4 ms·

Idle question sort-of-related but I'm asking it here because those who know the answer will be here: The bge(4) driver by default doesn't support WoL, but a nu

by NamTaf 11y ago

Idle question sort-of-related but I'm asking it here because those who know the answer will be here: The bge(4) driver by default doesn't support WoL, but a number of people have managed to take the driver from FreeNAS 9.x which includes a patched driver that does make it work and added it to FreeBSD 9.x. This was released as a .patch file so you could patch the driver and recompile and is of interest because it's the onboard NIC for the HP Proliant microservers that many people use for their own custom file storage servers. The upgrade from 9 to 10 broke this patch because the lines changed too dramatically, but you can easily copy/paste it in to the driver source at the right places and it works (I did it on 10.1 or 10.2). My question is: Specifically what process does one need to go through to provide a patched bge(4) driver to 'the appropriate people' so that the patch is included in FreeBSD's default driver and is not broken with each major change to the driver? How does one go from 'we have functioning code that enables WoL support' to 'this is a tested, certified driver included in the default FreeBSD install'? What licensing issues are there in contributing the patch upstream from FreeNAS to FreeBSD? This is all new territory for me, so some guidance would be greatly appreciated!

cperciva 11y ago
Assuming the patch is BSD licensed, there should be no legal/licensing issues. Have you submitted a FreeBSD bug report with the patch? If not, do that first: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Base%20System https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Base... If you've done that already, or after you've waited a few weeks without anyone noticing it, the usual tactic is to email people who have worked on the driver in question recently; the SVN logs are useful here: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c?view=log https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c?vi... Feel free to send me an email if you need more help.
- NamTaf 11y ago
  Thanks. I've not done any of that as I didn't come up with the patch to begin with. I'll do some research and work out where the legalities fall.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    You may want to coordinate with the PC-BSD people as they seem to have an interest in it being upstreamed, too. https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/2361 https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/2361
    - cperciva 11y ago
      Some of the PC-BSD people on that thread are FreeBSD people too. I'm guessing someone simply forgot about it at some point...
      - voltagex_ 11y ago
        I'm still not clear on the lines between projects. Seems like people work together more than the various Linux distros.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    I'm halfway down the rabbit hole - I have to create an account to view the original patch. No license header. https://gist.github.com/voltagex/160980fc680d830b8b7e68199a3dca02 https://gist.github.com/voltagex/160980fc680d830b8b7e68199a3... (sorry about Windows line endings) http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=2974 http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=2974 Does the BSD license apply to a patch to a BSD licensed file?
    - cyphar 11y ago
      > Does the BSD license apply to a patch to a BSD licensed file? No, because the BSD License isn't copyleft. You'll have to contact the original author as well as any contributors.
      - voltagex_ 11y ago
        Good luck! 6 posts on that forum then disappeared forever.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Found two bugs, one of them with a presumably BSD licensed patch: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=177184 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=177184, https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=184718 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=184718 I'm not even sure why I'm helping on this - I looked at the N40L but decided to go with much newer hardware (with much weirder bugs).

by NamTaf 11y ago

cperciva 11y ago

Assuming the patch is BSD licensed, there should be no legal/licensing issues. Have you submitted a FreeBSD bug report with the patch? If not, do that first: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Base%20System https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Base... If you've done that already, or after you've waited a few weeks without anyone noticing it, the usual tactic is to email people who have worked on the driver in question recently; the SVN logs are useful here: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c?view=log https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c?vi... Feel free to send me an email if you need more help.

NamTaf 11y ago
Thanks. I've not done any of that as I didn't come up with the patch to begin with. I'll do some research and work out where the legalities fall.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  You may want to coordinate with the PC-BSD people as they seem to have an interest in it being upstreamed, too. https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/2361 https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/2361
  - cperciva 11y ago
    Some of the PC-BSD people on that thread are FreeBSD people too. I'm guessing someone simply forgot about it at some point...
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      I'm still not clear on the lines between projects. Seems like people work together more than the various Linux distros.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  I'm halfway down the rabbit hole - I have to create an account to view the original patch. No license header. https://gist.github.com/voltagex/160980fc680d830b8b7e68199a3dca02 https://gist.github.com/voltagex/160980fc680d830b8b7e68199a3... (sorry about Windows line endings) http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=2974 http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=2974 Does the BSD license apply to a patch to a BSD licensed file?
  - cyphar 11y ago
    > Does the BSD license apply to a patch to a BSD licensed file? No, because the BSD License isn't copyleft. You'll have to contact the original author as well as any contributors.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Good luck! 6 posts on that forum then disappeared forever.
voltagex_ 11y ago
Found two bugs, one of them with a presumably BSD licensed patch: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=177184 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=177184, https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=184718 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=184718 I'm not even sure why I'm helping on this - I looked at the N40L but decided to go with much newer hardware (with much weirder bugs).