Is iwlwifi free (as in freedom)?

qorg11 · 07-17-2019, 07:43 PM

Hi. I have a Thinkpad T400 with the network card Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN. I'm using Debian, so i had to install firmware-iwlwifi from the repo non-free.
Why is it on non-free? I found this "iwlwifi" source code https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux.../intel/iwlwifi
You can also build iwlwifi from driver backports https://backports.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
So why is it non-free if you can build it?

evo2 · 07-17-2019, 08:35 PM

Hi,

the kernel driver is free, but the firmware it needs to work isn't.
See https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux...are.git/about/

Evo2.