[Debian-eeepc-devel] Bug#497200: ITP: rt2860-source -- source for RT2860 wireless adapter kernel module
Damyan Ivanov
dam at modsoftsys.com
Mon Sep 1 07:07:10 UTC 2008
-=| Ben Hutchings, Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 11:16:27PM +0100 |=-
> On Sat, 2008-08-30 at 22:08 +0300, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
> > Package: wnpp
> > Severity: wishlist
> > Owner: Damyan Ivanov <dmn at debian.org>
> >
> > * Package name : rt2860-source
> > Version : 1.7.0.0
> > Upstream Author : Ralink Tech Inc
> > * URL : http://www.ralinktech.com/
> > * License : GPL-2+ some binary non-free firmware
> > Programming Lang: C
> > Description : source for RT2860 wireless adapter kernel module
> >
> > RT2860 is a wireless adapter found particularly in the ASUS EeePC model
> > 901 and above. The package contains the source of a Linux kernel module
> > for it.
>
> Would you like to include this in the pkg-ralink project on Alioth?
It is currently under debian-eeepc Git[1], but I find what you say
very attractive, especially if it is extended a bit:
[1] http://git.debian.org/?p=debian-eeepc/rt2860.git;a=summary
Would you like to take over the package? I'd gladly put it in the
hands of people having experience dealing with ralink-based cards.
What do the rest of Debian EeePC Team thinks?
The package is as ready for 2.6.26 as I can get it without digging
deep about moving the firmware into a separate package.
> > There may be some licensing problems and this is why I CC
> > debian-legal.
> > All the sources are licensed under GPL-2+, except one file,
> > include/firmware.h, which is generated from a binary blob and contains
> > the following notice:
> <snip>
> > I did not yet check if this code is actually linked in the GPL-2+
> > module, but have a bad feeling it it does. Would a compiled GPL source,
> > including firmware.h be even distributable?
>
> Possibly not. The module source code should go in contrib with the blob
> and firmware.h removed. The blob should go in the firmware-ralink
> binary package built from the firmware-nonfree source package.
Or, the madwifi way - put only -source package in non-free and let
users build the module with module-assistant.
> > Perhaps the module can be changed to load its firmware from
> > external
> > file or even not need that nasty firmware.h (there are traces of
> > support to other hardware and that firmware may be for them).
>
> This should not be too hard. Look at rt73 for an example of how
> this has been done in an existing Ralink driver.
Moving the firmware away would also make it possible for a -modules
package to be made part of linux-modules-extra, right? That would be a
good thing.
--
dam JabberID: dam at jabber.minus273.org
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