From: Krzysztof Halasa <khc@pm.waw.pl>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Cc: Nicolas Mailhot <nicolas.mailhot@laposte.net>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@SteelEye.com>
Subject: Re: GPLv3 Position Statement
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:34:21 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <m33bad9hgy.fsf@defiant.localdomain> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0609271031300.3952@g5.osdl.org> (Linus Torvalds's message of "Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:51:50 -0700 (PDT)")
I generally agree with you, but...
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:
> And it not at all uncommon to have a flash that simply cannot be upgraded
> without opening the box. Even a lot of PC's have that: a lot (most?) PC's
> have a flash that has a separate _hardware_ pin that says that it is
> (possibly just partially) read-only. So in order to upgrade it, you'd
> literally need to open the case up, set a jumper, and _then_ run the
> program to reflash it.
I think this is history. Yes, late 486s and Pentiums (60 and 66?)
had a jumper protecting the flash. It's not true since ca. "Pentium 75+"
days - while many boards use "bootblock" chips, it's (almost?) always
unprotected (at most it just requires setting some GPIO pin(s)). The
rest of flash obviously has to be R/W to support the ESCD etc.
I think there are systems with 2 copies of the whole BIOS, and the
user selects the copy with a jumper (probably connected directly to
the most significant address line of the flash IC) - the second
copy might theoretically use a R/O bootblock but I've never checked it.
Most VGAs, disks, PCI cards etc. have flash chips with no protection
either, and I have to say I felt much better when they used (EP)ROMs.
I think almost all hardware manufacturers use a blank flash chips,
programming them "in system" with things like JTAG.
--
Krzysztof Halasa
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2006-09-27 20:34 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 187+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2006-09-27 9:43 GPLv3 Position Statement Nicolas Mailhot
2006-09-27 17:51 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-27 20:34 ` Krzysztof Halasa [this message]
2006-09-27 20:41 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-27 21:01 ` Krzysztof Halasa
2006-09-27 21:22 ` [OT] " Chase Venters
2006-09-27 23:01 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-27 23:04 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-27 23:07 ` Thomas Gleixner
2006-09-28 7:36 ` Andi Kleen
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2006-09-29 3:01 James Bottomley
2006-09-29 4:40 ` Neil Brown
2006-09-29 6:56 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 7:48 ` tridge
2006-09-29 9:37 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-29 10:08 ` Samuel Tardieu
2006-09-29 12:59 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-29 14:36 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-30 15:32 ` Andrea Arcangeli
2006-09-30 16:59 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-30 22:16 ` tridge
2006-09-29 11:59 ` Sanjoy Mahajan
2006-09-29 14:54 ` Horst H. von Brand
2006-09-29 21:46 ` tridge
[not found] ` <20060929180323.d2c0d2ee.seanlkml@sympatico.ca>
2006-09-29 22:03 ` Sean
2006-09-29 22:20 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-29 5:51 ` tridge
2006-09-29 7:31 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 12:08 ` Sanjoy Mahajan
2006-09-29 20:50 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 7:31 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 8:09 ` tridge
2006-09-29 20:28 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 8:53 ` tridge
2006-09-29 9:37 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-29 9:52 ` tridge
2006-09-30 0:56 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-29 19:50 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-30 7:05 ` tridge
2006-09-30 15:06 ` James Bottomley
2006-10-01 6:28 ` tridge
2006-10-01 15:45 ` James Bottomley
2006-10-01 16:48 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2006-09-30 21:11 ` David Lang
2006-09-30 22:29 ` Michiel de Boer
2006-10-01 6:52 ` tridge
2006-09-29 7:32 ` David Woodhouse
2006-09-25 10:02 tridge
2006-09-22 16:15 James Bottomley
2006-09-22 16:16 ` James Bottomley
[not found] ` <200609221359.39519.gene.heskett@verizon.net>
2006-09-22 18:08 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-22 18:30 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-22 18:34 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-22 18:52 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-22 19:05 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-22 18:54 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-25 6:33 ` Marc Perkel
2006-09-22 20:42 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-23 11:38 ` Florian Weimer
2006-09-25 8:53 ` Michiel de Boer
2006-09-25 9:06 ` Russell King
2006-09-25 10:51 ` Neil Brown
2006-09-25 11:31 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-25 16:10 ` Thomas Gleixner
2006-09-29 10:15 ` Helge Hafting
2006-09-29 11:07 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-29 14:02 ` Stephen Clark
