x1000 onboard network opensource driver in progress: new version

@balaton
I guess the right url is https://github.com/kas1e/pa6t_eth

@walkero
I have guessed that but the GPL is clear that if you distribute binaries containing any GPL source you should also include the license text and a way to get the sources of the binary (a link is enough). So if I have such binary and find a problem I can look at the source to debug and fix it even if the original author is gone or can't fix it. If I later distribute such fixed or modified binary I should also pass on the source changes so others can improve it further. That's what open source is about and that's what the GPL is meant to ensure legally turning around the licenses commercial companies are using to take away those freedoms from you. That's why it's called copyleft instead of copyright.

@balaton
Oh, you are talking that this url is not mentioned anywhere inside the archive, right? Nor the licence. I see. I agree. They should be added.

@kas1e
Quote:
And most importantly the Linux driver sources which was even bigger help that you could use thanks to the GPL otherwise these were probably already lost or locked up like the CFE sources which has a less restrictive license that allowed people to make changes without publishing the source. So keep it going making sure the sources won't get lost and others can help you to maintain and improve the driver further by complying to the GPL.

I hope people who sit on firmware sources and AmigaOS parts realise it would be better to make these copyleft and use the help of people who could help improving it instead of just trying to do something using an AI that they hope they could sell for a few bucks. It would not reach anywhere near modern OSes that way and it would just die out with them unless they share what they have. For things that were made using GPL code like U-Boot sources for A-Eon machines or SCSI drivers it's not even a question that they have to publish the source if they distribute binaries.

@Balaton
I not very much worry about all this, GPL then GPL :) Will add if it will help ppls.

@kas1e
If CFE was GPL you now would not have to disassemble it and do a lot of work to fix problems with it. If Linux was not GPL you would have had to write the PA6T driver from scratch without documentation. That's why you should respect GPL and make sure to keep the sources with the binaries to make the life of people easier who come after you and want to improve it further. In the end that may also help you because then you'll also get those fixes and enhancements too thanks to the GPL.
If you write something from scratch it's up to you what you do with it, you can keep it or give it away for free or only give it to those who pay you but if you build on GPL sources you have to respect the decision of people before you who said you can use it for free as long as you also do the same and make the sources available of what you build with the sources. This saves a lot of work for you but you should also do the same for the others in exchange. And that's as easy as always linking to the source and include the license with the binaries.

I just came here to say congrats on getting this to work. I only followed the thread loosely, drivers make my head spin.

@balaton
Quote:Which SCSI driver are you referring to?
The driver for the Classic Amiga/WinUAE CyberStormPPC onboard SCSI controller, cybppc.device.kmod, was implemented by the NetBSD Amiga/m68k maintainer, with a little help from me for the AmigaOS 4.x/PPC specific parts, based on the NetBSD Amiga/m68k driver for it. BSD licence, no GPL.
The PCI NCR/SYM/LSI SCSI driver from sg2, lsi53c8xx.device.kmod, was implemented by him from scratch, without using any BSD nor Linux code.

@joerg
Quote:
The lsi53c8xx one. No BSD or Linux code but U-Boot which is also GPL. How do I know? QEMU emulates this SCSI controller which I've tried and there are two drivers that don't work with it. U-Boot and this AmigaOS driver and they both seem to poke the same registers the same way. Then looked at Documentation/IDE/lsi53c8xx_dev.doc which says: "If UBoot can see your drives then the driver should too." That's enough proof to me to think U-Boot code was used for it and therefore it should have been open source. BSD allows using it in closed source stuff so that is not a problem to copy code from there but GPL explicitly only allows it to be used in open source projects for a reason to promote open source.