/usr/src/linux-3.5/firmware/README.AddingFirmware
[code]
DO NOT ADD FIRMWARE TO THIS DIRECTORY.
======================================
This directory is only here to contain firmware images extracted from old
device drivers which predate the common use of request_firmware().
As we update those drivers to use request_firmware() and keep a clean
separation between code and firmware, we put the extracted firmware
here.
This directory is NOT for adding arbitrary new firmware images. The
place to add those is the separate linux-firmware repository:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
That repository contains all these firmware images which have been
extracted from older drivers, as well various new firmware images which
we were never permitted to include in a GPL’d work, but which we have
been permitted to redistribute under separate cover.
To submit firmware to that repository, please send either a git binary
diff or preferably a git pull request to:
David Woodhouse dwmw2@infradead.org
Ben Hutchings ben@decadent.org.uk
Your commit should include an update to the WHENCE file clearly
identifying the licence under which the firmware is available, and
that it is redistributable. If the licence is long and involved, it’s
permitted to include it in a separate file and refer to it from the
WHENCE file.
Ideally, your commit should contain a Signed-Off-By: from someone
authoritative on the licensing of the firmware in question (i.e. from
within the company that owns the code).[/code]
Pour ce que j’en interprète,les mainteneurs de linux renvoient les firmwares en quarantaine,en git, pour ne pas condammner tout le reste.
Une question de licences de ces firmwares empêcherait la distribution des binaires prêts à l’emploi.
On ne t’interdit pas de compiler un noyau avec firmware, on t’interdit de distribuer le fruit de ces compilations sans le consentement des propriétaires du code, l’autorité qui demande que le firmware soit distribué sous ses conditions.
Le linux de debian n’est pas délesté à 100 % des blobs propriétaires.
Celui qui tend vers cet objectif est linux libre.
fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/
Firmwares en debian
packages.debian.org/squeeze/firmware-linux-free
Voir du côté de non-free
packages.debian.org/squeeze/firm … ux-nonfree
Je n’ai pas comparé la liste du git et celle de ce paquet car il ne regroupe pas tous les firmwares.
Témoignant d’une confiance aveugle envers debian, je pense que ceux qui ne sont pas compris dans ce paquet sont censés se trouver dans des paquets indépendants … ou sont tellement cadenassés qu’on ne les trouve qu’en blobs chez les constructeurs.