[U-Boot] changes to U-boot and GPL

[Mangelschots, Jef]

We are getting confused when reading the GPL and interpreting how it applies to our situation.

We are adding features (not changing existing ones) to U-boot particular to our in-house developed system which we sell as a product to our customers.
These changes involve adding a menu command for common tasks particular to our product and adding
an in-house developed protocol for transferring files over a proprietary bus.
We do not see these changes as being useful to the general U-boot community. We do have some concerns about security
and opening our product (which is safety-critical) for malicious hacking by exposing the modifications.

This modified U-boot will be deployed on our products. It will not make sense to use on any other platforms.

Our question is:
Do we need to submit our changes to the U-boot maintainers for inclusion in the mainline distribution code ?

We understand the philosophy of GPL to give our customers the source code so they have the ability to inspect, modify and outsource
And customization without being dependent on us.

In that light we have no problem in either providing our customers with the full source code upon their request
OR simply load the full source code in the file system of the box it is shipped with.
So if a customer wants the code, they can load it of the box they bought from us.

Any suggestions ?
Thank you

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