Developing for the V7 distro

[grgcombs]

So I notice a few things that I'd like to change in V7. Namely adding another driver to lcd4linux (USBLCD). I downloaded the latest lcd4linux and compiled it with the extra driver, yet, as I anticipated, when I attempt to run it under astaro V7 I get a floating point exception even though my build environment is running a similar kernel and architecture (kernel-2.6.18-i686 vs kernel-2.6.16-i686)

Back in the old days we had a plus-pack for those older distributions, but now that we have a standard kernel this isn't needed I gather.

What do I need to do to create a suitable build environment for making compatible binaries?

Greg

[grgcombs]

There nothing like answering your own question...

I've put together some rpm's in order to re/compile binaries on Astaro V7b. It includes gcc and a few other necessities (about 11Mb).

Please note, that once you start this, you lose any technical support for the machine you're working on. Also note, that any time an up2date comes through, any of your recompiled binaries can go bye-bye. Also, who knows if any of your recompiled binaries will be at all compatible with the final version of V7... And finally, absolutely make certain that you uninstall these packages as soon as you finish your compile project. You do not want to leave a compiler available for hackers to exploit.

http://www.sleestacks.com/astaro-v7b-devel.tgz

[drees]

It would be nice if Astaro was a bit friendlier towards 3rd party extensions, especially when it comes to drivers!

[grgcombs]

Astaro has created special widgets for lcd4linux in V7. Unfortunately they don't have GPL sources up for V7, and it's not clear that these widgets would get included in those sources anyway(!)

I've written a crude lcd4linux driver for the PicoLCD device seen at mini-box.com. However, much of the features that would be displayed here are not included since these Astaro widget sources aren't available.

Any chance one of you nice Astaro employees could package those widget sources up and make them available?

Greg

[Gert Hansen]

Hi there,

I hear you, but please be patient, we will publish the sources for the GPL part of the distro as soon as we have V7 out, and we were able to sleep more than a couple of hours a day, as we do currently.

Once published, you will find them on our FTP server like for the other versions: ftp://ftp.astaro.com/pub/gpl

the ISO images include SRC-RPMS of all GPL packages.

best regards
Gert

[grgcombs]

sounds good. Didn't mean to sound impatient, as I know it'll be a little while till V7 is finalized. (Good work on it so far, by the way! Big improvements!)

G

[BarryG]

grgcombs, could you compile tshark/wireshark for ASL v7?
There's a bug in wireshark so that static builds no longer work.

Thanks!
Barry

[grgcombs]

Unfortunately Astaro still hasn't released the GPL source code for version 7.

[drees]

Originally Posted by grgcombs

Unfortunately Astaro still hasn't released the GPL source code for version 7.

That is one thing that really irks me... The GPL specifically requires you to make source available for any GPLed software you ship, but Astaro is always consistently very late in shipping the source and never makes the source to updates available even when they contain GPLed software.

The GPL license is quite clear that this is not acceptable and you must make available the source to all GPLed software when you distribute binaries, not whenever you feel like getting around to it.

With the level of expertise that the Astaro community has, I am disappointed that they don't make the GPLed parts of their software open as I'm sure that this would lead to outside developers contributing to the software and improving Astaro for everyone.

I do commend Astaro for contributing to Linux in the past - they have funded a good amount of networking features in the past.

From http://gpl-violations.org/faq/vendor-faq.html

Remember the license requires you make source available to your customers with the product or to include a written offer. Putting a zip of the relevant sources on the Documentation CDis a great way to do this.

If you include GPL software, include a copy of the GPL with your license documentation and make sure it is clear that your product contains GPL software.

If you make available software/firmware updates via Internet, and the update or software/firmware image contains GPL software, you have to provide the corresponding source code for every single version.

Interestingly, Harold Welte, the owner of gpl-violations.org has been contracted directly by Astaro in the past!

[BarryG]

Grgcombs, Do the tools you made for v7Beta work in current versions of V7?

Thanks,
Barry