[uClibc] RealTek GPL violations (a call for assistance)

Jim Thompson jim at netgate.com
Sat Jun 12 23:28:33 UTC 2004


Actually, this is one of the places we could use help by the copyright 
holders of uClibc and gcc.  Minitar is just a middleman (as is netgate 
(full-disclosure)).  What really needs to happen is for Realtek to be 
persuaded into
providing the complete source for their gcc-uclibc-based toolchain, 
linux, and other bits of GPL code that they have modified and 
subsequently provided as binary-only.

Checking inside the referenced file 
(http://www.minitar.com/downloads/rtl8181-sdk-1.6.zip) or its 
equivalent at
http://www.netgate.com/~jim/RealTek/ (likely faster, given that Minitar 
is in Australia) will reveal a GCC toolchain without the required GPL 
offer of source, and no source evident.   I would expect that the folks 
at the FSF would be
interested in correcting this situation.

Eric and others will be interested in the bits about uClibc as well as 
the fact that busybox is also included in the 'SDK' (which doesn't 
comply with the GPL, since its not available from the manufacturer.)  
The code for Busybox and uClibc appear to be in the 'minitar' release, 
but this did not come directly from RealTek.

Any help with the above issues would be appreciated.

More egregious is that RealTek have modified portions of linux (and do 
not provide source) and have modified parts of the 802.1d bridging code 
(and do no provide source).  I am well aware of the problems inemic to 
correcting GPL violations on linux itself, since there is no cohesive 
list of copyright holders.

I hope that the bridge code issue is a bit more straight-forward to 
correct.   I believe that the issue here is that RealTek engineers or 
contractors added a "layer 2 NAT" feature to the bridge code, and have 
decided to keep that proprietary by not releasing the source code to 
the in-kernel bridge driver (the modified code).  However, I believe 
that this is a GPL violation correctable by the required 'offer to 
distribute for actual costs of distribution, followed by actuall 
distribution of same.

Toolchains for the LX50 (the mips-like CPU inside the rtl8181) do exist 
that are open source, see http://rtl8181.sourceforge.net/ or 
http://www.netgate.com/~jim/   (the second of these are just copies of 
everything I've gathered.)e

The side effect is that these toolchains won't properly link against 
the (binary-only) wireless driver for other parts of
this chipset.  If we had source code to the toolchain, we could 
potentially work around this problem, there may be other possible 
workarounds, but having the source to the toolchain seems the most 
direct route.

Nevertheless, Linus has been quite clear about what it takes for a 
binary-only module to not be subject to the GPL.  Given the structure 
of the RealTek wireless driver, it is unlikely that it has the 
requisite architecture, so it too should be come free (as in speech).   
In this instance, the driver isn't even a loadable module, but is, 
instead, directly linked to the kernel.

Thank you one and all for any assistance you can provide in this 
matter.   My apologies to the uclibc list for usurping this thread.  
The community managed to free the software used in Broadcom's 47xx 
designs, modulo the binary-loadable module driver for the wireless 
chipset in that design.  (To Broadcom's chagrin, I might add.)

Perhaps we can do the same again.

Thanks,

Jim
p.s. I can be reached at 509 280 8444 if someone wants clarification.

On Jun 12, 2004, at 10:55 AM, David Daney wrote:

> Karel Kozlovsky wrote:
>>> David Daney wrote:
>>>> I think these are all part of the GOFAST (or what ever it is called)
>>>> math library.
>>>>
>>>> What toolchain are you using?  It looks like the C compiler you are
>>>> using is build to generate calls to a math runtime that is not part 
>>>> of
>>>> uClibc (nor glibc).
>>>
>>> Meant to say : ...not part of uClibc (nor libgcc).
>>>
>>> I have seen custom versions of glibc that do have these functions 
>>> defined.
>>
>> I have uClibc from uclibc.org.
>> Toolchan (ie compiler, as, linker..) I have from minitar's package 
>> wich they
>> called as SDK :) It is this one
>> http://www.minitar.com/downloads/rtl8181-sdk-1.6.zip .
>> RTL8181 cpu is based on LX5280 arhitecture.
>
> You should probably either get support from the compiler vendor, or 
> use/build a tool chain compatible with uClibc.
>
> David Daney.
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