On 1/9/21 2:33 PM, Peter Stuge wrote:
Alif Ilhan wrote:
I have recently found the source code for an Intel Cedar trail bios. It is actually an AMI bios source code.
..
has almost everything open source except the EC.
Unless the source code was published by the author (AMI) under one of the licenses listed at https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical it's not open source - a better term would perhaps be leaked source.
I want to ask how can I use it to add support for coreboot to Cedar trail?
Unfortunately you can't really use leaked source for much, but read on..
Is it possible to use at least the memory init and the FSP alternatives from the source code?
No; since coreboot is licensed per GPLv2, which means that leaked source is useless. GPLv2 requires among other things that coreboot source code may be legally copied - this is not the case with leaked source, or even with a derivative work of leaked source.
Now, depending on your jurisdiction, what you *can* possibly do is so-called clean room reverse engineering. There, some developers study the leaked source and then write documentation - not code - which describes the functionality in detail. Later, *other* developers (that's critical) can use the documentation and write source code from scratch which is also licensed per GPLv2 and will hopefully work.
This method obviously requires a huge effort. But as far as I know it's the only way to make use of leaked source in a legal and thus sustainable way.
For what it's worth: I have a few different Cedar Trail motherboards that I would like to port coreboot to. Since I have not looked at the leaked code, if such documentation was available, I would be interested in helping write a Cedarview/Cedar Trail port.
Regards, Samuel
If the developer(s) who study the leaked source already know what coreboot can and can not do, then perhaps it's possible to create some simplified, to-the-point documentation for the only relevant parts in the leaked source, but that's just an idea.
Please be careful not to introduce leaked source into the coreboot tree.
And maybe talk with a lawyer specialized on free software about the reverse engineering situation in your jurisdiction.
Kind regards
//Peter _______________________________________________ coreboot mailing list -- coreboot@coreboot.org To unsubscribe send an email to coreboot-leave@coreboot.org