On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Andre Hedrick wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Gerhard Mack wrote:
>
> > The last post on the message board seemed to imply the source for their
> > kernel was available for download.. is this the case?
> >
> > If so, they wre blindingly stupid but didn't violate the GPL.
>
> Only if you can build a kernel that is identical to the one you are
> booting, but you can not........
>
> In Gentus 1.0 the LM7x serires drivers that are GPL were binaries and no
> source to be found.
Do you mean they included GPLed code in their kernel without distributing
the source? That, IIRC, is OK - it's if they modified those drivers
without releasing source they are breaking the GPL.
> The rules are simple, you may not ship a kernel with binary objects linked
> without the source code available. There is no variation that can be
> granted by anyone except Linus.
ISTR the GPL isn't quite that restrictive: I could take the kernel source
and build, say, a 2.4.0test1 bootdisk, and distribute that, without
needing to distribute the source myself - the 2.4.0test1 source is already
available anyway.
If I make any changes, I need to publish them, though.
> Simply stating, one can not create a kernel with the source code returned
> that is identical to the one shipped for booting.
What exactly is missing from the source tree they supply?
> This is by definition a clear violation of GPL......if I am wrong I want
> to be corrected. Note that there are parts of the kernel that are non-GPL
> but BSD-like, you can only use this as a module. Linking it to kernel is
> not allowed.
I've always wanted to see the module/kernel distinction disappear, TBH -
rather than a choice between "in/module/gone", everything would be a
module, then some modules are included within the kernel image. Then add a
way to upgrade from one module version to another seamlessly, and make
sure everything that can be made modular is, and you might actually be
able to upgrade from one kernel version to another without a reboot...
James.
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