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RShie's avatar
RShie
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7 years ago

Cyclone IV with PCIe transceiver and Linux GPL license

Using Cyclone IV GX in PCIe express slot of motherboard running Linux. Obviously our hardware design is our hardware design. However do we still have to release our 'out of tree' kernel module so...
RShie's avatar
RShie
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7 years ago

The answer to this is yes if you add a kernel module you need to release your code. Embedded FPGA SoC developers using Linux beware (as well as PCI express FPGA Linux developers).

Here is a good guide for how to comply.

https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html

This applies to ANY flavor of Linux. The GPL license for the Kernel stays the same no matter what.

One way around this is to use a binary blob (as many Android device developers do).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_blob

However a kernel module built against a compiled kernel will always be under the GPL (i.e. you have to open source your code for that kernel module).