Porting SageTV to run on D-Link DSM-520

[Jesse]

Hi,

I would certainly be up for sending any draft you folks come up with.

Someone mentioned the DLink marketing department. I think that a pile of emails explaining that many of us would buy one or more of these products if they would simply release the kernel, or better yet, assist sage in developing a client, would go a long way. Maybe a note from sage with some info about how many users they have and how many of them would be likely to jump on an HD capable client would help.

Thanks to all of you working on this.

Jesse

[JUC]

yup-we can send the letter requesting the information but if they don't want to comply we can try to get some help from FSF or a developer. Worth a shot anyway. I'll have a quick draft posted later tonight or tomorrow.
JUC

[insomniac]

I would imagine that sage would want to stay hands off on this, for they may become a target for dispute, etc. But im sure they could make great use of it, if its made available

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

I would certainly be up for sending any draft you folks come up with.

Someone mentioned the DLink marketing department. I think that a pile of emails explaining that many of us would buy one or more of these products if they would simply release the kernel, or better yet, assist sage in developing a client, would go a long way. Maybe a note from sage with some info about how many users they have and how many of them would be likely to jump on an HD capable client would help.

Thanks to all of you working on this.

Jesse

[JUC]

Alright--here's a quick draft letter to Dlink. The sentence highlighted in yellow needs some work on the language. Maybe those more familiar with the terminology can add to/edit this a little bit. Feel free to make any changes you think are needed. Once we can agree on the language--i can mail it out. If, for some reason the format is not what you guys had in mind just let me know and I can work up another draft.
Juc

mods: if for some reason you feel this is an inappropriate use of the forum please let us know and we can take this discussion off site...

[PGPfan]

JUC,

That looks great as is! (I was expecting some "party of the first part, whereas, ex post facto, we the people, I object, writ of something or other, type of lingo but am gratefully surprised )

MTisza, does this sound like we are asking for all our needed information? If no, make sure to reply with specifically what we need to ask for.

-PGPfan

[MTisza]

Unfortunately I don't have access to word right now so I had to use wordpad, and the highlighted text is not highlighted in there. So I'm assuming the second half of the first paragraph is what you asked for help on. Here's my first attempt at making the needed files obvious and as unmistakable as possible:

Specifically, I am requesting that you provide me with all the source code for the kernel and all modules it contains including the boot-loader, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the kernel and drivers, as these are not included in the gpl download already available to us.

[JUC]

Exactly what I was looking for! You were right on the paragraph too. Keep any suggestions coming.
Juc

[JUC]

I updated the draft letter in post #44 to include MTisza's language. I'll hold on to this until you all think it is good enough to send. Just let me know.
JUC

[MTisza]

Nice. To me it looks okay as is.
Would a Sage Expert or linux expert want to comment on it? As I am neither.
I just want to make sure that we'll send it to all three companies.

[JUC]

As far as sending it to all three companies--how would that work? Is the source code available from all three companies or can you only download it from Dlinks ftp site? If its available from all three--then we should send it to all three. But, if only Dlink is responsible for providing the information--it might be wise to start there---then move up the chain if we hit a wall. Not sure though.

[MTisza]

Maybe that's the better approach. But I'll explain my reasoning.
My concern is mainly that the middle man (Redsonic in this case) is probably the one who used the GPL code to create a product for Dlink, and it's entirely possible the from Dlink's point of veiw this is a black box and they know nothing about the GPL concerns, or will just claim ignorance and say that the sources are already available on their website.
From my limited legal experience I would think that Dlink is the one directly responsible to us to provide the code. But they have to get it from Redsonic. According to one prior post Redsonic would be willing to fork over the code, if they weren't bound by an agreement with Sigma Designs.

[JUC]

MTisza--I see what your saying. How about this approach--and I think this is likely the way things will end up going anyway...
We send our letter to Dlink. They tell us to go see Redsonic. We take the reply we received from Dlink and attach it to our letter and send it to Redsonic. Redsonic tells us that they are bound by an agreement with Sigma Designs. We take that reply, attach it to the one we have from Dlink along with our letter and send it to Sigma. This 'should' give no options to Sigma other than releasing the code. At least they won't be able to tell us to go see Dlink.
Or, we can just send one to everybody but I have a feeling that they are all going to just point fingers. If we can have responses from all the companies at least it will help us out in the end. The downside is that this may take a couple weeks at best.
Let me know what you think.
-There was another suggestion to add the actual link where you can download the souce code from Dlinks site in the email so they can't say --"its there on our website" in their first response...so I'll update the letter when I get to work and post it above.
Thanks,
JUC

[MTisza]

JUC. I like your idea. I also like the idea of trying to prevent the "It's already available on our site" response.

[JUC]

Letter updated in post 44 above to include link to the download provided by Dlink.
JUC

[RobDMB]

I was just wondering. Does anyone know if the DSM-520 or any other extender has the ability to display menus from dvd's copied to the harddrive?

[JUC]

Hey all, I just wanted to let you know that due to a family emergency I will not be available for the next week or so to work on this. If you can take the letter and make any changes you feel are necessary (if any) I can hopefully send it out by the end of next week.
JUC

[insomniac]

Hope all is well or ends up well.

I.

Originally Posted by JUC

Hey all, I just wanted to let you know that due to a family emergency I will not be available for the next week or so to work on this. If you can take the letter and make any changes you feel are necessary (if any) I can hopefully send it out by the end of next week.
JUC

[JUC]

Hey all, i'm back and everything is once again good on my end (thankfully). Insomniac-thanks for the kind words.

So--haven't heard anything about the letter. So--i will send it out on monday and if you have any additional information or anything else that should be added let me know.
Thanks,
JUC

[MTisza]

Thanks for your work JUC.

[gregkovacs]

Hi, I'm going to be building a system soon, and for a while I was thinking about going with BeyondTV, but they don't seem to have support for media extending HDTV. It appears that you guys are working on it? Anybody from SageTV directly, officially involved?