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Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables
From: |
Carsten Agger |
Subject: |
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables |
Date: |
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:20:08 +0200 |
On Sat, 2008-06-21 at 15:12 +0200, Sam Geeraerts wrote:
> Peter and Jesse wrote:
> > Almost every file in the directory ubuntu/media/gspcav1/ is full of hex
> > tables. Many of them have names like static __u16
> > [driver_name]_start_data[][3].
> >
> > Also, several of these files (in different directories) are identified
> > as needing binary firmware on http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/firmware.
> > Peter
> >
>
> I've looked at a few of those files and it looks like most (all?) of
> them are copyrighted by private individuals rather than companies. Some
> of the comments say that the data has been reverse engineered by way of
> USB snooping. I believe most webcams are similar to Winmodems: almost
> all of the action happens in software. I can imagine that such software
> would include some magic initialization data.
>
> I think the authors did enough snooping to get the devices to work, but
> didn't bother to dig into it deeper to find out what all command codes
> and data actually meant. Comments on some lines indicate that they did
> find out for some parts of it.
>
> Despite the large amount of hex values and the code being rather terse
> and vague, I don't think the code has been deliberately obfuscated. So I
> think these files can be marked as free. I also don't immediately see
> any evidence of a requirement for proprietary firmware apart from the
> files that are included.
>
> This is just my subjective opinion. I don't know how these drivers are
> usually developed. As long as someone more knowledgeable in this field
> or one or more of the authors haven't confirmed this, it's probably
> safer to mark them as non-free.
Maybe it would be a good idea to contact some of the individuals
credited with the code or perhaps somebody knowledgeable in this kind of
development to clear this up - possibly somebody in kernel development
or similarly? Who would that be?
- Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, (continued)
- Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, Sam Geeraerts, 2008/06/21
- [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Oscar Valenzuela, 2008/06/21
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Paul O'Malley, 2008/06/21
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Oscar Valenzuela, 2008/06/21
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Oscar Valenzuela, 2008/06/21
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Paul O'Malley, 2008/06/21
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Karl Goetz, 2008/06/23
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Brian Brazil, 2008/06/23
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Karl Goetz, 2008/06/23
- Re: [gNewSense-users] Artwork issue, Brian Brazil, 2008/06/28
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables,
Carsten Agger <=
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, Bake Timmons, 2008/06/23
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, Karl Goetz, 2008/06/23
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, Sam Geeraerts, 2008/06/24
Re: [gNewSense-users] ubuntu/media/gspcav1 full of hex tables, Brian Brazil, 2008/06/28