Re: Device Driver

From: Igmar Palsenberg (maillist@chello.nl)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 07:45:03 EST


> >I presume your driver doesn't mind if this image is unavailable.
> >If not, you'll need to provide a open source image to use in place
> >of your proprietary one.
>
> Linus, please confirm.
>
> Firmware for cards can be proprietary. It can either be installed by a
> userspace utility on startup (nothing to do with the kernel) or it can
> be installed by the kernel driver for the card during initialization.
> In the latter case, the image must be supplied in text format and
> converted to binary, no binary files in the kernel tarball.

Every closed source piece of software is unacceptable in a standard kernel
:

- We can't debug it
- We depend on the guys / girls that maintain the binary image
- It's a security risk.

The last argument weights most in my case.

        Igmar

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