Powervr drivers


Stradian

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Dec 6, 2010
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Given that there is chatter over the opengl and opengles, I'll leave these here, But:

  1. These are not the drivers you are looking for, if you want to build them on the Pandora
  2. These have evil licenses, especially the Intel one.
  3. Why would I post something like this?



I am posting these to provide a reference if anyone is willing to tackle adding opengl support.


The Powervr one is an old driver that I don't know which version(s) of the powervr it supports, but it has a less evil license.


The Intel 500 one, IS, of course, for the GMA 500. The GMA 500 is really a re-branded POWERVR SGX. However, this has the more evil license as it states that it only wants to be on the Intel brand only.


I will provide these at your own risk. Even if you managed to get the Intel one running on your Pandora, (which I, will not suggest), don't bother posting your success, as it could, at the worst case scenario, put the Pandora project at risk for legal issues.


Again, merely for reference.


Here are the links to unmodified, unedited, compressed files.


Intel 500: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19158&lang=eng&wapkw=%28Intel+Graphics+Media+Accelerator+500+Driver%29


PowerVr: http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/linux/powervr-2.01.21-7.tgz
 
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We might have to go all nouveau up in this driver...


Could it be possible to analyze the Intel driver and see if we can extract any useful information from it? I would, but I don't have the hardware that utilizes it.
 
We might have to go all nouveau up in this driver...


Could it be possible to analyze the Intel driver and see if we can extract any useful information from it? I would, but I don't have the hardware that utilizes it.

all the source code is there
 
In that case, wouldn't it be even easier to come up with an open(er) alternative?
 
In that case, wouldn't it be even easier to come up with an open(er) alternative?
If the source was not released under some license that allows you to copy it, even looking at the code will pretty much legally prohibit you from writing something similar. It's not impossible to prove that you may have downloaded the source, and once they've done that it is pretty much impossible to prove that you didn't read it and therefore copy it in some way. Just because they've released the source code doesn't mean they've released the copyright.


The ReactOS team had a similar dilemma a few years back: the Win2K source was accidentally leaked, and they had to really work to keep anyone who had had contact with that source from contributing lest they put the entire project in jeopardy. ReactOS is an open source Win2K clone, 100% legal because of the methods used to reverse engineer the code. They didn't want to give Microsoft a reason to successfully sue them, and I don't want to give Intel a reason to successfully sue OPT. If you intend to work on open source graphics drivers with any hope of getting them made official, I highly suggest you do not download any of these drivers, even just to "see how things work".
 
If the source was not released under some license that allows you to copy it, even looking at the code will pretty much legally prohibit you from writing something similar. It's not impossible to prove that you may have downloaded the source, and once they've done that it is pretty much impossible to prove that you didn't read it and therefore copy it in some way. Just because they've released the source code doesn't mean they've released the copyright.


The ReactOS team had a similar dilemma a few years back: the Win2K source was accidentally leaked, and they had to really work to keep anyone who had had contact with that source from contributing lest they put the entire project in jeopardy. ReactOS is an open source Win2K clone, 100% legal because of the methods used to reverse engineer the code. They didn't want to give Microsoft a reason to successfully sue them, and I don't want to give Intel a reason to successfully sue OPT. If you intend to work on open source graphics drivers with any hope of getting them made official, I highly suggest you do not download any of these drivers, even just to "see how things work".

I can't stand these sorts of things. I can understand hardware being "closed", but come on, drivers even? They offer the source with no allowance to modify it. That's just annoying.
 
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