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Linksys Releases GPLed Code for WRT54G
petree writes "I stumbled across this on the Linksys website. Linksys has apparently caved to community pressure and released the GPLed source for linux running on their WRT54G. Cool Beans!"
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Linksys only released the GPL pieces of what's running on that router. The way it looks, they haven't really put out anything that would help much to create a customized ROM for that device (web frontend specs, scripts, etc.). This isn't that much of a move for them, as it appears they've only released info of what they used, as well as a centralized location for exactly what GPL software is on their router.
"You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is...never try. Heh!" -Homer
With drivers for the 802.11g adapter, more people would look at providing alternative firmwares. I've recently started working on such a project for the Dell TrueMobile 1184 because Dell actually provided source code when asked, and all the hardware support is there with open source drivers.
The original post from:
http://lkml.org/archive/2003/6/7/164/index. html
is not up right now so here is the text.
Andrew Miklas
linux.kernel
Jun 7 2003
Hi,
Sorry for the very lengthly posting, but I want to be as precise as possible in describing this problem.
Awhile ago, I mentioned that the Linksys WRT54G wireless access point used several GPL projects in its firmware, but did not seem to have any of the source available, or acknowledge the use of the GPLed software. Four weeks ago, I spoke with an employee at Linksys who confirmed that the system did use Linux, and also mentioned that he would work with his management to ensure that the source was released. Unfortunately, my e-mails to this individual over the past three weeks have gone unanswered. Of course, I also tried contacting Linksys through their common public e-mail accounts (pr@linksys.com, mailroom@linksys.com) to no avail.
However, it is hard for me to know if my contact in the company has just gone on a three week vacation (and not set an auto-responder), or has been asked to not answer anymore mail on this subject. Also, I should note that I don't own this product, so I can't determine if the source is shipped with it. However, I have gone through all the available information on the Linksys website, and can find no reference to the GPL, Linux (as it relates to this product), or the firmware source code. Also, the firmware binary (see below) is freely available from their website. There is no link from the download page to the source, or any mention of Linux or the GPL. Finally, it would be strange if the source was included in the physical package, as my contact at Linksys was initially unaware Linux was used in this product.
The following steps can be used to determine the exact nature of the possible GPL violation.
1. Go to the following URL:
http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid= 178
2. Download the "firmware upgrade files":
ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/WRT54G_ 1.02.1_US _code.bin
(MD5SUM: b54475a81bc18462d3754f96c9c7cc0f)
3. While it is downloading, confirm that there is nothing on the webpage to indicate that this binary contains GPLed software.
4. Once the download is complete, copy the ontents of the file from offset 0xC0020 onward into a new file.
dd if=WRT54G_1.02.1_US_code.bin of=test.dump skip=24577c bs=32c
5. Notice that this file is an image of a CramFS filesystem. Mount it.
6. Explore the filesystem. You will notice that the system appears to be based on Linux 2.4.5.
Incidentally, there is at least one other GPLed project in the firmware:
the BusyBox userland component: (http://www.busybox.net/)
7. The Linux kernel (I think) is mixed up with a bunch of other stuff in: bin/boot.bin
You might want to know why I am interested in getting the code for the kernel used in this device.
There's been some discussion here about Linux's lack of wireless support for a few of the newer 802.11b and (nearly?) all 802.11g chips. Incidentally, Linux has excellent support for at least one manufacturer's wireless family. The following Broadcom chips all appear to be supported under Linux -- if you happen to be running Linux on a MIPS processor in a Linksys router:
Broadcom BCM4301 Wireless 802.11b Controller
Broadcom BCM4307 Wireless 802.11b Controller
Broadcom BCM4309 Wireless 802.11a Controller
Broadcom BCM4309 Wireless 802.11b Controller
Broadcom BCM4309 Wireless 802.11 Multiband Controller
Broadcom BCM4310 Wireless 802.11b Controller
Broadcom BCM4306 Wireless 802.11b/g Controller
Broadcom BCM4306 Wireless 802.11a Controller
Broadcom BCM4306 Wireless 802.11 Multiband Controller
This list was produced by running strings on:
lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/net/wl/wl.o
I am trying to determine exactly how tightly coupled these drivers are to t
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
Perhaps he has a laptop. Wireless and laptops are good, mutually supportive technologies.
