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Would the BCM5719 open-source firmware work on regular computers? (github.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello,

I'm interested in using the BCM5719 (specifically, the Dell BCM5719 NetXtreme 4x PCIe Network Card) with the open-source firmware replacement. Can it work with regular computers (e.g., Dell Precision T1700 MT)? I was reading through the docs and saw that it only lets you build two versions, one for the Talos II and one for the Blackbird. If not, could this possibly be reworked to work on regular computers?

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the information!

I do have Libreboot on all my computers, my T1700 MT is currently Librebooted, that's the server I'm planning on using this card with. I wonder, since the firmware is nearly entirely open, we can possibly support it then, no?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

So I did look more into it, and apparently the open firmware is technically compatible with PCIe cards using this chip, but doesn't provide any advantages over just wiping the firmware and letting the chip default to its built-in fallback firmware, and so the maintainer doesn't see any value in explicitly supporting it.

Now the question is whether you consider the proprietary fallback firmware to be acceptable to run - this might sound weird, but for example FSF has explicitly made exceptions for devices with built-in firmware to be able to qualify for the Respects Your Freedom certification, so if your view aligns with theirs, you might consider this to be completely OK. If not, the free firmware appears to have a similar feature set, you'll just have to jump through more hoops.

Also do note that both the fallback firmware and the free firmware are missing many features of the proprietary firmware, so make sure to check it's not missing anything you need (wake on LAN, Jumbo frames and PXE boot seem like the most notable missing features to me).

More info on support for various PCIe cards