[U-Boot-Users] Proposal for a make option to include an additional stand alone program directory

[Timur Tabi <timur@freescale.com>]

Wolfgang Denk wrote:

> I my be reading you wrong, but this smells to me like trying to  work
> around the GPL.

Not at all.  There is binary data that is provided to us on a file.  We don't have 
whatever source code was used to create this binary.  We put this file on flash, alongside 
u-boot.bin, the rootfs, and the kernel binary.  They all occupy separate locations on 
flash.  However, we do provide an 8MB file that contains a full copy of all of flash. 
This is used to restore flash to it's default state, in case the customer screws it up or 
something.

Despite the fact this flash image contains GPL and non-GPL code, there's no way it can be 
considered a GPL violation.

What I'm trying to do is make it so that any customer can download the latest U-Boot from 
denx.de, add the proprietary firmware binary to the source tree, and then build an image 
that can be flashed.  This image would also automatically load the firmware into the 
hardware when its booted.

Today, the BSP team does a bunch manual work to make this happen.  I'm trying to make the 
U-Boot on denx.de be the same as the U-Boot on the BSP.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux Kernel Developer @ Freescale