I'm posting this from my laptop, which is only 20 feet from my AP, firewall, and DSL modem, but it's still nice not to have to run a cable across the room for someone to trip over...
Yes, it would be nice to get the "Secret bits," like drivers, but this is actually better for the community in the long run.
This simply doesn't make sense. Large corporations hoarding "IP" is not better for the community. Unless your definition of "community" is "Linksys." Even then, it may be better for Linksys itself if it'd release 802.11g drivers. I know that I for one would buy one of their cards if they did, and since they don't I won't.
What I want, and what I know many other people want, is an 802.11g driver. Linksys has one. They choose not to release it? Not even with a proprietary license and without support, à la nVidia? I simply cannot see how that is better for the "community."
I know that many more networking equipment manufacturers use GPL'd code in their products. Buffalo's wireless broadband routers use almost the same code as the WRT54G, and earlier Linksys routers used Linux as well.
Wireless RouTer operating at 54mbps using the 802.11g protocol
Indeed, it does.
The paths I tried were:
1. Search box from the front page of www.linksys.com.
2. Product page for the AP in question.
3. Downloads section of the site.
You're right, it is obvious if you go to the support page first (I usually don't for this site, because having been there so many times, there are less clicks involved to get to drivers via the products page). But one would think that the search engine would index a superset of the support section...
In any event, the rest of my comment stands. That , as well as the sparseness of the download page, makes be think they're doing this because they got stared down, not because they intended to do so all along. I've seen hardware companies that buy into open source/Free software, and this isn't one of them.
Linksys has one. They choose not to release it?
Is it Linksys's choice, or is the Federal Communications Commission's choice to delay approval?
Actually, it's probably neither. The driver is from Broadcom. It's mentioned in some of their online documentation. They probably haven't and won't release it, even as binary-only, because they'd rather license it to Linksys for an additional fee. I'm assuming a binary-only driver wouldn't incur the FCC regulations you're referring to.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
There's beta drivers from Atheros that supports 802.11g. Check it out. http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/
There are drivers for FreeBSD (ath) and Linux http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifid cards:
Supporte
Card Chip Bus
D-Link DWL-AB650 AR5211 Cardbus
D-Link DWL-AG520 AR5212 PCI
D-Link DWL-AG650 AR5212 Cardbus
Linksys WMP55AG AR5212 Cardbus
Linksys WPC51AB AR5211 Cardbus
Linksys WPC55AG AR5212 PCI
Netgear WAB501 AR5211 Cardbus
Netgear WAG511 AR5212 Cardbus
Those drivers are beta quality but work.
There is object file which hides radio interface.
AFAIK everything else is open.
There are drivers: http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/ and ath driver for FreeBSD.
You can just get the rest of the files from the cramfs image and create a new firmware file using the information at http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/WAP54G (WAP54G specific, but it's almost the same for the WRT54G).
Since it's not likely that Linksys have added 14MB worth of changes to the kernel, I'd say you've done something wrong.
There is nothing wrong with the test he performed. I tried the same and got a 14.3MB patch. But though there is this amount of changes, I don't believe Linksys wrote it all. In particular I noticed a lot of XFS stuff. It could be that Linksys is really using a different kernel version and just changed the version number to match a closed source driver, they didn't want to recompile. Or it could be that Linksys has applied third party patches. So who is going to search for the kernel version resulting in the smallest diff. I tried with kernel version 2.4.6, which resulted in a larger patch, so it is probably not just a later version.
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
Err... make that a pirate copy of Windows not *Linux*. Must have been that Linux pirate mentality :)
Glad to see the GPL is now being honoured, although this issue would have made an interesting test case.
I'm a shade confused though, I can't see any good reason why Linksys rebranded from ez-ipupdate to ipupdate.
Anyway, as far as ez-ipupdate itself goes, the version in the firmware appears to be the same as source that has been released although it is nowhere near the latest version. It doesn't appear LinkSys have made any changes.
Tim Brown
You have to distribute the preferred form for editing, at least for the GPL. So encrypted source wouldn't be allowed. If you wanted to design a new language, convert the GPLed code you want to use to that language and write a compiler for that language which you don't distribute, you could do that however.