this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Upstream Linux Developers Take Aim At TUXEDO's Out-Of-Tree GPLv3 Drivers (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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A new patch series posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list would block kernel modules/drivers from TUXEDO Computers from accessing GPL-only symbols in the kernel.

TUXEDO Computers maintains a set of kernel drivers currently out-of-tree for their various laptops for additional functionality around power profiles, keyboard backlight controls, WMI, sensor monitoring, the embedded controller, and other functionality. They have said they want to eventually mainline these drivers but in the name of allowing for rapid hardware support they maintain them out-of-tree and ship them with their Ubuntu-based TUXEDO OS and also have the driver sources available via GitLab.

The issue at hand though is that these kernel drivers marked as GPLv3+ and that conflicts with the upstream Linux kernel code licensed as GPLv2. There was a commit to change the driver license from GPLv3 to GPL(v2) but was reverted by TUXEDO Computers on the basis of "until the legal stuff is sorted out."

Update: TUXEDO Computers Relicenses Some Of Their Drivers To GPLv2

As of yesterday, TUXEDO Computers has now been able to re-license their driver consisting of fully in-house code from GPLv3 to GPLv2+. These are the TUXEDO Computers drivers where it's all written by TUXEDO employees and not having to worry about code from any third-party developers or other vendors.

The gxtp7380, ite_8291, ite_8291_lb, ite_8297, stk8321, tuxedo_compatibility_check, tuxedo_nb02_nvidia_power_ctrl, and tuxedo_tuxi drivers are the initial ones able to be moved to the GPLv2+ licensing for satisfying upstream Linux kernel developers. Moving the other drivers to GPLv2+ will take longer due to needing to check with the associated parties that contributed to those drivers.

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[–] exu@feditown.com 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Agreed it's great that they provide firmware support and (hopefully) upstream it eventually. But I also hope they have well documented steps somewhere on how to install it on another distro, because it's likely many people install their own anyways.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

i'm glad you brought that up; lemmy has taught me that people will use those linux company distros w/o the support and it blows my mind and makes me agree that they should be upstreaming it; i know that system76 does (eventually) and i wonder if tuxedo or anyone else does as well.