Login at Kodi Home

rellla · 2015-07-22, 16:44

Time invested in Allwinner's blobs or half-done-source-releases is lost time imho.

How are the chances, that an implementation with a specific open source DVDVideoCodecSunxi (based on cedrus) and OpenGL/ES rendering (via libmali library blob) can go into kodi at sometime? Sure, it has to be done, first.

Regards
rellla

Klaus88 · 2015-07-22, 18:38

(2015-07-22, 16:33)Memphiz Wrote: Why would we do that. We enforce open source as much as possible because thats the spirit of any open source project.

Simply because it's normal that certain firms don't want to follow GPL and want to "protect" their know how. At that point is to the customer to chose what to follow. Probably Allwinner would have like to follow a license program with non-gpl module like ATI and NVIDIA. A practice which is not legally against Kodi GPL.

rellla · 2015-07-22, 22:23

You recognized, that allwinner is still violating the GPL at least with the old binaries? This is simply illegal, but probably not the usage of the new code in kodi. But why should one use that, when there is an open source solution already there with same functionality?
Personal interest: How long did you follow the cedarx story?
Regards
rellla

~~Robotica~~ · 2015-07-23, 00:28

(2015-07-22, 15:36)Klaus88 Wrote: Hi there,

I have been following this problem for a lot of time and a question comes to my mind.

Why don't you push Allwinner to go via non-gpl module like ATI/AMD and Nvidia?

Android is no x86.

**Memphiz** · 2015-07-23, 11:42

At least android on arm ... android on x86 is x86 Wink

Klaus88 · (This post was last modified: 2015-07-23, 16:12 by Klaus88.)

(2015-07-22, 22:23)rellla Wrote: You recognized, that allwinner is still violating the GPL at least with the old binaries? This is simply illegal, but probably not the usage of the new code in kodi. But why should one use that, when there is an open source solution already there with same functionality?
Personal interest: How long did you follow the cedarx story?
Regards
rellla

Let me tell you that I share your view, sincerely. But I can understand that a firm don't want to expose his own proprietary source code. I agree that if you want to follow GPL you must comply with it without going out of boundaries. But,I think that it would right even to permit a non-GPL module which is not against GPL itself. In addition, there's the problem that consumers product are becoming full of these "crap" Allwinner SoCs, so a meeting half way wouldn't be so bad. Yeah, I know of old binaries but in fact I say, if you want to follow GPL, comply with it. I agree.

I've been following this story (also kernel blobs and libisp and other stuff) for a year.

rellla · 2015-07-23, 16:58

Don't get me wrong. In general, I have no problem with using proprietary libraries from Allwinner - if they do not contain any piece of code, that does not respect GPL. In fact, at least the old binaries violated GPL. I must confess, that I do not know, if https://github.com/allwinner-zh/media-co..._others.so is "clean" or not.

This opening is just about things, we (mostly) already know. There is (nearly) nothing more to hide. And this public repo only happened, because it was massively forced by the linux-sunxi community. In fact it was just one person... with a few supporters jumping on that train. Allwinner knows of this massive GPL problem a looong time, their behaviour is documented in detail at the significant blogs... No more words about it are needed. It's sad, that there is just a mini-minimal will to help the community from AW... This is the real problem.

There already could be an open source v4l2 kernel driver for the video decoder, it's just not ready and made public, because too few noticed the REeing effort and appreciated that work. Sad.
My way will be to stay with the cedrus code. I know of no arguments, why i shouldn't. If people start using this allwinner code, the minimal steps that allwinner was forced to make in the right direction, will immediatly stop.
Let's all work together and get kodi work on the allwinner devices. With 100% open source code on the video decoding side and the mali libraries we get from arm. That would be the way to go imho.

Allwinner still violates the GPL, and so does for example Vidon.Me - former sponsor - too .... I'm with you, when you say that Allwinner must decide if they want to share their know-how or not. But in history it wasn't their know-how. It was GPLed know-how. And the GPL is not about what the customer wants to have. It's legal right and therefore illegal, if violated.

Regards
rellla

Klaus88 · (This post was last modified: 2015-07-23, 17:20 by Klaus88.)

(2015-07-23, 16:58)rellla Wrote: Don't get me wrong. In general, I have no problem with using proprietary libraries from Allwinner - if they do not contain any piece of code, that does not respect GPL. In fact, at least the old binaries violated GPL. I must confess, that I do not know, if https://github.com/allwinner-zh/media-co..._others.so is "clean" or not.

