On Sat, Aug 28, 2004 at 11:32:46PM -0700, Joshua Kwan wrote: > Nathanael Nerode wrote: > >* Since I actually have an advansys card to test on, I should be able to > >convert this driver to userland firmware loading without the annoyances of > >a remote testing cycle. > > But how do you expect people to install Sarge on systems where the only > mass storage controller is an advansys card? Certainly, telling people > to download a bunch of firmware udebs first before they can install, or > making them do so within the installer, is a huge setback in installer > userfriendliness.
.udeb loading from floppies or net is possible right now, altough less than convenient. > (So first of all, please let me implore you to let this slide for Sarge, > at the very least. It's way too late in the game to start molesting SCSI > low level drivers, and to have to come up with initrd-tools and > debian-installer infrastructure to accomodate lots of firmware loads at > boot time and pre-installation. _No way_.) > > Initially the big brouhaha was with tg3. It worked fine without the > firmware for 99% of devices, so that really was no matter to me. > > Then we removed acenic support as well as some firmware for qlogic > cards, USB keyspan driver, what have you... Well, I figured few people > used it, so _to me_ it was but a small issue. > > But eventually, if you keep up this crusade, installing Debian will > involve having megabytes of firmware files at hand. Chances are that NIC > drivers will get de-blobbed at some point, and will need firmware to > work. Ooops. There goes the idea of downloading the firmware from the > Internet at install time. BTW, what is the thing that is reproached to those drivers ? That we don't have source to those firmware blobs ? Or that we don't have the right to modify them ? What is the prefered form for upstream to provide those firmware thingies ? And do they really have source for that ? Friendly, Sven Luther
