Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751227Ab2JLT3J (ORCPT ); Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:29:09 -0400 Received: from qmta01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.30.16]:40395 "EHLO qmta01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750969Ab2JLT3H (ORCPT ); Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:29:07 -0400 Message-ID: <1350069843.7065.65.camel@rhapsody> Subject: Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] ACPI: Add early console framework for DBGP/DBG2. From: Khalid Aziz To: Matthew Garrett Cc: Lv Zheng , Len Brown , Thomas Gleixner , Ingo Molnar , "H. Peter Anvin" , Jason Wessel , Feng Tang , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org, x86@kernel.org, platform-driver-x86@vger.kernel.org Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:24:03 -0600 In-Reply-To: <20121010174406.GA13861@srcf.ucam.org> References: <09ee0e9c79c57da2fc9d0af1c2daeaacdc0bb234.1349838218.git.lv.zheng@intel.com> <20121010174406.GA13861@srcf.ucam.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Mailer: Evolution 3.2.3-0ubuntu6 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1431 Lines: 31 On Wed, 2012-10-10 at 18:44 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote: > On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 11:23:01AM +0800, Lv Zheng wrote: > > Microsoft Debug Port Table (DBGP or DBG2) is used by the Windows SoC > > platforms to describe their debugging facilities. > > DBGP: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/hh134821 > > DBG2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh673515 > > The license for these specifications only covers BIOS implementations, > not OS implementations. Has this had appropriate legal review? > I agree with Matthew. There are potential legal issues with using DBGP/DBGP2 tables in Linux. I had added support for SPCR and DBGP tables many years ago (in early 2.6 kernel timeframe) before Microsoft added this new license. I pulled the code out (in 2.6.14, I think) after Microsoft added the new license to these tables. I agree with Matthew's interpretation that the license is clear only about BIOS vendors being allowed to use these tables. PCDP table in DIG64 spec was introduced to get around the legal issues with using SPCR and DBGP in Linux. License for DBGP/DBGP2 needs some legal review before this patch can go into Linux. -- Khalid -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/