linux-kernel - Re: [git pull] drm

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Date:	Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:35:08 -0500
From:	Will Dyson <will.dyson@...il.com>
To:	Pekka Paalanen <pq@....fi>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Dave Airlie <airlied@...ux.ie>,
	Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@...e.fr>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, dri-devel@...ts.sf.net
Subject: Re: [git pull] drm

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Pekka Paalanen <pq@....fi> wrote:

> The big question is what we call ctxprogs: binary blobs that are
> clearly executable, running somewhere in the GPU. No-one seems
> to know, if those are copyrightable, or if they can be redistributed.
> In their current form, they have been recorded from the nvidia
> proprietary driver using mmiotrace, and copied verbatim for each
> card type.
>
> Would you be willing to pull that kind of stuff into Linux?
>
> I would not even dare sending them to the Linux firmware
> repository, since they have some license requirements, too.

This seems similar to the unfortunate situation with the b43 wireless
card firmware. Broadcom refuses to provide the firmware under a
redistributable license (or even as files separate from their
proprietary drivers). This did not stop b43 from being included in
Linux. Distributions have dealt with it by providing a script that
downloads the proprietary driver and extracts the firmware from it to
files in /lib/firmware.

Do you think that a similar solution for nouveau would be legally
problematic? Or is the issue technical, since you mention that the
ctxprogs were obtained by mmiotrace, instead of a more straightforward
extraction from the binary driver blobs?

-- 
Will Dyson
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