Firmware

Fedora Firmware Special Interest Group

Mission

Goal: to get all legally available firmware needed to get devices to work packaged for / in Fedora so that a users devices which require firmware will just work

We aim to accomplish this goal through a variety of activities:

• Creating packages of firmware
• Contact manufacturers asking them under which conditions their firmware may be redistributed
• Contact manufacturers requesting them to modify their firmware redistribution conditions, to make them Fedora compatible

Available firmware

• alsa-firmware - several ALSA-supported sound cards
• atmel-firmware - Atmel at76c50x wireless network chips
• b43-openfwwf - some Broadcom 43xx series WLAN chips
• bfa-firmware - Brocade Fibre Channel HBA
• crystalhd-firmware - Broadcom Crystal HD video decoder
• ipw2100-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network adapters
• ipw2200-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 network adapters
• iscan-firmware - Epson flatbed scanners
• ivtv-firmware - Hauppauge PVR 250/350/150/500/USB2 model series
• iwl100-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 100 network adapters
• iwl1000-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 1000 B/G/N network adapters
• iwl105-firmware - Intel® Centrino Wireless-N 105 network adapters
• iwl135-firmware - Intel® Centrino Wireless-N 135 network adapters
• iwl2000-firmware - Intel® Centrino Wireless-N 2000 network adapters
• iwl2030-firmware - Intel® Centrino Wireless-N 2030 network adapters
• iwl3160-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 3160 network adapters
• iwl3945-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G network adapters
• iwl4965-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 A/G/N network adapters
• iwl5000-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 5000 A/G/N network adapters
• iwl5150-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 5150 A/G/N network adapters
• iwl6000-firmware - Intel® PRO/Wireless 6000 A/G/N network adapters
• iwl6000g2a-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 6005 network adapters
• iwl6000g2b-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 6030 network adapters
• iwl6050-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 6050 network adapters
• iwl7260-firmware - Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 7260 network adapters
• libertas-sd8686-firmware - Marvell Libertas SD 8686 network adapters
• libertas-sd8787-firmware - Marvell Libertas SD 8787 network adapters
• libertas-usb8388-firmware - Marvell Libertas USB 8388 network adapters
• libertas-usb8388-olpc-firmware - Marvell Libertas USB 8388 network adapters used in OLPC
• linux-firmware - various firmware files used by the Linux kernel
• midisport-firmware - M-Audio/Midiman USB MIDI and audio devices
• uhd-firmware - Ettus Research products
• zd1211-firmware - wireless network adapters based on ZyDAS ZD1211 chipset

Tools for loading/extracting/dealing with firmware

• alsa-tools-firmware - tools for uploading firmware to some soundcards
• b43-fwcutter - firmware extraction tool for Broadcom wireless driver
• bcm43xx-fwcutter - firmware extraction tool for Broadcom wireless drive
• gobi_loader - firmware loader for Qualcomm Gobi WWAN devices
• fxload - firmware download to EZ-USB devices
• isight-firmware-tools - Firmware extraction tools for Apple Built-in iSight camera.

Firmware and related tools being packaged

• arduino-rambo - RAMBo 3D printer electronics firmware for use with Arduino IDE.

Firmware currently missing from Fedora

Notice that this is just a list of firmware which we would like to see in Fedora, firmware in this list has NOT been checked yet for proper licensing.

Networking Devices

• 3Com Bluetooth Wireless PC Card 3CRWB6096
• Thomson SpeedTouch 330 USB
• sil (for prism and prism_pci)

Multimedia Devices

• AV7110 based DVB cards ( link )
• OREN or51211 and 51132 demodulators ( link )
• various USB TV devices ( link )
• R5U87x based webcams ( link )

Orphaned Packages

• aic94xx-firmware - Adaptec SAS 44300, 48300, 58300 Sequencer Firmware for AIC94xx driver. This particular driver was disabled in kernel.
• ar9170-firmware - for Atheros AR9170 wireless network adapters. Superseded by carl9170 available in linux-firmware.
• asterisk-firmware - for the Digium S101I (IAXy). It was merged back into the main package, asterisk.
• cx18-firmware - for Conexant cx23418-based video capture devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• netxen-firmware - for Conexant cx23418-based video capture devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ql2100-firmware - for qlogic 2100 devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ql2200-firmware - for qlogic 2200 devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ql23xx-firmware - for qlogic 23xx devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ql2400-firmware - for qlogic 2400 devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ql2500-firmware - for qlogic 2500 devices. Merged into linux-firmware.
• rt61pci-firmware - for Ralink® RT2561/RT2661 A/B/G network adaptors. Merged into linux-firmware.
• rt73usb-firmware - for Ralink® RT2571W/RT2671 A/B/G network adaptors. Merged into linux-firmware.
• ueagle-atm4-firmware - for usb adsl modems based on Eagle IV chipset. Merged into linux-firmware.

Packagers/Reviewers/People interested

• HansdeGoede
• ArthurPemberton
• PeterLemenkov

Packaging guidelines

In addition to the standard Packaging:Guidelines, it is important to realise that firmware does not need to be under a free software / oss license. As long as it may be freely redistributed without restrictions, it may be packaged.

List of firmware which we can NOT package

• b43-firmware and b43legacy-firmware - Broadcom refuses to re-license them under redistributable license. Please, try b43-openfwwf first. Perhaps, you'll be fully satisfied with this drop-in replacement.
• bluez-firmware - Bluetooth firmware distributed by the BlueZ project. We didn't get permissions from Broadcom to distribute them.

References

• Packaging:Guidelines#Legal