Merging with Flashrom #125

Open DavidGriffith opened 5 years ago

In GitLab by @eloydegen on Sep 3, 2018, 11:51

Would there be any interest in collaborating with the Flashrom project and merge this project into the codebase of Flashrom? I think this programmer would be suited to be supported by Flashrom. I would be able to work on this for a while, if you agree this is a good idea.

I suppose it's worth looking into.

In GitLab by @Franck78 on Jan 29, 2021, 11:50

if @eloydegen gives any link ;)

In GitLab by @eloydegen on May 9, 2022, 04:31

@DavidGriffith I'd still like to look further into this, although there is an issue. Minipro is licensed under the GPLv3 and flashrom is licensed under the GPLv2. Is there a possibility to dual license (or change the license of) minipro to the GPLv2?

I'd like to avoid any problems exploited in GPL2, so I'm reluctant to do any dual-licensing. Precisely how does Flashrom do things? It looks like to me that Flashrom puts all of its hardware support into one program.

Were I to design something like that, I would have it call external programs whenever practical rather than putting all sorts of hardware support into one program. Would it be possible to modify Flashrom to do that?

I posted to https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/13565/ about this for advice.

In GitLab by @Franck78 on Jan 1, 2023, 03:41

Hi, can one of you two place a link toward 'Flashrom' please.

In GitLab by @eloydegen on Jan 1, 2023, 08:39

@Franck78 https://www.flashrom.org/

From my post to https://opensource.stackexchange.com/, it's clear that such incorporation cannot happen unless one of two things happen:

Minipro is dual-licensed, which I cannot do for a couple reason: I'm not the original author and lots of people have contributed code.
Flashrom alters its license from GPL-2 to "GPL-2 or later".

Number 1 cannot happen, so that leaves 2 as the only option for incorporating code. If that can't be done, the best I can suggest is to add general functionality to Flashrom to call an external program. I expect this would require some additional setup and scratch files, but I'm confident that it would moot any license compatibility concerns.

In GitLab by @Franck78 on Jan 2, 2023, 01:42

@eloydegen

Perhaps you can start a v2.0 Flashrom ?

Apparently (maybe I'm wrong), it supports a long list of diy programmers more or less obsolete now as well as no more used videocard, network boards etc etc etc.

Choose the correct license of course, select a few programmers , define a clear interface api whatever the name to isolate problematics drivers you want to keep.

About drivers, now things to flash/keep/copy/decipher are inside chipsets like battery managers, ene KB9022. That what I see sometimes when I try to repair a laptop ;)

The usage I have for programing is also 1980 era for all sort of eprom, maskroms, pal found in pcb game games (konami, sega, taito,....). Use a Retro Chip Tester (RCT) is a very good companion tool also. Minipro is good at flashing, zero use at testing a RAM chip.

What I want to say is who is using this stuff for what ? Look what a simple ESP32/arduino can do for hobbyist or learning. None of Flashrom, Minipro, RCT is required.

DavidGriffith / minipro-import-test

Merging with Flashrom #125