2006-09-29 16:51 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 17:47 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-29 17:49 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 18:17 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 18:26 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-29 18:27 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 18:40 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 19:59 ` alan
2006-09-29 20:06 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 20:21 ` alan
2006-09-29 20:32 ` alan
2006-09-29 23:12 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-29 23:25 ` Randy Dunlap
2006-09-29 23:53 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-30 0:31 ` Vadim Lobanov
2006-09-30 3:36 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-30 4:37 ` Vadim Lobanov
2006-09-30 4:54 ` Randy Dunlap
2006-09-30 6:10 ` Vadim Lobanov
2006-09-29 21:11 ` Chris Smith
2006-09-29 21:33 ` alan
2006-09-29 20:51 ` alan
2006-09-29 21:25 ` Theodore Tso
2006-09-29 21:29 ` Alan Cox
2006-10-02 8:46 ` Helge Hafting
2006-09-29 19:43 ` jdow
2006-09-30 18:38 ` Thomas Gleixner
2006-09-30 20:49 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-30 20:38 ` Thomas Gleixner
2006-09-25 14:27 ` Lee Revell
2006-09-25 19:05 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-25 20:58 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-25 22:10 ` linux-os (Dick Johnson)
2006-09-26 21:32 ` Oleg Verych
2006-09-25 19:46 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-25 21:10 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-25 11:11 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-25 14:12 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-25 16:50 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-25 17:26 ` James Bottomley
2006-09-25 15:30 ` Xavier Bestel
2006-09-27 1:11 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-27 5:55 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-27 7:36 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-27 8:58 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-27 12:19 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-27 17:28 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-27 18:37 ` Chase Venters
2006-09-27 19:11 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 12:42 ` Pavel Machek
2006-09-27 22:58 ` Theodore Tso
2006-09-27 23:16 ` Chase Venters
2006-09-28 0:03 ` Neil Brown
2006-09-28 0:08 ` David Miller
2006-09-28 0:18 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 0:54 ` Patrick McFarland
2006-09-28 3:15 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 3:47 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-28 4:13 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 5:05 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-28 4:39 ` Chase Venters
2006-09-28 5:13 ` Trond Myklebust
2006-09-28 5:15 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-28 5:27 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-28 5:34 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-28 7:30 ` Al Viro
2006-09-28 13:55 ` Lennart Sorensen
2006-09-28 14:19 ` DervishD
2006-09-28 14:40 ` Jörn Engel
2006-09-28 14:59 ` DervishD
2006-09-28 15:04 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 15:20 ` Jörn Engel
2006-09-28 15:31 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 15:46 ` Björn Steinbrink
2006-09-28 15:24 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 0:26 ` Neil Brown
2006-09-29 6:22 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 1:34 ` jdow
2006-09-29 6:08 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-29 7:07 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-29 7:18 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-29 2:29 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-29 2:45 ` Neil Brown
2006-09-29 3:05 ` Björn Steinbrink
2006-09-29 3:31 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-29 5:37 ` Björn Steinbrink
2006-09-29 7:18 ` David Schwartz
[not found] ` <20060928225008.ded4fa2c.seanlkml@sympatico.ca>
2006-09-29 2:50 ` Sean
2006-09-29 7:18 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-28 14:51 ` Simon Oosthoek
2006-09-28 15:07 ` DervishD
2006-09-28 15:38 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 18:34 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 17:16 ` linux-os (Dick Johnson)
2006-09-28 18:59 ` Segher Boessenkool
2006-09-28 19:34 ` linux-os (Dick Johnson)
2006-09-28 20:01 ` Oleg Verych
2006-09-28 23:12 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-29 8:04 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-28 1:35 ` Al Viro
2006-09-28 3:13 ` Sergey Panov
2006-09-28 3:36 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 1:53 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-28 9:41 ` Jörn Engel
2006-09-28 9:55 ` Jeff Garzik
2006-09-28 14:45 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 15:19 ` Alan Cox
2006-09-28 14:40 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 2:34 ` Gene Heskett
2006-09-28 8:04 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-28 13:50 ` Christer Weinigel
2006-09-28 20:43 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-27 18:01 ` Theodore Tso
2006-09-27 12:32 ` Theodore Tso
2006-09-27 21:05 ` David Schwartz
2006-09-29 12:47 ` Pavel Machek
2006-09-27 17:00 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-09-28 8:18 ` Jan Engelhardt
2006-09-28 9:39 ` Samuel Tardieu
2006-09-27 16:08 ` Greg KH
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