SGI licenced code in Xorg is non-free

[KarlGoetz]

Binary package hint: xorg

Hi,
As per [1], and its duplicate [2][3], Ubuntus Xorg ships with several files under non-free licences.
There has previously been a bug imported from Debian [4][5] about this previously, which was marked invalid by Ubuntu bug triages.
With the advent of Gobuntu, this becomes a major issue (again), because it leaves a few hard choices:
 - Remove Xorg (not happening)
 - Disable the GLX in Xorg, and potentially break dozens (hundreds?) of applications
 - Find/pay someone to rewrite any affected files.

Unfortunately, this /is/ a matter of freedom, and will have to be investigated by any distribution that is creating a "fully free" GNU/Linux install - From Debian to its smallest derivative.

Thanks to Kevin [6] and Matthew [7][8] for their work on this to date.

Karl.

[1] http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Bugs/00103
[2] http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Bugs/00129
[3] Its marked as a duplicate because its a subset of the problem in [1].
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+bug/6765
[5] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=211765
[6] http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Profiles/Kdean06
[7] http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Profiles/Mattflaschen
[8] https://bugs.launchpad.net/~matthew-flaschen

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Can you point out which files are affected? The xorg-server package does not ship those AFAIK, they are removed from the upstream source.

[KarlGoetz (kgoetz)]

On Fri, 2007-12-21 at 12:25 +0000, Timo Aaltonen wrote:
> Can you point out which files are affected? The xorg-server package does
> not ship those AFAIK, they are removed from the upstream source.

(CC Kevin, these instructions were from him).

> To find the files under this license:
>
> 1.) Download the source
> apt-get source xserver-xorg-core
>
> 2.) Change into the directory
> cd xorg-server-1.0.2
>
> 3.) Search for the name of the license we know is non-free
> grep -irl "GLX Public License" *
>
> This returned the debian/copyright file and the files I sent to the
> list.

(Note: the 4 lines below are from that email to the list)

> This means that the source package for xorg-server has non-free in the
> following files:
> GL/glx/glxext.c
> hw/dmx/glxProxy/glxext.c
>
> The xserver-xorg package is a "meta" package, there's no code in it.
> It's just a package that pulls in other packages. xserver-xorg-core is
> the "biggie" and that's where the non-free code is found.

kk

>
> ** Changed in: xorg-server (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: xorg => xorg-server
> Status: New => Incomplete

[KarlGoetz (kgoetz)]

Heres a link which was (part of?) the reply from the FSF licenceing.
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2007-11/msg00046.html
(incase it helps get the bug confirmed)

[KarlGoetz (kgoetz)]

Tagged gobuntu to make it easier for gobuntuers to find bugs related to the subdistro.

[KarlGoetz (kgoetz)]

Unsubscribed me, hopefully the gNewSense team subscription will keep me informed.