Re: [gNewSense-users] KFV: possible firmware

[Karl Goetz]

On Thu, 2008-06-19 at 15:20 -0400, Bake Timmons wrote:
> > Great. Thanks, Bake. Last question, and then this directory is done
> > (sorry, I probably should have put this all on one email).
> > http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Kernel/Ubuntu-hardy-linux-ubuntu-modules-2-6-24-16-23--ubuntu--media--cx88--cx88-tvaudio-c
> >  has the following introduction:
> >
> > Lot of voodoo here.  Even the data sheet doesn't help to
> >      understand what is going on here, the documentation for the audio
> >      part of the cx2388x chip is *very* bad.
> >
> >      Some of this comes from party done linux driver sources I got from
> >      [undocumented].
> >
> >      Some comes from the dscaler sources, one of the dscaler driver guy 
> > works
> >      for Conexant ...
> >
> > And it has long static structs like this:
> >

<trim code>

> > There doesn't seem to be any other signs of firmware.
> 
> A relatively interesting section, huh Peter? :)
> 
> Yeah, I noticed that bit also.  I doubt that the struct is a problem,
> since those values seem to have to do with *high-level*
> characteristics of a device and not low-level machine code of some
> chip.  The comment about it being voodoo is interesting and suggests
> the kind of reverse engineering work that we might find in some
> drivers.  This can be a gray area wrt to licensing, but I think that
> it is OK here.
> 

I'd agree with this.

> The more worrying part to me is the vague statement about where the
> code comes from.  You might feel like double checking with the author,
> but I am not worried enough about this case to think of it as a
> problem.  I did a little digging around on the net about cx88 but
> spotted no doubts regarding its licensing.

The bits i do worry about is (as i suspect was the case for you) this:

> > >
> > >      Some of this comes from party done linux driver sources I got from
> > >      [undocumented].

Is this [undocumented] a quote (eg, does it really say that?) if so it means we 
cant track down the copyright holder or licence ....

> > >      Some comes from the dscaler sources, one of the dscaler driver guy 
> > > works
> > >      for Conexant ...

Which should be ok... i would think...?
kk

-- 
Karl Goetz <address@hidden>

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