Category: Linux

D-Link and the GPL

Recently my router died and to get netflix flowing again, I went out and got the cheapest router I could find in the vicinity. I ended up with a D-Link DIR-842 on discount for 499 SEK. In the box, I discovered this:

It tells me to go to D-Link’s page for GPL licensed software to get the source code. It also lets me write a request the source code on physical media for a nominal fee for the media and handling. Something I naturally did (being an engineer on vacation).

While waiting for a reply, let’s have a look at the online version. When entering the URL provided you have to click through an agreement that I understand what GPL and LGPL means and that the files distributed comes with no warranties (they spend more words saying this – read it if you want the details). Clicking “I Agree” I get a popup (back to the 90’s) asking me to register my product to enjoy all the benefits of doing so. At the same time the main window continues to a list of all D-Link products containing (L)GPL software – very nice.

The list of products is 24 pages long, so I searched for my model name (DIR-842) and clicked the resulting link. This got me to the following table:

I wonder what separates firmware version 2.0CN (China?) from version 3.0. Having 950MB of translation tables seems odd, so something else must be the case. As I have firmware version 2.02 for hardware revision B1 I decided to download that bundle consisting of 590 MB of open source code as a tarball. At least, that was what I expected. Apparently, I don’t only get the sources, I also get a test report – great!

The test report rar file contained a pdf documenting the tests. On November 16, 2016, test engineer Mason Wu carried out the GPL SC tests consisting of the steps Firmware upgrade, Firmware downgrade, Compile the Open Source Software Licenses code, Check list (Before test Open Source Software Licenses), Open Source Software Digital Signature check, and License file check. All tests passed – time for celebrations!

To be completely honest, this report tells me nothing, as I don’t know what has been tested or what the test cases do. The only thing I learn is that I just put a device with almost two years old software on as my interface towards the Internet…

So what is in the source code tarball? You can see the directory structure of the tarball in the picture below (I guess someone named Lisa created the tarball). First of all, there are some licenses, then the source code.

The source code is split into open source and private, where private is a set of prebuilt binaries, while open source comes with the whole source code. The open source software is licensed under the following licenses according to the LICENSE.txt:

  • GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2.0)
  • GNU Lesser General Public License Version 2.1 (LGPLv2.1)
  • BSD 2-clause license
  • BSD 3-clause license
  • Apache License 2.0
  • zlib/libpng License
  • MIT License v2.0

Looking into the realtek SDK (rtl819x-SDK-v3.4.5.1) I found the base Linux system (under rtl819x-SDK-v3.4.5.1/rtl819x). This is open source software found outside the open source directory.

There does not seem to be a license for the proprietary stuff. Not for the realtek related directories (rtk_wifi_patch and rtl819x-SDK-v3.4.5.1), nor the directory named private. I’m not sure what that means from a licensing perspective. I guess it is complicated. The nice thing with this is that I should be able to rebuild a new firmware image from this.

Continuing down the rabbit hole I’m getting really worried. Remember that this is an internet facing device. There are so many things I want to point out, but I’m on vacation so I can’t dig through the whole source code. Here are some snippets:

  • The Makefiles outputs “It’s builded” when done. Kind of cute.
  • Building is supported on CentOS 5.9 (32-bit version) with GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-54). This is a release from 17 January 2013.
  • Building has to be done as root.
  • For the proprietary stuff, there are .c.dep files showing what source files where used and their dependencies. Also, some headers are included without copyright information.
  • The open source versions are really old. Some highlights:
    • Samba 3.0.24 – from 2003. The CVE list for Samba is scary – this is a piece of software that should be updated.
    • Kernel 2.6.30 – from 9 June 2009. End-of-lifed in October 2009).

However, the most critical issue is that code is not included in the release. Looking at the directory rtl819x-SDK-v3.4.5.1/rtl819x/toolchain there are a number of GCC tools (GPLv3 licensed, so the license list is incomplete) as well as binutils delivered only as binaries. These also include realtek confidental documents (see screenshot below).

