On Thu, 2022-04-21 at 11:12 +0200, Mattias Wadenstein wrote: > For free software reasons, I believe that Debian should encourage this > method of distribution too, because it opens up the option for free > firmware to be developed as replacement for the non-free ones (or > encouraging vendors to (eventually) release their firmware under a free > licence). In the case of firwmare on the device, it is much harder to load > a free one.
Agreed, but firmware signatures are blocking free firmware in two ways: Some hardware requires the vendor's signature and the only firmware they have signed is proprietary firmware. The Intel/AMD CPU microcode and nvidia GPU firmware are examples of this. Some free firmware runs without signatures on some computers, but on other computers the OEM requires the hardware vendor's signature on the binaries, preventing users from modifying the firmware and loading it on their hardware. An example of this is the Intel Sound Open Firmware project, which requires no signatures on a select few devices (IIRC Chromebooks) but requires Intel signatures on most devices, and Debian packages only the Intel signed binaries. -- bye, pabs https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
