GPL problems - booting without floppy/IDE -- Support Forum for CompuLab's X86CORE & X86BASE Products

Friday, May 2, 2008 - New servers are in! Click-in for more info!

[ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Subject: GPL problems - booting without floppy/IDE

Author:
Erik
[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
Date Posted: 00:19:04 08/10/01 Fri

I ran into some problems regarding the use of the flash drivers in a legal way.
-- begin message to your sales department --
I can partly understand why the source code is not available, on the other hand M-Systems gave away their alogarithm for the DOC flash so now support is integrated in the Linux kernel. Which means now we advice custumers who want to use Linux on Compulab to buy something with a DOC instead of taking all sorts of legal risks with proprietary drivers. Sales, what's the profit here?
As long as this isue is not solved the only legal use for us is in-house prototyping, we're not even allowed to build a prototype for a customer. And no customer is interested in using it for series when they risk a recall (which we have to warn them against to avoid being sued later on. :-( )
-- end message to sales --

But my technical problem is: I am trying to install a Linux on the Compulab which is legal. And to do that I have to load the NOR/NAND drivers as modules. But where do I store them? Normal use would be to put the modules on an initial ramdisk, but that ramdisk would be on NOR after the kernel, or on a separate NAND partition. Both ways I have to incorporate at least one of the drivers in the kernel.
Does anybody know of a way to store the ramdisk in such a way on NOR the bootsect.S code can be used to load it? This is the only code I know of which can legally load the modules. The alternative would be to connect a floppy or an IDE drive, wich is not my idea of miniature embedded...
Any other ideas would be appreciated as well!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Subject Author Date

Re: GPL problems - booting without floppy/IDE Dimitry Katkov 03:07:49 08/13/01 Mon

Re: GPL problems - booting without floppy/IDE -- Erik Arendse, 05:21:27 09/04/01 Tue

GPL problem can be easily resolved Gideon 08:35:47 08/20/01 Mon

Re: GPL problem can be easily resolved -- Mark Fontana, 11:36:06 08/20/01 Mon

Explanation of why we don't want to publish the source code -- Gideon, 02:27:58 08/21/01 Tue

Re: GPL problem can be easily resolved -- Erik Arendse, 05:36:31 09/04/01 Tue

[ VoyUser Login ] Not required to post.
Post a public reply to this message | Go post a new public message
* Notice: Posting problems? [ Click here ]
* HTML allowed in marked fields.
Message subject (required):

Name (required):

Expression ^{(Optional mood/title along with your name) Examples: (happy, sad, The Joyful, etc.) help)}

E-mail address (optional):

* Type your message here:
>I ran into some problems regarding the use of the >flash drivers in a legal way. >-- begin message to your sales department -- >I can partly understand why the source code is not >available, on the other hand M-Systems gave away their >alogarithm for the DOC flash so now support is >integrated in the Linux kernel. Which means now we >advice custumers who want to use Linux on Compulab to >buy something with a DOC instead of taking all sorts >of legal risks with proprietary drivers. Sales, what's >the profit here? >As long as this isue is not solved the only legal use >for us is in-house prototyping, we're not even allowed >to build a prototype for a customer. And no customer >is interested in using it for series when they risk a >recall (which we have to warn them against to avoid >being sued later on. :-( ) >-- end message to sales -- > >But my technical problem is: I am trying to install a >Linux on the Compulab which is legal. And to do that I >have to load the NOR/NAND drivers as modules. But >where do I store them? Normal use would be to put the >modules on an initial ramdisk, but that ramdisk would >be on NOR after the kernel, or on a separate NAND >partition. Both ways I have to incorporate at least >one of the drivers in the kernel. >Does anybody know of a way to store the ramdisk in >such a way on NOR the bootsect.S code can be used to >load it? This is the only code I know of which can >legally load the modules. The alternative would be to >connect a floppy or an IDE drive, wich is not my idea >of miniature embedded... >Any other ideas would be appreciated as well!

Notice: Copies of your message may remain on this and other systems on internet. Please be respectful.

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums^(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.