2012-08-19, 23:54
@oliv3r, mali, ump and opengles userland is always closed source on any device. Need an NDA from ARM to get the source code for those but as long as they work as advertised, who really cares. Also, they are system libs and you are permitted to link to system libs under GPL.
All Amlogic userland and kernel drivers are open, they are present in the pivos github. Firmware is closed, it's not likely that one would even have the tools to compile them anyway nor understand the internals of those devices. Again closed source for firmware is permitted and as long as it works, who really cares.
mali is not mainlined back into kernel sources because it is version dependent with userland. Generally forget mainlining arm device sources back to kernel, there are too many different implementations and each has their own tweaks and such. This is not desktop ubuntu here.
The kernel on pivos github IS the android kernel, I just fixit up and configure to work with a linux userland.
In general, you don't need to talk to the VPU, the kernel drivers do that and you want userland access anyway. Talking to the VPU is very complicated and unless you fully understand everything about it, you will epic fail. AML has codecs in userland there so you can roll your own player, or you can use libamlplayer like we did in XBMC.
All Amlogic userland and kernel drivers are open, they are present in the pivos github. Firmware is closed, it's not likely that one would even have the tools to compile them anyway nor understand the internals of those devices. Again closed source for firmware is permitted and as long as it works, who really cares.
mali is not mainlined back into kernel sources because it is version dependent with userland. Generally forget mainlining arm device sources back to kernel, there are too many different implementations and each has their own tweaks and such. This is not desktop ubuntu here.
The kernel on pivos github IS the android kernel, I just fixit up and configure to work with a linux userland.
In general, you don't need to talk to the VPU, the kernel drivers do that and you want userland access anyway. Talking to the VPU is very complicated and unless you fully understand everything about it, you will epic fail. AML has codecs in userland there so you can roll your own player, or you can use libamlplayer like we did in XBMC.
