[HN Gopher] Asahi Linux Add Support for the Broadcom FullMAC WiF...
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       Asahi Linux Add Support for the Broadcom FullMAC WiFi Chips Used on
       Apple T2/M1
        
       Author : nixcraft
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2021-12-26 17:46 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | cf100clunk wrote:
       | Here's the RFC thread from that tweet:
       | 
       | https://lore.kernel.org/linux-acpi/20211226153624.162281-1-m...
        
         | Dunedan wrote:
         | Unfortunately this doesn't include any alternative for the non-
         | redistributable firmware, so here we go again like in good old
         | isight.fw times:
         | 
         | > As you might expect, the firmware for these machines is not
         | available
         | 
         | > under a redistributable license; however, every owner of one
         | of these
         | 
         | > machines _is_ implicitly licensed to posess the firmware, and
         | the OS
         | 
         | > packages containing it are available under well-known URLs on
         | Apple's
         | 
         | > CDN with no authentication.
         | 
         | >
         | 
         | > Our plan to support this is to propose a platform firmware
         | mechanism,
         | 
         | > where platforms can provide a firmware package in the EFI
         | system
         | 
         | > partition along with a manifest, and distros will extract it
         | to
         | 
         | > /lib/firmware on boot or otherwise make it available to the
         | kernel.
         | 
         | >
         | 
         | > Then, on M1 platforms, our install script, which performs all
         | the
         | 
         | > bootloader installation steps required to run Linux on these
         | machines in
         | 
         | > the first place, will also take care of copying the firmware
         | from the
         | 
         | > base macOS image to the EFI partition. On T2 platforms, we'll
         | provide an
         | 
         | > analogous script that users can manually run prior to a
         | normal EFI Linux
         | 
         | > installation to just grab the firmware from
         | /usr/share/firmware/wifi in
         | 
         | > the running macOS.
        
           | R0b0t1 wrote:
           | I see it as more realistic to just accept that practical use
           | for an average user requires redistribution and do it
           | regardless of what the law may say otherwise, possibly from a
           | location where such awful interpretations aren't enforceable.
           | 
           | You have the implicit right to the proper operation of the
           | hardware you purchased. Such rights historically trump the
           | rights of IP holders upon conflict.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-26 23:02 UTC)