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Linksys and the GPL, Again

Posted by michael on from the unclear-on-the-concept dept.

Rob Flickenger writes "While poking around on the Linksys WRT54G (one of the new Linux 2.4.5 based APs) at a SeattleWireless Hack Night session, we noticed a number of binaries in their firmware (including Zebra, PPP 2.4.1, and iptables to name three) that are released under the GPL, some of which are obviously modified. The question is, where is the source code to Linksys' modifications? Their "GPL Code Center" has the packages, but they are the pristine distributions, without any changes whatsoever. I've asked Linksys for clarification, but given Linksys' customer service reputation, I highly encourage other interested parties to ask them as well. More details are up on my weblog on oreillynet.com."

2 of 443 comments (clear)

  1. Re:obviously ? by sfire · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please understand that zebra uses autoconf, the released source has a configure script which allows --sysconfdir=DIR read-only single-machine data in DIR [PREFIX/etc]. This does not change the source.

  2. Re:obviously ? by Dogun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Download the firmware updated, dd the right section, mount it cramfs.
    Look at the busybox binary.
    run strings on it.
    There is at least 1 error message that isn't in standard busybox. That is a surefire sign that they made a modification to it.

    As for zebra, I heavily suspect it's the same deal.