Yeah, at the time you make something even partially working with zero documentation in a free time some new and better chip shows show up and the whole work is wasted and this time gets shorter and shorter :D
Its good to make something like this once or twice, but after some years you just want to focus on vendors that respect and support Open-Source. Especially when you make your own product you have a choice on who to pay for their chips :-) Have a good day folks :-) Tomek On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 3:24 PM raiden00pl <raiden0...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hardware register layouts, bit meanings, and constants are facts about the > hardware, > not a creative expression by Linux developers. So you can look at Linux > code to > reverse-engineer and understand how the hardware works, even if you don't > release > your code under the GPL. But of course if you can look at non-GPL code, > it's always safer. > > The best approach to reverse engineering when in doubt about copyright is > the "clean-room" approach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design > However, this requires a minimum of two people working on the project. > > I think RPI4 support (especially with ethernet) would be a great addition > to NuttX. > But given my previous experience in embedded reverse engineering - it's a > waste of time. > Projects like these are impossible to estimate and always take more time > (and nerves) > than we would like (and there is no guarantee that it'll succeed). > > czw., 28 sie 2025 o 21:46 Michał Łyszczek <michal.lyszc...@bofc.pl> > napisał(a): > > > On 2025-08-28 16:21:55, Alan C. Assis wrote: > > > We cannot look at the Linux source code, because it is GPL license, but > > we > > > can look at the FreeBSD code: > > https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry%20Pi > > > > Like who's even gonna prove you've looked at GPL code when implementing rpi > > support? If you don't copy paste code, but learn protocol and what > > register to > > write in what order noone is gonna do anything. With that logic in mind, > > my last > > project must be turned into GPL because I peeked into Linux kernel how they > > drive some peripheral. You must have read some GPL code in your life. You > > probably even wrote something *very* similar. Does that make code GPL? > > > > If I was implementing something in Linux for rpi4 does that disqualify me > > from contributing? > > > > Don't blatantly copy-paste code from Linux Kernel, but learn from it and > > implement with your own way. You don't copy code, you learn from it. This > > is > > not copywritable. > > > > If you reverse engineer some secret nvidia gpu, yes, you want to be crazy > > extra > > and just reject anyone that had anything to do with nvidia. But this is > > open source and free code. And you are doing open source and free software. > > I think it's 100% safe to look at Linux to leare how things work - not to > > steal > > the code. > > -- CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info
