From: Pavel Rosenboim pavelr@coresma.com
the _modules_ are of course legal (as in "you can write and use them yourself"), but you cannot _distribute_ them without the sources, at least according to the way FSF interprets GPL.
Well, NVIDIA distributes its modules without sources, and so do other companies.
Actually, you can see the code to the interface layer. You just can't get the code for the driver itself. A compromise that I for one am willing to live with......
From the nVidia driver faq:
Q: How can I see the source code to the kernel interface layer?
A: The source files to the kernel interface layer are in the usr/src/nv directory of the extracted .run file. To get to these sources, run:
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg1.run --extract-only cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg1/usr/src/nv/
On Tue, 2003-09-23 at 23:17, Mark Hoover wrote:
From: Pavel Rosenboim pavelr@coresma.com
the _modules_ are of course legal (as in "you can write and use them yourself"), but you cannot _distribute_ them without the sources, at least according to the way FSF interprets GPL.
Well, NVIDIA distributes its modules without sources, and so do other companies.
Actually, you can see the code to the interface layer. You just can't get the code for the driver itself. A compromise that I for one am willing to live with......
I think the only thing relevant here is whether the owners of the GPLed code in question (i.e. the kernel code and structures Nvidia use) are willing to live with it.
Nils
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Alan Cox -
Mark A. Hoover -
Nils Philippsen