From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Chris Marusich Subject: Re: Installation: Load non-free wifi firmware (iwlwifi) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 07:11:17 +0200 Message-ID: <87efk3tqiy.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87r2p2xudf.fsf@gmail.com> <87po3slnvb.fsf@gmail.com> <87po3sjucx.fsf@fastmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:42168) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1f1PqN-0001yr-U4 for help-guix@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Mar 2018 01:11:25 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1f1PqM-0004cc-CY for help-guix@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Mar 2018 01:11:23 -0400 Received: from mail-pf0-x22d.google.com ([2607:f8b0:400e:c00::22d]:34219) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1f1PqM-0004bn-6f for help-guix@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Mar 2018 01:11:22 -0400 Received: by mail-pf0-x22d.google.com with SMTP id q9so2500855pff.1 for ; Wed, 28 Mar 2018 22:11:21 -0700 (PDT) List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-guix-bounces+gcggh-help-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Help-Guix" To: Marius Bakke Cc: help-guix --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Marius Bakke writes: > Chris Marusich writes: > >> Hi Pierre, >> >> Pierre Neidhardt writes: >> >>> linux-libre turns off the ability to load non-free firmware. Why is >>> it so? >> >> I did a little bit of searching on the Internet, and it seems to me like >> the reason why Linux-libre turns off the ability to load non-free >> firmware is because the project does not want to induce you to use >> non-free software. > > This is not true. After all, you may wish to load a firmware that you > have developed yourself, but that is not possible either. The problem > is a limitation of the kernel interface and/or the deblobbing script: > > From an interview with Alexandre Oliva[0]: > > "Indeed, I became aware that some users have got the idea that blocking > the loading of blobs is a feature. It's not; it's just a bug that's > quite difficult to fix. The decision on whether or not to use a piece of > software, be it Free or not, should belong to the users, and it's not > our intent to make that difficult." > > [0] https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/2013-11-08-linux-libre-interv= iew-by-bruce-byfield.en.html Thank you for correcting my understanding! I read the interview you linked, as well as the original email thread referenced by the LWN article [1]. My understanding is now that Linux-libre wants both (1) to avoid inducing users to install non-free firmware (e.g. even logging the non-free firmware name is something they would consider to be "inducing" the user to install the non-free firmware), and (2) to allow users to install whatever firmware they want, regardless of whether it is free or non-free firmware. However, due to the way the kernel Linux loads firmware combined with the way that Linux-libre mangles the non-free firmware identifiers to accomplish (1), users of Linux-libre currently need to go through the extra effort of modifying the Linux-libre source code (which they are free to do) if they want to load non-free firmware (or firmware they have built themselves but have chosen not to share). It is good to know that the Linux-libre project intends to allow users to do whatever they want with the kernel. I appreciate you taking the time to clarify this for me! Footnotes:=20 [1] https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnu-linux-libre/2010-12/msg00022= .html =2D-=20 Chris --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEy/WXVcvn5+/vGD+x3UCaFdgiRp0FAlq8dXUACgkQ3UCaFdgi Rp191hAAzzp+FfGxQumG/YNMEezkzaIwkYnpOukygBCbt/QvqUdHdpEiv+zZ423A eSgcQzRBEv+djV3Fvr1E52L0B39exVd++iMMLbAiOwo+MbMeIOwhqhVcrnpMPGCO +lciLnhueDY4IUHDLiwx4lUxsIfeSlo/Ve9FyMn4EST+KRw7rwOZbbzUi9qUamQv 1EbyqPMB+IJ5h/VjMzTbusw9UVFLsXFAaeHgpxtOYVGapAAaBrkR/nLjyQ3K7Dbq 9wvlOTuRdU95FYlsB6cJg23N7qxajX7IUkXTupyyKIcKe46XKBkeQDj2rBeHV26g cI17XjrMXK8kkdN8+Cc8ZxqiCfmjWJOT9Z41Hj8Nh5f7tBjAJWb0YtDzf29vTE6L 4q4aXU3v1rEehCO1tiysp2qHEgOqVZ+Vn2DWfqSB46TyaTd7GvdNDhXc3gWDcLAQ lydexi05fdMxCMuzrT4zIgL/VFTo8BQKSu0UQC5Oj/SWl4pxFuLRe7e3n5SlmNA8 itkDVY3bPXDmh7jjMZCqrEfGtUp4Lsr7hNX6DGI915Nxd8hptVD9G3p1F6AfhzPo wLw5GZCOuZgxiqKLu21iy9LJM3V7Lu5pKOQ/XXsxdzezKrrkbfJebeQctD4ObAgB H9wSbyJhGA3KouTGOApku+pLprK9uUGhpHc5bok+ZhXU+/RNgpY= =tY7v -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--