Re: [Etherboot-developers] Question on supporting nVidia .o driver
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From: Michael B. <mb...@fe...> - 2002-08-21 16:06:54
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On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Andy Green wrote: > Over at the xbox linux project there is some discussion today about > supporting the nVidia inside the xbox (and used on nForce motherboards) > Ethernet controller with an etherboot driver. > The issue is that nVidia supply a .o file containing all the goodies; it > is believed to be quite possible to fake up something using the kernel > network API to use this and make it believe it was a kernel driver. > The main question is, what's the prevailing opinion about using a .o in > this way GPL-wise. It has been suggested that we'll be okay if we do > not distribute the .o but make our GPL project consist of everything > but. (Because we are running on the xbox only, portability is not a > concern). > In addition, has anyone made such a fake kernel API shell before? Has > anyone looked at supporting nForce motherboards? Aside from the legal / copyright issues, a few technical points spring to mind: 1. The nVidia .o file is 20kB in size - around 4-5 times the size of most of the Etherboot drivers. This might be enough to prevent it working in 5.0.x (AFAICT, the memory-map changes in the 5.1.x branch will fix this anyway). 2. Is it possible to use the .o file to create a polling driver? Etherboot doesn't use interrupts. 3. As others have said, don't bother faking a kernel network API - just take the skeleton Etherboot driver in skel.c and fill out the gaps between that and the nVidia .o file. Michael Brown http://www.fensystems.co.uk |