Firmware 2.0 Source Released

[Muncher666]

For those of you who are interested,

GPH has released the latest edition of the firmware source code on their SVN server, as well as their latest bootloader code here.

No Mplayer yet, though.

Allan.

 

[Cyclops]

I thought this was up for a while, and wasn't complete yet.

Does anyone know whats missing apart from mplayer ?

 

[Squidge]

Theres somethings missing from the kernel source, like the i2c driver (which gph regard as "dangerous"), but other than that it seems pretty intact.

 

[Cyclops]

So I guess we wont see these compiled from scratch anytime soon.

 

[___]

[SARCASM] GPH really know how to stick to the GPL concept and rules... [/SARCASM]

 

[FluffyPanda]

errr... isn't the I2C driver rather important? I assume that's what's used to access the LCD, amongst other devices.

What kind of problems is its absence going to cause?

 

[Cyclops]

[SARCASM] GPH really know how to stick to the GPL concept and rules... [/SARCASM]

GPL is a non-issue, nobody(apart from me) wants to the return of the GPL flame wars, especially when in reality they did release the source, a while ago. They are showing willing.

http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?s...tid=150&tid=147
http://www.gpl-violations.org/faq/violation-faq.html

How can I help gpl-violations ?

Firstly by not reacting to a technical GPL violation in an extreme fashion.

Edit: for Muncher666

this comment was to xnopasaranx comment. I'm sure you are well aware, of the constant flame wars about GPL, that have died down as late. I actually quite enjoyed them, my understanding of Licencing of GPL/BSD/Propriaty improved, and I understand "open-source" much more, rather than just taking the benefits for granted, which is why I say its a "non-issue" for a device like the GP2X it shouldn't be about *enfocing licences* but a *development model*. I am aware that discussions over GPL are capable of bad feeling, and often dangerous conclusions can be drawn, and then DaveC chips in with his namecalling.

I for one have been unwilling to raise GPL, especially since, the GP2X is started to get good press, and GPH is starting to make a little bit of effort to comply with the licence. So when I see the letters GPL. I want people to approach it in a sensible rational matter. Hence the two links one which I find was a good overview, and the second a quick FAQ which I take the quote from. The quote says nicely "don't sent emotive e-mails to anyone there is a better way".

Hope I've cleared that up.

 

[Muncher666]

I'm sorry Cyclops, but you can be so cryptic sometimes with your messages I have no idea what you are trying to say.

Was the 'dangerous' comment something that someone at GPH said to Craig or somesuch person? I just want to know where it came from.

Any update on Mplayer?

Allan.

 

[Squidge]

Compiling them from scratch isn't really a problem - theoddbot has already done it for an earlier version (1.4 I think), and the 2.0 kernel isn't that much of a change. The same person has also managed to re-implement i2c support in a kernel and get it to work, and it was this that got GPH to release an email saying that it was dangerous to use it and they will not support anyone that does use it.

At the moment, we know i2c is used to communicate to the TV Encoder chip (cx25874 or something like that), as well as store various settings in an e2 such as lcd settings, some stuff for mplayer, the serial number of the unit, along with some kind of hash/key. I can only assume they don't want people altering this information, or possibly corrupting it by using the i2c incorrectly.

 

[nickspoon]

Yeah, basically they don't want to release i2c stuff for fear of piracy and therefore (they reckon) no more games for the GP2X.

 

[andre.breves]

Did anyone manage to checkout the kernel completely, using SVN? I can't complete the checkout process, seems like the server files are corrupt.

 

[scorpio]

Did anyone manage to checkout the kernel completely, using SVN? I can't complete the checkout process, seems like the server files are corrupt.

I ended up using a website downloader (Teleport Pro in my case) to download it all from the web link to the SVN server. All I was concerned about was getting the content, as I imagine that when SVN works, I would get the timestamps for the files too, so it worked out fine for me, but if you're planning on rebuilding the kernel, it may not be such a good idea.

Shortly after the sources appeared, somebody said in one of the forums that they would download the files from the server and put them on the archive, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet.

I had no luck either using SVN to get the files. It may well be that they haven't got it set up correctly, or there is something we need to know that we're not being told.

 

[Squidge]

The last thing you want to do is checkout the kernel source - you'll end up using a massive amount of bandwidth, and using up loads of diskspace that you'll never use.

What you want to do is "export" the kernel - this just downloads the files themselves without all the svn crap you don't need.

Note however that both checkout and export will likely fail on Windows systems, as it will not support the soft links used by Linux, so you'll most likely get errors such as "no such file". Best way around this is to download on a Linux box, create a tarball, bz2 that, and then download and unzip onto a Windows box.

 

[scorpio]

Note however that both checkout and export will likely fail on Windows systems, as it will not support the soft links used by Linux, so you'll most likely get errors such as "no such file". Best way around this is to download on a Linux box, create a tarball, bz2 that, and then download and unzip onto a Windows box.

That sounds like it could have been the problem all right. You'd think that if something like SVN is compiled for windows it would have some kind of workaround for this, or at least tell you why it failed, but it tries to blame the server instead.

Since I haven't got my Linux box configured yet, I might try it under Cygwin and see what happens. It would be nice if GPH would provide the tarball in the first place, since it's not as if they're going to be taking submissions from us to put code back into the kernel (or perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic.)

 

[nickspoon]

Soft links don't work on FAT, so they won't work in Cygwin unless it does some sort of conversion.

 

[foft]

Cygwin seems to work for links. I think it creates and follows windows shortcuts iirc.

Mark

 

[GeminiDomino]

Yeah, basically they don't want to release i2c stuff for fear of piracy and therefore (they reckon) no more games for the GP2X.

Yep, because if there's anything the GP2X is drowning in, it's commercial games. :rolleyes:

 

[Yod4z]

Hello

We received requests for the i2c code.

GPH got rid of i2C part in kernel.

And official firmware version 2.0.0 also does not have i2C.

Thanks !

Hello all

There were many requests for the mplayer's source code

You must know that many comments were omitted while porting mplayer to the GP2X.

So, the source code will be available as soon as the omitted comments are added, which won't take too long.

Thanks for your patience !

from the admin of the dev.gp2x forum.

 

[Squidge]

I wonder if the omitted comments were in fact the GPL notices at the top of each file :rolleyes:

 

[FluffyPanda]

lol squidge. Cynical, but probably accurate.