From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 32201 invoked by alias); 2 Apr 2003 15:06:13 -0000 Mailing-List: contact ecos-maintainers-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: ecos-maintainers-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 32191 invoked from network); 2 Apr 2003 15:06:13 -0000 Subject: Re: drivers with proprietary code From: Gary Thomas To: Mark Salter Cc: eCos Maintainers In-Reply-To: <20030402131333.0427E7884A@deneb.localdomain> References: <20030402131333.0427E7884A@deneb.localdomain> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 (1.0.3-4) Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 15:06:00 -0000 Message-Id: <1049295972.16195.7723.camel@hermes.chez-thomas.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-SW-Source: 2003-04/txt/msg00002.txt.bz2 On Wed, 2003-04-02 at 06:13, Mark Salter wrote: > I'm working on a board that has proprietary network hardware. The > CPU contains dedicated "network engines" that require binary-only > microcode to run. The interface between this microcode and the CPU > core is provided by a proprietary library which is available in > source form but under a license that requires permission for use > and distribution. I have written an eCos driver which incorporates > parts of this library to support the builtin ethernet ports in > RedBoot. > > I'd like to get a sense of how folks feel about this sort of thing. > Its clear to me that such code goes against the tenets of s.r.c, so > I don't see this driver ever being hosted there. I think in this > case the board manufacturer should supply the driver as a .epk file. > So, I'm thinking that a link from the board's info page on s.r.c to > the board maker's site along with some instructions on building and > using the driver would be okay. What to others think? This can work, and even be OK with the rest of the license as I read it. The way I would handle this would be to set up a parallel repository for just these drivers, including the CDL to create them, etc. With the latest ecosconfig changes, this should work just like a merged repository. -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Gary Thomas | MLB Associates | Consulting for the +1 (970) 229-1963 | Embedded world http://www.mlbassoc.com/ | email: | gpg: http://www.chez-thomas.org/gary/gpg_key.asc ------------------------------------------------------------