It's not part of the software distribution. At all. [LWN.net]

It's not part of the software distribution. At all.

Posted Sep 29, 2011 13:37 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Papering over a binary blob by gezza
Parent article: Papering over a binary blob

So the solution appears to be that as the firmware blob has to be distributed as hardware, there is no issue with it being part of the software distribution. So why not sell it as a CD with the hardware?

Possible. But then you'll need embed CD-readed in the GTA04 device... and this will looks strange and unwieldy.

A final question for those who know the hardware. Once this binary blob is loaded, will it still be possible for the other processor on the SDIO to load a new blob, or change the programming of the existing one, by triggering a reset or some other means?

Have you actually read the article? Of course not (or at least that's the stated goal). That's the whole point! FSF's position is clear: if you have some large binary blob of a firmware somewhere in the system, but there are no way to upgrade it without hardware changes then you can as well treat it as part of hardware - that's why you'll need CD reader without external access to it in your initial example. This is not as stupid as it sounds (people did similar tricks with arcade machines where LD was irreplaceable and was considered part of the hardware), but it does not make sense for mobile phone.

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It's not part of the software distribution. At all.

Posted Sep 29, 2011 17:24 UTC (Thu) by gezza (subscriber, #40700) [Link]

>> A final question for those who know the hardware. Once this binary blob is loaded, will it still be possible for the other processor on the SDIO to load a new blob, or ...

>Have you actually *read* the article? Of course not (or at least that's the stated goal).

Do you *actually* know *anything* about hardware?
Two processors which share a bus means that either can perform the same commands on it. Therefore the question is not unreasonable.

And the stated goal is to avoid distributing binaries with the software, not necessarily to prevent any particular access between primary processors and peripherals.

Distributing a CD with the hardware allows the end user to read binaries from said CD when he builds new software to program into the device. As the binary is not distributed with the software distribution, there can be no license issue *with the software*.