zaptel-firmware package and dependencies

[Kilian Krause]

Faidon,

On Wed, Jul 25, 2007 at 05:43:43PM +0300, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> Kilian Krause wrote:
> >> Those firmwares are arch-independent (run on some
> >> processor/fpga/whatever on the device). Their license allows
> >> redistribution but the source is not included, and hence they are not
> >> included in main.
> > 
> > Why not make a debconf query in the maintainer postinst script and have
> > them be downloaded if agreed by the user?
> <snip>
> > Not having a source to these binary blobs makes them not suitable for
> > Debian for sure. But these driver parts can be perfectly legally
> > downloaded by a maintainer script.
> I disagree.
> 
> Packages that download non-free stuff -even if it's optional- belong to 
> contrib, not main.
> 
> There is precedent here, msttcorefonts comes first to mind.
> 
> Having a separate source package in non-free which includes all the 
> firmwares. Or, you could have a contrib package that downloads the 
> firmwares from the web. I'd prefer the first solution.

Is not having source but "free" binary blobs suitable for non-free? Of
course non-free would have the benefit of allowing for a non-online
install. Yet somewhat my gut feeling tells me contrib and download is
the better choice. 

Any more opinions? Mark, Tzafrir, Diego? Shall we go for non-free
package including all blobs?


> If the firmware "ABI" breaks, then IMHO the firmwares should be renamed 
> accordingly with a version number and provide the latest version of each 
> "ABI" in your package.

Right.

-- 
Best regards,
Kilian
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