This opening is just about things, we (mostly) already know. There is (nearly) nothing more to hide. And this public repo only happened, because it was massively forced by the linux-sunxi community. In fact it was just one person... with a few supporters jumping on that train. Allwinner knows of this massive GPL problem a looong time, their behaviour is documented in detail at the significant blogs... No more words about it are needed. It's sad, that there is just a mini-minimal will to help the community from AW... This is the real problem.

There already could be an open source v4l2 kernel driver for the video decoder, it's just not ready and made public, because too few noticed the REeing effort and appreciated that work. Sad.
My way will be to stay with the cedrus code. I know of no arguments, why i shouldn't. If people start using this allwinner code, the minimal steps that allwinner was forced to make in the right direction, will immediatly stop.
Let's all work together and get kodi work on the allwinner devices. With 100% open source code on the video decoding side and the mali libraries we get from arm. That would be the way to go imho.

Allwinner still violates the GPL, and so does for example Vidon.Me - former sponsor - too .... I'm with you, when you say that Allwinner must decide if they want to share their know-how or not. But in history it wasn't their know-how. It was GPLed know-how. And the GPL is not about what the customer wants to have. It's legal right and therefore illegal, if violated.

Regards
rellla

Agreed. What can you say about Zidoo X1 with Allwinner H3 with Kodi support? Don't know how they have achieved that.

rellla · 2015-07-23, 17:28

(2015-07-23, 17:20)Klaus88 Wrote: Agreed. What can you say about Zidoo X1 with Allwinner H3 with Kodi support? Don't know how they have achieved that.

Zidoo made some noise here a time ago iirc. I have not followed them with their H3. But i don't think they use Kodi in compliance with the GPL - if they use binaries, they got from Allwinner.

@Memphiz, what do you think of A10/A20 support with an open source driver and libmali? Is it worth the efforts?

Regards
rellla

**Memphiz** · 2015-07-23, 17:47

You mean Open Source vpu driver?

rellla · 2015-07-23, 17:51

Yes.

Klaus88 · 2015-07-23, 18:01

(2015-07-23, 17:28)rellla Wrote:
(2015-07-23, 17:20)Klaus88 Wrote: Agreed. What can you say about Zidoo X1 with Allwinner H3 with Kodi support? Don't know how they have achieved that.

Zidoo made some noise here a time ago iirc. I have not followed them with their H3. But i don't think they use Kodi in compliance with the GPL - if they use binaries, they got from Allwinner.

@Memphiz, what do you think of A10/A20 support with an open source driver and libmali? Is it worth the efforts?

Regards
rellla

They modified Kodi using crap-non-gpl-comply source?

**Memphiz** · 2015-07-23, 22:57

@Rella that would be in compliance with open source afaik. Its similar to what the odroid guys at hardkernel do iirc.

rellla · 2016-01-08, 09:44

For the record and in case you missed that,
user mosterta has created a fork of Kodi which takes care of the discussed things:
- Open Source HW Video Decoder (based on libvdpau-sunxi)
- OpenGL/ES interoperation / zero-copy with mali
- HW Jpeg Decoder

This code is NOT depending on any VE binary blob and it is NOT depending on the so-called "open source" media codec published by Allwinner.

Here is the crosslink: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2199415

Imho, that is definitely (one) right way.

Regards
rellla

giaur · (This post was last modified: 2016-07-22, 22:07 by giaur.)

Kodi team keeps complaining and does not want to do anything. Binary blobs are ok from sponsors, like nvidia - please show me full sources of proprietary nvidia video driver and vdpau decoding engine. But CedarX contains binary blobs, so it won't be suppoted.

When go to not sponsor's vendor, we want to be "as much open source as possible". Well, it's funny. Allwinner should release full sources, without any binary blobs. Please be serious.

Fortunately, what kodi devs don't want to do is already done be others:

https://github.com/jernejsk/OpenELEC-OPi2/

This proves Kodi can be ported to Allwinner hardware. I tested above Openelec for and there is no any serious issues. I'm really starting to think you want to support sponsor's hardware only and keep complaining about all the rest.This looks rather unfairly.

If anybody want to try Kodi in Allwinner hardware, this Openelec fork is excellent. Currently hdmi CEC support is in progress.