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Date:      Sun, 29 Oct 2017 12:01:16 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        "Ngie Cooper (yaneurabeya)" <yaneurabeya@gmail.com>
Cc:        Kevin Oberman <rkoberman@gmail.com>, Thomas Mueller <mueller6722@twc.com>,  FreeBSD Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: iwm not in GENERIC kernel
Message-ID:  <CANCZdfqV_-0K7TuVFv3xdn8QmfGXhpNqN0D8pmiZpSKiGQOkcA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <B4DA2B5B-C590-4A96-B6DE-CEFD9F467155@gmail.com>
References:  <20171029010942.GD5682@gmail.com> <1282E750-97FF-43A7-BFEE-3B82597311F0@gmail.com> <59f5a3e3.82b6df0a.9f209.0495SMTPIN_ADDED_MISSING@mx.google.com> <5BE53074-F3E7-4392-A48A-E01474A9AFAE@gmail.com> <CAN6yY1vu6cO2SOPqz7nTyrXLwxs7rFBNBnt59wqSMbBMeYSbrg@mail.gmail.com> <B4DA2B5B-C590-4A96-B6DE-CEFD9F467155@gmail.com>

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On Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 11:29 AM, Ngie Cooper (yaneurabeya) <
yaneurabeya@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> > On Oct 29, 2017, at 10:26, Kevin Oberman <rkoberman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> =E2=80=A6
>
> > But I thought that all modern wireless interfaces and many others load
> blobs. Is the source for the firmware blob for iwn (which is in GENERIC)
> available?
>
>         There=E2=80=99s a piece that=E2=80=99s open sourced that a BSD de=
veloper has
> written, but there=E2=80=99s also a binary payload that we have no insigh=
t into.
> Cheers,
> -Ngie
>
> $ file sys/contrib/dev/iwm/*.uu
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-3160-16.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-3160-17.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-3160-9.fw.uu:   empty
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7260-16.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7260-17.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7260-9.fw.uu:   empty
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7265-16.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7265-17.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7265-9.fw.uu:   empty
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7265D-17.fw.uu: uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-7265D-22.fw.uu: uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-8000C-16.fw.uu: uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-8000C-17.fw.uu: uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-8000C-22.fw.uu: uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
> sys/contrib/dev/iwm/iwm-8265-22.fw.uu:  uuencoded or xxencoded, ASCII tex=
t
>

The blobs run on the actual card itself, not on the host. This is the
firmware for the wireless SoC that's on the card. We have allowed those in
the kernel since the very early days of the project when scsi controllers
like isp(4) downloaded firmware.

This is somewhat different than the recently discussed HBAs that have
binary blobs that run on the host, which have no business in GENERIC...

Warner



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