I.MX SDMA

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Dec  5, 2019, "Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli" <GNUtoo at cyberdimension.org> wrote:

> In the linux-libre deblob script, the imx-sdma driver has
> reject_firmware.

> I was wondering what was the rationale behind it.

Oh, wow, that was put in a long time ago!  2.6.37-gnu.  I'm afraid I
don't recall having ever come across
https://git.pengutronix.de/cgit/imx/sdma-firmware/
but the absence of a comment about analysing it suggests I haven't.

The assembler program is clearly Free Software (GPLv2+), but the .asm
sources don't carry license notices, nor is there a license nearby that
could be assumed to apply to them, except for the fact that the .c files
containing the object code in char[], presumably generated out of them,
claim to be under GPLv2+ as well.

The lack of comments, notes, documentation or any symbolic information
whatsoever make it less credible that the asm files are corresponding
source code under GPLv2, but it's not unthinkable that, given a very
limited assembler, such smallish code samples could have been coded by
hand that way.

Studying the development history might of the git repo might shed some
light one way or another, as would contacting the developers.  Would you
like to do that?  Hopefully we can then grow the small set of
confirmed-Free firmware, and stop deblobbing this driver.

Thanks for asking!

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter   he/him   https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo
Free Software Evangelist           Stallman was right, but he's left :(
GNU Toolchain Engineer    FSMatrix: It was he who freed the first of us
FSF & FSFLA board member                The Savior shall return (true);