[WBEL-users] nvidia nforce boards and integrated NIC

[bishop]

Unfortunately, Mr Thimm's source isn't entirely open.  Much of the magic 
used to build his kernel modules takes place in macros that do not 
accompany the source.  Check out the numerous "kmdl" macros in this package:

http://download.atrpms.net/testing/sources/redhat-9-i386/atrpms/forcedeth.spec

Building those SRPMs standalone, without Axel's macro kit, is not possible.

I don't *think* that's a GPL violation, but it's something against which 
I've definitely spoken, at huge length, to anyone even mentioning the 
idea. 8-)

The practice of shipping crippled SRPMs that absolutely require macros 
to be defined - ones that do not originally ship with a complete distro 
- is a practice I've opined against at length in my usual ranting 
fashion.  I usually toss in a 'one spec file to rule them all' speech, 
if I can, but really the idea that spec files require magic macro kits 
above and beyond those released with the distro and present in the SPEC 
file actually violates one of the core goals of RPMs - that which 
suggests that the SRPM should contain all that's necessary above what 
the OS provides in order to rebuild the binary code reliably and 
consistently - is an idea that isn't so hard to argue toward.

But Alex isn't alone, as you'll see in my next message.

  - bish

Alexandre Aufrere wrote:
> Hi again,
> 
> I just browsed several other repositories...
> Did someone test those RPMS:
> http://atrpms.net/name/forcedeth/
> 
> The SRPM from RH9 should recompile easily on WBEL3. And this should be a
> better alternative, since forcedeth driver is GPL'ed.
> 
> I don't have access to the nForce2 box today, so i cannot test...
> 
> c u
> 
> Alex
> 
> Alexandre Aufrere wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> I fixed and customized 274 drivers from NVIDIA for both NIC and audio. 
>> I also wrote a new specfile, so that the version number depends on the 
>> kernel version number: this allows to install and maintain easily one 
>> version for each kernel.
>>
>> If someone is interested i can post the SRPM here (well, i hope it is 
>> legal: i didn't read the NVIDIA license very carefully).
>> Actually, what would be even better for me is that these drivers are 
>> integrated by someone in a repository and kept in sync with WB3...
>>
>> Lastly, the forcedeth OSS driver for the NIC has been backported to 
>> 2.4, so there is still hope that in a future update it is put directly 
>> into the RHEL/WB 3 kernel.
>>
>> c u
>>
>> Alex
>> _______________________________________________
>> Whitebox-users mailing list
>> Whitebox-users@beau.org
>> http://beau.org/mailman/listinfo/whitebox-users
>>
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Whitebox-users mailing list
> Whitebox-users@beau.org
> http://beau.org/mailman/listinfo/whitebox-users