I sent this to the rpmfusion-developers list yesterday. It occurred to me that it might be worth sending here too...

So, is there any chance that the wording below justifies or leads to approval of a b43-firwmare package in the official Fedora repository? If so, then I will cease my efforts to get such a package into RPM Fusion. It certainly would be better for our users to have these packages in the main repository rather than in a 3rd party one.

Thanks for your consideration!

John

P.S. Regarding my reference to "any Fedora Authority", all my Fedora project inquiries thus far have been 1:1 or 1:few between me and the interested parties. This is my first formal inquiry on this issue.

----- Forwarded message from "John W. Linville" linville@tuxdriver.com -----

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:01:27 -0500 From: "John W. Linville" linville@tuxdriver.com To: rpmfusion-developers@lists.rpmfusion.org Subject: consider a b43-firmware package like this?

Greetings,

Probably some of you know my name and my role with Fedora and the Linux kernel. If not, then suffice it to say that I am very interested in having people get wireless working as easily as possible.

One problem that often hinders users in that regard is firmware for their wireless devices. Fortunately, Fedora has accepted firmware packages in the main repository for some time. And, we have had good success with getting firmware made available under suitable licenses for Fedora. Still, one particular vendor has been non- (but not necessarily anti-)cooperative: Broadcom. This is a problem, as their devices are quite common.

The "approved" firmware for use with the b43 and b43legacy drivers comes from the OpenWRT website, where it is provided as part of larger MIPS binaries. AFAIK Broadcom has never bothered OpenWRT about this, yet neither have they offered an explicitly stated license for this practice.

The MIPS binaries from the OpenWRT site in turn come from packages distributed by wireless AP vendors in order to comply with the GPL. The MIPS binaries are pre-compiled in those packages, but they are clearly intended to be linked into Linux kernels to run on those APs. In my mind, this at least implies intent that it is alright to redistribute these binaries.

So, I have created packages which use these AP vendor's GPL packages as sources, extract the MIPS binaries, then further extract the wireless firmware using b43-fwcutter. It is a bit odd in that the src.rpm file (containing the AP vendor code) is huge, while the binary rpm file is tiny. But, they work just fine. :-) I have packages for both b43 and b43legacy. I will include the COPYING file I composed for inclusion in the b43 firmware package below. I have a similar one for the b43legacy package.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the string of arguments above has yet to sway any Fedora authority to bless these packages. So I wonder, is the case above strong enough to merit including such packages in RPM Fusion? If that seems likely, then I'll be happy to submit the packages for your review. Obviously this would seem to belong in the "non free" section...

Thanks,

John

P.S. COPYING file from the b43-firmware package below. (The "by permission of" bit was suggested by someone else -- I'm happy to augment it or remove it as anyone might suggest...)

---

Redistributed by permission of Broadcom in binary form only, no modifications permitted.

The source archive for this package was reached through a link at the following URL:

http://www.linksys.com/gpl/

The text at that location reads as follows:

GPL Code Center

The source code files available on this page have been provided under one or more open source licenses. Select your Linksys product model and a firmware version from the list below to download the source code library.

The source code found here is complete to the best of Linksys’ knowledge. If you believe any additional source code files should be provided under the applicable open source license, please contact Linksys at linksys-opensource@linksys.com and provide in detail the product or code module in question. Linksys is committed to meeting the requirements of the open source licenses including the GNU General Public License (GPL) and will make all required source code available.

The following URL is the direct link to the archive used as the source of this package:

ftp://ftp.linksys.com/opensourcecode/wrt350n/1.03.2/WRT350N_v1.03.2_US.tgz

The source archive was specifically provided by Linksys in order to fulfill obligations arising from distribution of software licensed under the GPL and other open source licenses. Given that fact, it is reasonable to infer that redistribution of the archive itself and the contents of that archive is accepted by Linksys, Broadcom, and any other copyright holders. -- John W. Linville linville@tuxdriver.com

----- End forwarded message -----