[U-Boot] Need assistance with increasing command line size on Cavium

[Garrett Cooper]

On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 4:55 AM, Frank
Svendsbøe<frank.svendsboe at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Detlev Zundel<dzu at denx.de> wrote:
>> Hi Frank,
>>
>>>>> As I cannot see any Cavium support in mainline U-Boot, when can we
>>>>> expect the patches adding support to be posted? :)
>>>>
>>>> Crud. If they've been hacking U-boot, then I can't say when it can be
>>>> released as I don't own the code :(...
>>>> -Garrett
>>>
>>> If they've use U-boot and did modification to the source code, the GPL state
>>> that they must make their modification available for the public (under the
>>> same license).
>>
>> Actually the GPL states that if you receive a copy of the program, then
>> you have those rights.  As long as you do not distribute a changed GPLv2
>> program, nobody has any right on your changes.  As it turned out, this
>
> Hi Detlev,
> Does "not distribute" here mean "for internal usage"? I believe this product
> is not in that category.
>
>> also is the case if you use GPLed software to offer e.g. webservices -
>> i.e. as the program is not distributed, not even as a user of these
>> services you have a right to see the modifications.  The latter fact is
>> addressed by the Affero GPL.
>>
>
> I'm not familiar with the Affero GPL (but I saw it mentioned on the
> "U-Boot and GPLv3"-thread the other day).
>
> Btw, I've read some (good/bad) arguments in favor of keeping U-Boot GPLv2
> licensed, but I'm still "voting" for GPLv3. Most of the v3 counterarguments
> we've seen so far use non-consumer products as examples, which the license
> is not applicable to (as stated many times by Richard Stallman).
>
> How will the GPLv3 affect a device running a GPLv3 U-Boot, but containing
> proprietary code in, say user-mode, and/or other chip devices (eg. the device is
> "useless" without the proprietary code, but can boot and the source is available
> as v3)?  .. oops, this is not very relevant to the e-mail subject.
>
>>> Since it's already available for consumers, I guess that the port development
>>> is finished? Just send them an e-mail and ask for the U-Boot support patch for
>>> their product.
>>
>> Garret obviously received a copy of the program, so he has the right to
>> get the sources.  He should exercise that right.
>>
>
> Yes, he should. This should be covered by GPLv2.

Yeah, Cavium did some potentially interesting things by tokenizing the
arguments and passing it to the kernel arguments parser in their
platform dependent routines. Unfortunately this isn't opensource
because even though it's GPLv2, as they only provide their kernel
sources and SDK to customers with Cavium accounts (which require
purchasing the hardware).

I'm going to pursue obtaining the patch via our Cavium PoC and see if
I can get it put into the U-boot source tree.

Thanks for the recommendations,
-Garrett