On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:50:35 +0200 Johan Visser <johan.visser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > We are using a new SBC with 2 REALTEK 8169 chips on it. > We tried the latest kernel drivers, but ran into problems. > In average 1 out of 5 times that the system boots, the network won't > come alive. > We think it is an initialisation problem. > > We looked further on the net, and stumbled upon the Linux driver ( > source code! ) on the REALTEK site. > http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false > We tried it, and it solves the problem. > We also noted that an earlier version of this driver was merged into the > linux kernel. ( 8.001 or so ) > > Now the legal issue. > in the REALTEK documentation (release_note.txt )is says : > > driver version: 8.008.00 > Modify the GPHY parameters for RTL8111C > release date: 2008/07/14 > <snip> > 7. This product is covered by one or more of the following patents: > US5,307,459, US5,434,872, US5,732,094, US6,570,884, US6,115,776, and > US6,327,625. > > But the code is GPL... as stated in the source. > > Can we use this code in a commercial product without problems ? That is a question for your legal staff. Have them read: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/info/GPLv2.html -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
