under the GPL version 2.
Each of the wireless adapters requires a corresponding microcode or
firmware image to be loaded in order to function. The microcode for the
ipw3945 driver (ieee80211 based) also requires the use of a user space
regulatory daemon. All of those binaries are distributed as binaries
under a proprietary, free to redistribute (but not modify), license. 
</cite>

on my laptop (Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad T61 6466-5DG ) i have such an
intel wireless adapter (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG)...

it does not properly work to me with gNS... and manually installing the
non-free intel firmware is NOT a solution (in terms of freedom)...

so i have phisically *disabled* (shut off) the intel adapter and now i
am happily using one D-Link DWL-G122 rev.C1 (07d1:3c03) wirelss USB
adapter instead (driver module: rt73usb - kernel included)

NOTE: the default gNS installed system loads (as you have reported) the
iwl3945 driver module (for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG) which
prevents loading other wireless drivers! so you may need to blacklist
iwl3945 (in /ect/modprobe.d/blacklist) to be able to use other wireless
adapters


regards
al3xu5 / dotcommon

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