#79262 bochs 3.0 bios/i440fx.bin is non-free

Message #5 received at submit@debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier" <contact@hacktivis.me>

To: bug-guix@gnu.org

Subject: bochs 3.0 bios/i440fx.bin is non-free

Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2025 23:10:06 +0200

Hi,

Not a Guix user but checked the packaging recipes and it doesn't
seems to be handled.

See:
- https://sources.debian.org/src/bochs/3.0%2Bdfsg-1/debian/changelog
- https://bugs.gentoo.org/961640

TL;DR:
- Bochs 3.0 ships with the bios/i440fx.bin blob
- i440fx BIOS is under a non-free license
- Even if it would be free, it requires NBASM which ships with no source code,
  and is also under a non-free license

Best regards

Message #10 received at 79262-done@debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>

To: "Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier" <contact@hacktivis.me>

Cc: 79262-done@debbugs.gnu.org

Subject: Re: bug#79262: bochs 3.0 bios/i440fx.bin is non-free

Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2025 19:16:09 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 11:10:06PM +0200, Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Not a Guix user but checked the packaging recipes and it doesn't
> seems to be handled.
> 
> See:
> - https://sources.debian.org/src/bochs/3.0%2Bdfsg-1/debian/changelog
> - https://bugs.gentoo.org/961640
> 
> TL;DR:
> - Bochs 3.0 ships with the bios/i440fx.bin blob
> - i440fx BIOS is under a non-free license
> - Even if it would be free, it requires NBASM which ships with no source code,
>   and is also under a non-free license
> 

Thanks! This is now fixed in Guix. I've opened a bug report on codeberg
under guix/guix to track the other firmware included.

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