Free as in speech

A couple of months ago I started to package the Digi AccelePort drivers, or dgap for short, for their PCI multi-port serial cards (ITP #290753).

Unfortunately, there are two licensing issues that prevent me from uploading them, even in non-free:

• there is no explicit permission to redistribute the firmware files;
• the management utilities still contain confidential/proprietary headers although they are released under the GPL.

As the packages are ready and I’ve got mail about them, I’ve made them available on http://debian.technologeek.org. You can use the following apt source (sources available too, of course):
deb http://debian.technologeek.org/ sarge non-free

To install them, run

apt-get install dgap-tools dgap-data dgap-source
m-a prepare dgap-source
m-a build dgap-source
m-a install dgap-source

You’ll need the kernel-headers package corresponding to your running or target kernel.

If your DigiBox isn’t hooked up to the card yet, shut down the machine, connect it and reboot. Otherwise, just run the dgap initscript. Then wait a moment and run dpa as root; you should see your card listed and the status should be OK. If you see FEP_FAIL as the status, don’t panic: exit the utility by pressing escape and wait 42 seconds for the card to finish its self-test.

I’m making these packages available in the hope that they will be useful, as usual. I went through an extra-careful QA process to ensure that they won’t break, so they can be used in critical environments, where this type of hardware can usually be found. I certify that the drivers and utilities have not been altered in any bad way.

If someone from Digi reads this, please contact me so we can work out those two licensing issues. I’ve got no reply whatesoever to my last mails; I hate this legalese as much as you do.

Five years ago, the first mail I read was from James Troup and contained my encrypted Debian password.

If only I didn’t loose 2 years of my mail archives :-(

As it happens, today is also my birthday.