Difference between revisions of "Open Source Obligations"

Revision as of 14:00, 22 December 2012

Your meteobridge device consists of three components from different sources and with different license conditions.

Meteobridge Hardware

There is no dedicated meteobridge hardware, but we found a way to convert cheap and widely available router hardware into a meteobridge platform. At the moment two pocket routers from TP-LINK can be converted into a meteobridge platform. Please keep in mind that you will void your manufacturer warranty when installing alien firmware. Installing meteobridge firmware into the router is nothing illegal, you are free to use a device you own in a way you like, but you are on your own when doing so.

OpenWrt

The meteobridge firmware you can download as explained in "Getting Started" section consists of two parts. The main part is a OpenWrt distribution. OpenWrt is an Open Source router software, which can be installed on many routers from different manufacturers. The routers from TP-LINK are well supported by OpenWrt as TP-LINK does comply in a good way to Open Source/GPL obligations, that enforce to make source code and toolchain available when you ship a product based on GPLed code, which is true for Linux in general. As the OpenWrt part of the meteobridge firmware is 99% stock OpenWrt, we do not make the complete OpenWrt sources available but provide a tar archive which the kernel config for TL-WR703N and TL-MR3020 and the additional files which are included into OpenWrt via an overlay file system. You find this archive HERE. Used OpenWrt distribution including toolchain and Linux sources can be downloaded HERE. Meteobridge firmware does not strip down OpenWrt, You have full access to all OpenWrt features including ssh login as user "root" with password "meteobridge".

Meteobridge Application SW

Having OpenWrt installed on your device converts it to a fine router. So all features around Network (LAN and WLAN) are there and meteobridge application SW stack does not need to care about that anymore. On top of OpenWrt meteobridge brings programs to connect to weather stations, to read data from it and to transfer it to selected weather networks. This application software resides in folders "/home/meteohub" and "/home/meteobridge". Executables in these folders are not Open Source but copyrighted by smartbedded UG. As these applications are only linking to LGPLed Linux libraries, there is no GPL viral effect and Open Source license obligations are not violated. Connection with GPLed components is purely done by file-based communication (files, pipes, sockets) which also does not violate GPL terms. As you see, we are respecting Open Source rules and we are taking care of not breaking Open Source licenses. If you have doubts, please contact "license(at)smartbedded.com" so that we can settle a potential issue.

In order to support Open Source developments, smartbedded UG is a donator of XXX.