I’m stopping my dig here, but I will have to follow up my written request for the source code, unless the optical medium contains more. I thought they had learned…

Five days left

I use to joke that the last week before foss-north is the worst – everything is done, all that is left is the stress.

This year, we have the broadest program yet. 25 speakers talking about everything from community policies, GPU isolation, blockchain, historical KDE software, retro computers, IoT, Android, SailfishOS, bug triaging, crowd funding, software updates, yocto, home automation, design to sub-atomic particles.

You can still get a ticket (and make sure to bring a friend) at foss-north . Welcome!

Building Qt on Debian

I recently followed the advice of @sehurlburt to offer help to other developers. As I work with Qt and embedded Linux on a daily basis, I offered to help. (You should do the same!)

As it is easy to run out of words on Twitter, so here comes a slightly more lengthy explanation on how I build the latest and greatest of Qt for my Debian machine. Notice that there are easier ways to get Qt – you can install it from packages, or use the installer provided from The Qt Company. But if you want to build it yourself for whatever reason, this is how I do it.

First step is to get the build dependencies to your system. This might feel tricky, but apt-get can help you here. To get the dependencies for Qt 5, simply run sudo apt-get build-dep libqt5core5a and you are set.

Next step would be to get the Qt source tarball. You get it by going to https://www.qt.io/download/, select the open source version (unless you hold a commercial license) and then click the tiny View All Downloads link under the large Your download section. There you can find source packages for both Qt and Qt Creator.

Having downloaded and extracted the Qt tarball, enter the directory and configure the build. I usually do something like
./configure -prefix /home/e8johan/work/qt/5.9.0/inst -nomake examples -nomake tests. That should build everything, but skip examples and tests (you can build these later if you want to). The prefix should point to someplace in your home directory. The prefix has had some peculiar behaviour earlier, so I try to make sure not to have a final dash after the path. When the configuration has been run, you can look at the config.summary file (or the a bit higher up in the console output) and you can see a nice summary of what you are about to build. If this list looks odd, you need to look into the dependencies manually. Once you are happy, simply run make. If you want to speed things up, use the -j option with the highest number you dare (usually number of CPU cores plus one). This will parallelize the build.

Once the build is done (this takes a lot of time, expect at least 45 minutes with a decent machine), you need to install Qt. Run make install to do so. As you install Qt to someplace in your home directory, you do not need to use sudo.

The entry point to all of Qt is the qmake tool produced by your build (i.e. prefix/bin/qmake). If you run qmake -query you can see that it knows its version and installation point. This is why you cannot move a Qt installation around to random locations without hacking qmake. I tend to create a link (using ln -s) to this binary to somewhere in my path so that I can run qmake-5.9.0 or qmake-5.6.1 or whatnot to invoke a specific qmake version (caveat: when changing Qt version in a build tree, run qmake-version -recursive from the project root to change all Makefiles to the correct Qt version, otherwise you will get very “interesting” results).

Armed with this knowledge, we can go ahead and build QtCreator. It should be a matter of extracting the tarball, running the appropriate qmake in the root of the extracted code followed by make. QtCreator does not have to be installed, instead, just create a link to the qtcreator binary in the bin/ sub directory.

Running QtCreator, you can add Qt builds under Tools -> Options… -> Build & Run. Here, add a version by pointing at its qmake file, e.g. the qmake-5.9.0 link you just created. Then it is just a matter of picking Qt version for your project and build away.

Disclaimer! This is how I do things, but it might not be the recommended or even the right way to do it.

foss-north 2017 follow-up

On the morning of April 26 I arrived at our venue, preparing for around 120 people to fill the rooms at foss-north 2017.

I’m still in the post-event cleaning up phase, so the visitor questionnaire has not yet been sent out, but the feeling is positive. This year we expanded changed venue and moved from one to two tracks. This led to more administration with two room hosts and double video recordings, so that everyone could see everything. The videos are available online now. You can either find a specific talk from the talks and speakers page, or simply enjoy the entire playlist here:

I’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who made this possible: Jeena and Johnny helping out recording videos and hosting. All our speakers. Our partners Swedsoft, FSFE and BRG. Our sponsors Semcon, Rebel Alliance, Blackduck Software, Capture Innovation and Qamcom. And all the visitors. Without anyone of these pieces, the puzzle would not come together.

