Bug#999485: Please add brcmfmac43456-sdio.* files as it's not just used in RPi devices

[James Addison]

Package: firmware-brcm80211
Followup-For: Bug #999485
X-Debbugs-Cc: gw...@gwolf.org, didi.deb...@cknow.org, 1023...@bugs.debian.org

Dear Maintainer,

> There is now a license available for the brcmfmac43456 firmware: it's included
> in the relevant RPF package metadata, in the usual copyright file:
>
> https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-nonfree_20221012-1~bpo11+1+rpt1.debian.tar.xz

I've prepared a patch locally that attempts to include this license for
distribution with Debian.

It does the following:

  * Adds a new entry to the debian/copyright file that adds the updated license
and mentions the download origin (similar to the existing entry).  The file
pattern is specific to the 43456-class firmware files.

  * Moves the LICENSE file to LICENSE.Broadcom as a disambiguation.

  * Adds a LICENSE.Synaptics file, matching the contents of debian/copyright.

And some notes:

  * Although this is an updated license, I've confirmed that the firmware file
*contents* have *not* changed the raspi-firmware-1.20220830+ds upload
(before the license was available).  The content hashes stay the same, at:

c5bc73bfee9085c2ba1e5f52bc811cabae81cd16df2d1e866aa646ee7fe83534  
brcmfmac43456-sdio.bin.base64
08f7ed881894d41f1e50ed0446fb9868c1019b92f8ad582e6cc361577a3e57a6  
brcmfmac43456-sdio.clm_blob.base64
44e0bb322dc1f39a4b0a89f30ffdd28bc93f7d7aaf534d06d229fe56f6198194  
brcmfmac43456-sdio.txt

  * I've placed the copyright year for Synaptics as Y2020, the year that the
acquisition of Broadcom by Synaptics took place.

If that approach sounds sensible (or not!) please let me know and I can adjust
it and/or upload the patch here/elsewhere.

Bug#999485: Please add brcmfmac43456-sdio.* files as it's not just used in RPi devices

[James Addison]

Package: firmware-brcm80211
Followup-For: Bug #999485
X-Debbugs-Cc: gw...@gwolf.org, didi.deb...@cknow.org, 1023...@bugs.debian.org

> The other option is that they get included upstream in
> linux-firmware.git by upstream? 

As an update about this: in the past it seems that one of the blockers for
upstreaming was an unclear licensing situation for the firmware.  The other,
maybe more important blocker is that it tends to be (as I understand it)
vendors themselves who are expected to offer files to the linux-firmware.git
repo.

There is now a license available for the brcmfmac43456 firmware: it's included
in the relevant RPF package metadata, in the usual copyright file:

https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-nonfree_20221012-1~bpo11+1+rpt1.debian.tar.xz

(since we're talking about non-free firmware, I don't think that there is a
DFSG compatibility concern with packaging this, although the linux-firmware.git
maintainers likely have their own acceptance criteria.  even so, if/when we
are creating another package, we should probably distribute the same license
file now that it's available.  I can prepare a patch if that'd be helpful,
since I'm risking creating work by mentioning it)

There don't appear to be many Synaptics contributors active on the Linux
kernel mailing lists re: wireless devices.. so I'm not sure what the best way
to approach them to ask about submitting the firmware upstream would be.

RPF have also had inbound requests to upload the firmware, but I don't think
that it's their responsibility (or right) to do that.


And finally a kind of meta-point: I've found the name 'firmware' kinda
confusing while trying to install and correctly configure my RPi.  It seems to
me like we're referring to two types of firmware: firmware used by kernel
modules (as in: linux-firmware.git, firmware-brcm80211, brcmfmac, etc), but
also boot-time-firmware required during all the weirdness to get the RPi
system to load a kernel and initrd.

Is there another term for the latter, to disambiguate it when we talk about it
and name packages?  Software that's like firmware and used to boot the system?