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Ronald G Minnich | 1 Apr 2003 03:25

Re: GPL and NDA

On Mon, 31 Mar 2003 hcyun <at> etri.re.kr wrote:

> I have documents for a specific chipset which I get  with NDA. 
> And I'm trying to port Linuxbios on that chipset. 
> As LinuxBIOS is GPL, I know I must make my port publicly available. 
> In this case, Is it a violation of NDA or not? Does it depend on NDA? 

- you can build GPL code based on NDA chipsets, but you MUST get the 
  permission to do that from the holder of the GPL
- it is a violation of the NDA if you release GPL code without
  getting permission
- you do not have to release your GPL code if you never release your
  linuxbios to anyone outside ETRI. You only have to release code
  if you release object
- If I were you I would consider using a different chipset if you can not
  get the vendor to agree.

ron

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ron minnich | 1 Apr 2003 02:04

Re: GPL and NDA

On 31 Mar 2003, Justin Cormack wrote:

> > - you can build GPL code based on NDA chipsets, but you MUST get the 
> >   permission to do that from the holder of the GPL
> 
> er, typo, holder of specification

yeah, sorry!

ron

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ron minnich | 1 Apr 2003 02:11

Re: GPL and NDA

On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, Antony Stone wrote:

> This would then be a violation of the GPL.   If you produce something based 
> on GPL code, you must distribute the source (or make it available) as well as 
> the binary.   There's no such thing as binary-only GPL code.

yes, and to reiterate, if you never distribute binary, then you don't have 
to distribute source. E.g. IBM never released the linuxbios code they 
wrote for an SiS chipset as the project got cancelled.

ron

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ron minnich | 1 Apr 2003 02:24

[9fans] vga docs (fwd)


might be useful, did not look.

ron

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:13:12 -0500
From: Russ Cox <rsc <at> plan9.bell-labs.com>
Reply-To: 9fans <at> cse.psu.edu
To: 9fans <at> cse.psu.edu
Subject: [9fans] vga docs

If you're writing VGA drivers and don't have paper
docs nearby, this is almost as good.

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/S.Weijgers/FreeVGA/home.htm

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Adam Sulmicki | 1 Apr 2003 03:15
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Re: [9fans] vga docs (fwd)


looks pretty nice though it seems most of the docs date back to the '98
wihch in computer-years is like an millenium or so.

still should be usefull if I ever get to try get some open source vga
bios on hardware.

Thanks!

> might be useful, did not look.
>
> ron
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:13:12 -0500
> From: Russ Cox <rsc <at> plan9.bell-labs.com>
> Reply-To: 9fans <at> cse.psu.edu
> To: 9fans <at> cse.psu.edu
> Subject: [9fans] vga docs
>
> If you're writing VGA drivers and don't have paper
> docs nearby, this is almost as good.
>
> http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/S.Weijgers/FreeVGA/home.htm
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> Linuxbios <at> clustermatic.org
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
(Continue reading)

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Joey Nelson | 1 Apr 2003 23:50

Need help on supporting Fabiatech FB2510 mainboard.


I have linuxbios partly working on this GX1/CS5530 based mainboard.

I created a mainboard/fabiatech/fb2510 directory and copied the files
from mainboard/advantech/pcm-5823.

In Config, I changed all references to FDC37B72x to FDC37B78x (By the
way superio/SMC/FDC37B78x/superio.c reports itself as FDC37B72x).
Everything else I left the same.  I based the build config off
config.example, changing the payload from eepro100.ebi to rtl8139.elf
(there was no make target for bin/rtl8139.ebi in Etherboot 5.1.7).

I tried to run getpir on the FB2510 under the existing Award Bios, but
it failed to find a valid PCI IRQ Routing table.  I include the output
below.

I went ahead and built linuxbios (using the irq_tables.c from pcm-5823)
and programmed the FB2510's flash with the resulting romimage.  Booting
with this romimage was quite successful up until configuring the com
port.  Booting freezes right after this point.

------ begin of linuxbios serial console output -------
  Call init
Enabling com device: 04
  iobase = 0x03f8  irq=4
------ end of linuxbios serial console output -------

Actually originally it would only print "io" from the last line.
Looking in superio.c I found that the comments said initialization
should be happening before enabling, but in the code it was happening
(Continue reading)

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Philippe CABANNES | 2 Apr 2003 16:47

Flashing

What is the best way to re-flash an Epia?                             
--------------------------------------------------                    
Oreka ! Nous sommes l'internet moins cher !                           
Surfez 25% moins cher avec http://www.oreka.com                       
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Fery | 2 Apr 2003 18:39
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newbie -- general question

Hi all!

I am sorry if I am asking stupid, I have just falled into an embedded
software project. So far I have only developed desktop applications, but
I have a strong affection to embedded systems. :)

So, the task I want to get through is as follows: 

We have an existing product (a medical bedside monitor) working on a
x86-based system, the "kernel" is dos/dpmi, which, in fact, is used only
to switch the processor to protected mode (no task management, (almost)
no memory management, etc.). Now, we have to rewrite the program, as the
hardware is changing, the code is unmanageable (it was not me, I am a
fresh employee at the company :), and anyway.

The new hardware's core will be the geode gx1 processor with the CS5530
companion chip, and we have an Advantech PCM-5820 mainboard with these
chips to start developing and play with, and possibly use in the final
system (if the self-made mainboard developing is too slow / too much
money).

I proposed to use a kernel under our new program, as we do not need to
implement many low- and middle-level protocols (such as the tcp/ip
stack, ethernet driver, etc.), maybe(?) task management, etc. As nobody
used this approach at the company yet (me neither), there are no
experiences how hard to port a kernel to a custom hardware, and what
constraints place the kernel upon our program.

I have a few years linux experience (but not hardware or kernel module
programming), so naturally my first idea was linux or rtlinux. I have
(Continue reading)

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SONE Takeshi | 3 Apr 2003 08:27
Picon

Re: Flashing

On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 03:47:29PM +0100, Philippe CABANNES wrote:
> What is the best way to re-flash an Epia?                             

I'm using BIOS Savior (RD1-PL) and flash_rom in the current LinuxBIOS tree
to flash my EPIA 5000.

--

-- 
Takeshi
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Steve Gehlbach | 3 Apr 2003 08:48

Re: newbie -- general question

> 3. Do you know a good mailing list about rtlinux and embedded systems
> programming for a newbie?
> 

You might check this site for articles and information:

http://www.linuxdevices.com/

I don't see any reason why you couldn't use linuxbios to start your own 
binary, compiled with gcc.  I would recommend using linux though, and 
something like busybox (http://www.busybox.net/) and uclibc 
(http://www.uclibc.org/) will keep it small.

I believe rtlinux is now a commercial product (?); you may not need it 
for a tightly controlled embedded system; maybe be a custom driver or 
two will do it.

Just some ideas.

-Steve

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Gmane