On Fri, 2009-06-26 at 09:47 -0500, Bruno Wolff III wrote: > Broadcom is bad because not only do they not help with the kernel drivers, > they have restrictions on distribution of the firmware that drivers need > to load into the device. > > This is from the linux wireless project web page for b43: > The Broadcom wireless chip needs software, called "firmware", that runs on the > wireless chip itself during operation. This firmware is copyrighted by Broadcom > and it must be extracted from Broadcom's proprietary drivers. To get such > firmware on your system, you must download the driver from a legal distribution > point, as noted below. Then you must extract the firmware from that Broadcom > driver by using b43-fwcutter (or bcm43xx-fwcutter) and install it in the > special directory for firmware - usually /lib/firmware. Please note that the > firmware from the binary drivers is Copyrighted by Broadcom Corporation and > must not be redistributed. The other shoe dropping here: Does this mean that sites such as easylife and dnmouse could potentially (albeit inadvertently) be illegally re-distributing Broadcom firmware if they are making it available as an RPM? It would seem to me that an RPM could automate the download and install on F11 from a legal distribution point without actually carrying the firmware. Thoughts or ideas on how this could happen? Like it or not, we will have to deal with systems using Broadcom hardware one way or another... -- ==================================================== “If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” --Mark Twain -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
