Subject: firmware-linux-nonfree: Please include edgeport/down3.bin

From: John Goerzen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:35:53 -0600

Package: firmware-linux-nonfree
Version: 0.27
Severity: wishlist

The edgeport/1 firmware, specifically edgeport/down3.bin, is included
in the 2.6.32 kernel.org tree but nowhere in Debian according to apt
and Contents-amd64.gz.  This is needed for USB-to-serial converters.

-- John

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

firmware-linux-nonfree depends on no packages.

firmware-linux-nonfree recommends no packages.

Versions of packages firmware-linux-nonfree suggests:
ii  initramfs-tools               0.98.5     tools for generating an initramfs
ii  linux-image-2.6.32-3-amd64 [l 2.6.32-9   Linux 2.6.32 for 64-bit PCs
ii  linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 [l 2.6.32-28  Linux 2.6.32 for 64-bit PCs

-- no debconf information

---

From: Ben Hutchings <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:27:56 +0000

> and Contents-amd64.gz.  This is needed for USB-to-serial converters.

The licence information we have is:

Licence: Allegedly GPLv2+, but no source visible. Marked:
//**************************************************************
//* Edgeport/4 Binary Image
//* Generated by HEX2C v1.06
//* Copyright (C) 1998 Inside Out Networks, All rights reserved.
//**************************************************************

This means we do not have clear permission to distribute it.  You could
try talking to Inside Out Networks (which now seems to be part of Digi
International) about fixing this.  I have had some success with other
companies.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
                                                              - Albert Camus

---

From: John Goerzen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:53:14 -0600

> Licence: Allegedly GPLv2+, but no source visible. Marked:

Hi Ben,

Over at 
ftp://ftp1.digi.com/support/beta/linux/edgeport/edgeport-0.5-1.gz (this 
is a tar file, despite the name), there is what appears to be this file 
in drivers/io_fw_down3.h; though the header there is:

//**************************************************************
//* Edgeport Binary Image (for TI based products)
//* Generated by TIBin2C v2.00 (watchport)
//* Copyright (C) 2001 Inside Out Networks, All rights reserved.
//**************************************************************

A copy of the GPL is included in this archive as COPYING, though is not 
explicitly referenced from this file.

That file is #included solely from drivers/io_ti.c, which bears this notice:

/*
  * Edgeport USB Serial Converter driver
  *
  * Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Inside Out Networks, All rights reserved.
  * Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email-masked]>
  *
  *      This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
modify
  *      it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as 
published by
  *      the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  *      (at your option) any later version.

drivers/Makefile.in, also explicitly under the GPL, flags it as a 
dependency for io_ti.o as well.

What are your thoughts on whether that is sufficient to merit rights to 
redistribute as part of the non-free package?

-- John

---

From: Ben Hutchings <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:45:00 +0000

> in drivers/io_fw_down3.h; though the header there is:

Which matches what I said...

> redistribute as part of the non-free package?

Either it's distributed under the GPL, in which case we can't redistribute
it without source, or it's distributed under some other licence, in which
case we don't know whether we can redistribute it.

Ben.