Possible GPL violation in Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router [rt.gpl-violations.org #107]

[Harald Welte]

On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 08:31:41PM +0100, xerces8 wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I posted [1] on the GPL-violations mailing list, but got no response, so I'll
> try here.

Sorry, I am always extremely busy, so the latency for replies tends to
be high.

> What :
> 
>   It seems Canyon [2] distributes [3] a firmware update file [4]
>   for their CN-WF514 WLAN router that contains the linux kernel
>   image. nmap scan guesses the router is running "Linux 2.4.X|2.5.X"
>   There is no mention of used GPL software and no source code.
>   A direct enquiry to Canyon was responded with : 
> 
> This product is not using GNU GPL license.

Interestingly, we've already had gpl enforcement with Canyon Technology,
but on the CN-WF512.  You can clearly see that from the
http://www.canyon-tech.com/products/show.cfm/Networking/Net/Wireless_Products_IEEE_802.11g/CN-WF512
page.

However, the CN-WF514 page does not have any such information.

Interestingly, I've analyzed the CN-WF514 about a year ago, and I could
find the serial console:

device has serial 3.3V port on pcb, runs at 19200 bps, pinout: 
        1 ground
        2 TxD of device
        3 +3.3V supply
        4 ground
        5 ground
        6 RxD of device

botloader supports tftp operation
auto-boot can be interrupted at boot by keypress
runs proprietary OS (presumably
has isl3880 miniPCI WLAN adapter

> What I need : 
> 
>  Help disecting the FW package [4]. It is a ZIP archive containing 

I've analyzed the Firmware
http://www.canyon-tech.com/files/Canyon/Networking/WiFi_U/CN-WF514/WF514-200713T5.zip
and that one is definitely not Linux.  It seems to be using a
linux-related bootolader or maybe even the linux uncompression code
(because of the "Uncompressing Linux" message).
Try "dd if=WF514-200713T5.img bs=8264 skip=1 | zcat >! vmlinux"

But looking at the other firmware (208, for a different hardware
revision), it actually is linux.  Try
"dd if=WF514_208.bin bs=65548 skip=1 | zcat > vmlinux"
and you will end up with a kernel image.

It seems like that that 208 firmware is for a hardware revision that
runs linux.

I'll investigate further and hand it over to my lawyers.

-- 
- Harald Welte <laforge at gnumonks.org>          	        http://gnumonks.org/
============================================================================
"Privacy in residential applications is a desirable marketing option."
                                                  (ETSI EN 300 175-7 Ch. A6)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.gnumonks.org/pipermail/tech/attachments/20060104/be82a1f0/attachment.pgp