I will add that they did claim a couple of routers did not have GPL code and I was able to verify that they were correct in regards to those cases(those particular ones appeared to run a vxworks based operating system), however there were only a few routers that this was the case for. Those routers are not in question but it is the ones with GPL code that are and there are a very large amount of them. In my experience any router with a firmware bin file greater than 2mb will run a linux based operating system with very few exceptions. I have however done further analysis to confirm that I am right about them running Linux.
On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 3:57 PM, James Hilliard <[email protected]>wrote: > I am absolutely sure these routers contain GPL code, It is quite simple to > extract and analyze the firmware files myself and I have done so on a > number of these routers. Linksys also has not disputed the fact that these > routers do contain GPL code. They seem to all run a variant of the linux > kernel, most if not all of the ones in question run version 2.4 in addition > to numerous other GPL components usually. Linksys has even admitted that > they have GPL code but still refuses to provide source code. This dd-wrt > thread contains a number of the firmware files in question > http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=145255 if anyone wants to > analyze anything themselves. They are attempting to use the fact that these > routers are EOL and not being sold anymore as some sort of GPL exception > but they have provided firmware for these routers directly from their > website up until a few days ago. > > > On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 3:41 PM, Jeroen Massar <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 2013-10-21 09:45, James Hilliard wrote: >> > I sent a GPL request for router firmware I had downloaded from the >> > linksys support website. Instead of providing source they have mass >> > deleted older firmware from their website in an attempt to avoid >> > providing source code. This has all happened within the last month. >> >> First note though that there are families of Cisco/Linksys models where >> firmware does *NOT* contain any GPL. >> >> They are very aware of the 'dangers' of GPL and thus will act in as much >> compliance as possible. >> >> If your model *does* contain GPL though (this should be verifiable by >> extracting it and using strings upon it, checking the model number, etc >> etc), I can only suggest to make the downloaded file available on the >> Internet and provide the link with the full filename, model number and >> further details available to this list; that way it will at least be >> archived what this is about. >> >> Greets, >> Jeroen >> >> >
