[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

Thu Mar 24 17:36:50 CET 2011

On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:18:03 +0100, Olivier Blin <mageia at blino.org> wrote:
+
+> Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> writes:
+> 
+> >>> It can't be "free" and have "non-free" firmware... previously the
+> >>> firmware only were on the Live CD's. I am not sure anything has been
+> >>> changed in that regard (i.e. I didn't see the matter get discussed
+> >>> yet).
+> >>
+> >> They were also on the PowerPack images, and they are installed
+> >> automatically over a network install
+> >
+> > But to be installed via network you have to have a network connection
+> > first, n'est-ce pas?
+> > That's what this thread is about.
+> 
+> It is now also about "in which media should we include non-free
+> packages?" :)
+> 
+
+First of all, I would like to state that my intention was just to ask about
+the non-free blobs that free open source drivers need to work. But
+the discussion seems to have extended to general non-free software...
+
+From my point of view, including firmwares like intel, radeon, or linksys
+ones is just adding more instances of what already is in the kernel, it
+contains binary blobs also. I really was not thinking of things like nVidia
+or Radeon drivers, or others, that could raise more problems.
+
+I like the idea of an addtional iso with non-free drivers, but using two
+medias could be problematic. Just a blind shot, if this can be done
+easily in Linux: could we have two isos that could be combined into
+one by the user itself at burn time, or when dumping to an USB flash drive ?
+So from your point of view, you just offer a Free ISO for distribution,
+and an additional driver pack, and the user just have to burn/carry one
+media.
+
+-- 
+J.A. Magallon <jamagallon()ono!com>     \               Software is like sex:
+                                         \         It's better when it's free
+