[gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Luca Casagrande]

Hi to all!
We all know that build nvidia or ati driver and then use it with our livecd is 
breaking the law..
My problem is that the livecd make use of 3d apps (Blender,Paraview,ecc..), so 
I am thinking about a solution:
What about an init script runned before x-setup, that ask if you wanna use 
those driver?
If yes, it will emerge nvidia or ati driver; if not it will pass by...

Thanks for your suggestion
Luca
-- 
"Chiunque può simpatizzare col dolore di un amico, ma solo chi ha un animo 
nobile riesce a simpatizzare col successo di un amico (Oscar Wilde)"

LINUX User #411601
jabber: casagrande@jabber.linux.it

 

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

["Andreas Rückert"]

Hi!

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:14:56 +0200
Von: Luca Casagrande <luca.casagrande@gmail.com>
An: gentoo-catalyst@lists.gentoo.org
Betreff: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

--<snip>--

> I am thinking about a solution:
> What about an init script runned before x-setup, that ask if you wanna use
> those driver?
> If yes, it will emerge nvidia or ati driver; if not it will pass by...

You know, we have a similar problem with the Fritz USB WLan driver. Problem is, that
it's required to establish a network connection. So we have no network without the driver, which makes it
hard to emerge it later... :-)
Maybe add it via a separate CD, or so...?

Ciao,
Andreas

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Luca Casagrande]

Alle 13:18, venerdì 11 agosto 2006, Andreas Rückert ha scritto:

> > I am thinking about a solution:
> > What about an init script runned before x-setup, that ask if you wanna
> > use those driver?
> > If yes, it will emerge nvidia or ati driver; if not it will pass by...
>
> You know, we have a similar problem with the Fritz USB WLan driver. Problem
> is, that it's required to establish a network connection. So we have no
> network without the driver, which makes it hard to emerge it later... :-)
> Maybe add it via a separate CD, or so...?
>
> Ciao,
> Andreas
>

We can also add an option to the isolinux config..If this option is set, it 
will display a warning message during the boot and then emerge proprietary 
driver has needed...

What do you think?
Luca

-- 
"Chiunque può simpatizzare col dolore di un amico, ma solo chi ha un animo 
nobile riesce a simpatizzare col successo di un amico (Oscar Wilde)"

LINUX User #411601
jabber: casagrande@jabber.linux.it

 

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Chris Gianelloni]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1205 bytes --]

On Fri, 2006-08-11 at 11:14 +0200, Luca Casagrande wrote:
> Hi to all!
> We all know that build nvidia or ati driver and then use it with our livecd is 
> breaking the law..
> My problem is that the livecd make use of 3d apps (Blender,Paraview,ecc..), so 
> I am thinking about a solution:
> What about an init script runned before x-setup, that ask if you wanna use 
> those driver?

Well, this was already discussed on gentoo-dev mailing list some time
ago, so it isn't a new idea.  (Don't you think we would have already
thought of this by now?)

> If yes, it will emerge nvidia or ati driver; if not it will pass by...

The only issue with it is disk space.  You will need an additional 100+
Megabytes of disk space to keep around your configured kernel sources.
That is, unless someone takes the time to trace every single file in the
kernel tree that gets touched by the drivers when building, and grabs
just those files.  Doing this would dramatically reduce the disk usage,
but would dramatically increase the amount of work required to get a CD
to build.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Chris Gianelloni]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1059 bytes --]

On Fri, 2006-08-11 at 13:18 +0200, "Andreas Rückert" wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:14:56 +0200
> Von: Luca Casagrande <luca.casagrande@gmail.com>
> An: gentoo-catalyst@lists.gentoo.org
> Betreff: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...
> 
> --<snip>--
> 
> > I am thinking about a solution:
> > What about an init script runned before x-setup, that ask if you wanna use
> > those driver?
> > If yes, it will emerge nvidia or ati driver; if not it will pass by...
> 
> You know, we have a similar problem with the Fritz USB WLan driver. Problem is, that
> it's required to establish a network connection. So we have no network without the driver, which makes it
> hard to emerge it later... :-)
> Maybe add it via a separate CD, or so...?

Why?  You can provide the *distfiles* on the CD.  You don't need a
network to build a package.

=]

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Stefan de Konink]

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006, Chris Gianelloni wrote:

> Doing this would dramatically reduce the disk usage,
> but would dramatically increase the amount of work required to get a CD
> to build.

There must be a way (via accesstime) to find out which files are used for
compiling or not. If a simple tool is made that checks which c/h files are
touched you are in business.

But maybe this issue resolves itself in a matter of months. Intel going
OS, AMD/Ati can step out too.


Stefan de Konink

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Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Some thoughts about NVIDIA and GPL issue...

[Andrew Gaffney]

Stefan de Konink wrote:
> But maybe this issue resolves itself in a matter of months. Intel going
> OS, AMD/Ati can step out too.

Doubtful. Intel can afford to go OSS, because their graphics technology is 
behind that of ATI and Nvidia. They're not concerned about someone reverse 
engineering their technology from the driver. Also, ATI and Nvidia likely use 
technology licenses from other companies, which would not allow them to open 
source the drivers.

-- 
Andrew Gaffney                            http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
Gentoo Linux Developer                                   Installer Project

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