[E3-hacking] PBL V5.1

[Antony Stone]

On Wednesday 10 October 2007 07:25, Alexander wrote:

> > "Please note that this is of special practical importance in the case of
> > embedded devices, since the executable program(s) need to be somehow
> > installed onto the device. If the user is not given a way to install his
> > own (modified) versions of the program, he has no way of exercising his
> > freedom to run modified versions of the program."
>
> Agreed. That is what I want is just to run on your device modified version
> of Linux.

It occurs to me that Amstrad don't want to release the keys they've used to 
sign/encrypt their new code, however the new 5.1 bootloader won't accept 
unsigned/unenecrypted code, and therefore we get a sort of stalemate.

How would both Amstrad and the open source community here feel about the 
following proposal?

	Amstrad provides a signed/encrypted (whatever is needed to get it to load
	onto a 5.1 device) copy of the 4.9 bootloader, so that it becomes possible to
	'downgrade' a device to a state where we _can_ load our own open source code.

That way Amstrad keeps its keys, but the devices which were released running 
Linux remain open for us to use as the GPL requires.


Comments, people?


Antony.


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