I’m already looking forward to seeing you next year again!

Five days and counting

It is five days left until foss-north 2017, so it is high time to get your ticket! Please notice that tickets can be bought all the way until the night of the 25th (Tuesday), but catering is only included is you get your ticket on the 24th (Monday), so help a poor organizer and get your tickets as soon as possible!

And just to reiterate what’s on the menu. This is a full day conference with two tracks and many interesting speakers from many projects, including Debian, Wikimedia, KDE, systemd, PulseAudio, Nextcloud, PostgreSQL, OpenRISC, flatpak, AsteroidOS and more.

Last year, over 30% of the tickets was sold in the last 48h. This year, we cannot provide catering for the ones buying tickets the last 24h, so hopefully the peak will come earlier. For now, we have 93 persons on the visiting list, but there are chairs for 100 more!

foss-north speaker line-up

I am extremely pleased to have confirmed the entire speaker line-up for foss north 2017. This will be a really good year!

Trying to put together something like this is really hard – you want the best speakers, but you also want a mix of local and international, various technologies, various viewpoints and much, much more. For 2017 we will have open hardware and open software, KDE and Gnome, web and embedded, tech talks and processes, and so on.

The foss north conference is a great excuse to come visit Gothenburg in the spring. Apparently, Sweden’s wildest city!

Just three days left…

The call for papers for foss-north 2017 ends on Sunday. That means that you only have three days to…

  • … get a chance to visit Gothenburg, Sweden, the most sociable city in the world!
  • … speak in front of a great audience of 220 people (if we sell all the tickets – get your’s here).
  • … listen to other awesome speakers. Right now we’ve confirmed Lydia Pintscher, Lennart Poettering, Knut Yrvin and Jos Poortvliet. (There will be more awesome speakers announced when the call for papers is over).

So what are you waiting for – submit your talk proposal and join us at foss-north 2017!

foss-north 2017: Call for Papers

The Call for Papers for foss-north is open for another week (until the 12th). This gives you an opportunity to speak in front of a great crowd. Looking at the results from last year’s questionnaire, more than 90% are users of open source software and more than 50% are contributors. One thing that surprised me, is that more people actually contribute as a part of their profession than as hobbyists. Looking at the professional vs hobbyist proportions, 45% of the visitors stated that they had their ticket paid by their employer/school, while 42% paid them out of their own pocket.

The topic of the conference is free and open source – so anything related is much welcome.We do not even limit ourselves to software – hardware, patents, community and much more is also appreciated topics. Last year we had speakers talking about timing synchronization over vast networks, patent issues, working as a designer, linguistics and must more.

As always with these things, crowd dynamics means that me as an organizer has to work on my stress management abilities. Almost 30% of the tickets to last year’s event was sold in the last two days before the event. The same goes for Call for Papers – nobody registers a talk in good time before the deadline. So if you want to help an ageing developer keeping the pulse under control – submit your talk proposal now! ;-)

foss-north 2017

After much preparation, the tickets for foss-north 2017 is available at foss-north.se – grab them while they are hot!

The call for papers is still open (do you want to talk – register!) so we do not have a final schedule, but you will find our confirmed speakers on the web site as we grow the list. Right now, we know that have the pleasure to introduce:

  • Lydia Pintscher, the product manager of Wikidata, Wikimedia’s knowledge base, as well as the president of KDE e.V.
  • Lennart Poettering, from Red Hat known for systemd, PulseAudio, Avahi and more.
  • Jos Poortvliet, with a background from SUSE and KDE, he now heads marketing at Nextcloud.

The conference covering both software and hardware from the technical perspective. The event is held on April 26 in central Gothenburg located between Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm with an international airport.

This is a great excuse to visit a really nice part of Sweden while attending a nice conference – welcome!