On Tue, 20 Apr 2004, Felix Sheldon wrote:
> It looks like it's a read-only filesystem, so dunno if there's any point
> getting that driver to work?
>
> Seems like the mkimg program in there takes an existing filesystem and
> compresses it for reading by the CBD driver, so maybe you could get away
> with just writing something to decompress an image, based on what mkimg
> does to compress it.
God damn.. you're probably right.. I'd have to settle for extracting and
putting on a larger module/compact flash. In that respect, since it's got
a console I may be able to FTP/NFS/SSH it accross to something... might
give it a whirl tomorrow if I've got spare time before the customer picks
it up again - might just see if I can get it to boot off flash for
starters.
> Shouldn't the device manufacturer be providing source for it by the way?
Therein lies the bastardisation of the GPL concept in a manner that
strictly speaking complies but is against the purpose.
Yes, the manufacturer has supplied all modifications to the open source
code used but they will not provide the build kit used to create the
image. From a past case... had a buggy network driver, we got the driver
source and fixed it and wanted to put it back into the unit... Uh Uh..
couldn't buy the build kit - manufacturer couldn't be bothered putting the
fixed version into a revised image either. Since the build kit could be
applied to any software it wasn't tied to a GPL product and therefore they
legitimately held it closed. Instead we stopped selling the product and
strived to find/make a more open product ourselves and in essense we think
the end customer will probably go for it or something like it.
Basically, it broke, it's open source so we had all the bits, just
couldn't buy the proprietary glue to put it back together.
OK.. now I've got y'all wondering what it is.... taddum... the thin client
machines we sell.
--
---<GRiP>---
Electronic Hobbyist, Former Arcadia BBS nut, Occasional nudist,
Linux Guru, SLUG Secretary, AUUG and Linux Australia member, Sydney
Flashmobber, BMX rider, Walker, Raver & rave music lover, Big kid that
refuses to grow up. I'd make a good family pet, take me home today!
Do people actually read these things?
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
