ReadyNAS OS and GPL Questions

boerner · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:33 am **Posts:** 27

Hello,

I just have a few quick questions...(I did not find anything on the website or the forum, so if these have been asked and/or answered previously, my apologies)

1. What operating system are the ReadyNAS products running? I assume it linux, but is it based on an existing distro, or has it been developed in-house?

2. If it is based on Linux and or other GPL'd utilities, is there any more information as to what utilities and/or source code available?

* I did find the foot note (http://www.infrant.com/learn_features.htm) that states GPL information is available on the CD-ROM that comes with the product, but as I do not have one, I was wondering if this information was available by other means.

Thanks in advance for any information. Looks like a neat product. Especially like the Slimserver integration.

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:43 am

boerner wrote:

1. What operating system are the ReadyNAS products running? I assume it linux, but is it based on an existing distro, or has it been developed in-house?

It's using an in-house variant of debian.

Quote:

2. If it is based on Linux and or other GPL'd utilities, is there any more information as to what utilities and/or source code available?

* I did find the foot note (http://www.infrant.com/learn_features.htm) that states GPL information is available on the CD-ROM that comes with the product, but as I do not have one, I was wondering if this information was available by other means.

I've posted the license info at http://www.infrant.com/download/GPL_Licenses.zip

boerner · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:33 am **Posts:** 27

Hi Yoh-dah,

Thanks for the updates/info.

I took a look at the zip file and it has all the license information, but no source code to the apps mentioned.

Does the ReadyNAS just use the "stock" version of all these utilites (which means I can just go code the code from the respective projects websites)?

It also doens't mention the kernel version. I am curious as to whether you are using a released 2.4 series or 2.6 series, or a modified one of your own.

Again, thanks for the info. Just curious as I like to be able to see how things work

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Thu Aug 11, 2005 9:38 am

boerner wrote:

Hi Yoh-dah,

Thanks for the updates/info.

I took a look at the zip file and it has all the license information, but no source code to the apps mentioned.

Does the ReadyNAS just use the "stock" version of all these utilites (which means I can just go code the code from the respective projects websites)?

It also doens't mention the kernel version. I am curious as to whether you are using a released 2.4 series or 2.6 series, or a modified one of your own.

Again, thanks for the info. Just curious as I like to be able to see how things work

We tend to stick with stock whenever possible. The kernel is based on 2.4.20.

sunilg · **Joined:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:21 am **Posts:** 11

I'd also like to poke around and see if I can add modify the firmware. Is there a site to DL the sources for the hardware-specific kernel modules and also any modifications made to the stock source? Thanks.

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:04 am

sunilg wrote:

I'd also like to poke around and see if I can add modify the firmware. Is there a site to DL the sources for the hardware-specific kernel modules and also any modifications made to the stock source? Thanks.

At this point, anything Infrant proprietary technology-specific that does not fall into the GPL land, we have no plans on releasing.

boerner · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:33 am **Posts:** 27

Okay then...

begs the question...where can we download our request copies of the code that is used that is GPL'd?

Is it only included on the CD-ROM included when a ReadyNAS is purchased? Can we request a copy of just the CD?

Darth Vader · **Posted:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 5:55 pm

boerner wrote:

Okay then...

begs the question...where can we download our request copies of the code that is used that is GPL'd?

Is it only included on the CD-ROM included when a ReadyNAS is purchased? Can we request a copy of just the CD?

boerner,

Please PM me and I will arrange for a CD to be sent.

V8der

sunilg · **Joined:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:21 am **Posts:** 11

yoh-dah wrote:

At this point, anything Infrant proprietary technology-specific that does not fall into the GPL land, we have no plans on releasing.

Has Infrant released all modifications to GPL'ed source, or is there none -- just proprietary modules? Also, is there a guide if I wish to build my own firmware image? Where can I get binary copies of the propietary modules?

Thanks.

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:57 am

sunilg wrote:

yoh-dah wrote:

At this point, anything Infrant proprietary technology-specific that does not fall into the GPL land, we have no plans on releasing.

Has Infrant released all modifications to GPL'ed source, or is there none -- just proprietary modules? Also, is there a guide if I wish to build my own firmware image? Where can I get binary copies of the propietary modules?

Thanks.

There are changes to GPL source code, but a majority of our changes are in proprietary space, so even if you got our GPL changes, it's really going to be useless IMHO. A lot of our code centers around utilizing and optimizing our own NSP. And we don't release binaries other than what we release with the firmware image and we don't provide a howto guide to create a new image. Best thing if you really want to hack into this is to wait until we have time to do a SDK properly. There's no guarantee that whatever you end up doing is going to work in future releases anyway.

What are you interested in doing?

sunilg · **Joined:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:21 am **Posts:** 11

yoh-dah wrote:

There are changes to GPL source code, but a majority of our changes are in proprietary space, so even if you got our GPL changes, it's really going to be useless IMHO.

I think you're probably aware of this, but the GPL requires that you redistribute any changes you've made to GPL sources that you distribute in binary form.

yoh-dah wrote:

What are you interested in doing?

I would like to poke around and see if I can improve the UI experience.

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:23 am

sunilg wrote:

yoh-dah wrote:

There are changes to GPL source code, but a majority of our changes are in proprietary space, so even if you got our GPL changes, it's really going to be useless IMHO.

I think you're probably aware of this, but the GPL requires that you redistribute any changes you've made to GPL sources that you distribute in binary form.

Fully aware of that and Infrant is willing to comply with that, but the proprietary changes are isolated in non-GPL files.

yoh-dah wrote:

What are you interested in doing?

Quote:

I would like to poke around and see if I can improve the UI experience.

UI is not GPL.

sunilg · **Joined:** Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:21 am **Posts:** 11

yoh-dah wrote:

There are changes to GPL source code, but a majority of our changes are in proprietary space, so even if you got our GPL changes, it's really going to be useless IMHO.

yoh-dah wrote:

Fully aware of that and Infrant is willing to comply with that, but the proprietary changes are isolated in non-GPL files.

I would like to request all changes you have made to GPL sources. Thanks.

yoh-dah · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:39 am

See post by Darth Vader above.

boerner · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:33 am **Posts:** 27

Darth, Yoh-da

I got your message about giving you my credit card number to cover shipping and handling for a CD-ROM. At this point I am not ready to go that route. Is there no way you can make the GPL'd source available to download? I mean, even Tivo does that way....

http://www.tivo.com/linux/linux.asp

and yes I know you have the right to charge for the CD-ROM, but at least Tivo gives me the option to download too :-)

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ReadyNAS OS and GPL Questions

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