[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Bug#757393: marked as done (mesa: possible patent issue: ARB_texture_float: US Patent #6,650,327)

Your message dated Sat, 9 Aug 2014 14:42:00 +0100
with message-id <20140809134200.GO4405@betterave.cristau.org>
and subject line Re: Bug#757393: mesa: possible patent issue: ARB_texture_float: US Patent #6,650,327
has caused the Debian Bug report #757393,
regarding mesa: possible patent issue: ARB_texture_float: US Patent #6,650,327
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner@bugs.debian.org
immediately.)


-- 
757393: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=757393
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: libgl1-mesa-dri
Version: 10.2.4-1
Severity: normal
File: mesa

Dear Maintainer,

a short story how i became aware of this issue: I tried to enable opengl 3.3 
on my gentoo box and i installed mesa 10.2.4 and mesa-utils 8.2 but could not 
get opengl 3.3 running. So i installed debian/jessie on a seperate partiton to
verify that my machine is able to do this. I tried with the same current mesa (10.2.4),
mesa-progs 8.2 and the same kernel 3.14.13 as debian did use. glxinfo did immediatly report on 
debian/jessie that opengl 3.3 is available. As far as good. I thought it
is just a configuration issue.

Now i copied the debian kernel to my gentoo partition and it did still
report opengl 2.1. I tried the useflag USE="-bindist" to mesa-10.2.4 and the
machine did report opengl 3.3 available. The build did warn abount the patent issue.
I investigated the ebuild and i did notice the following:

        econf \
                --enable-dri \
                --enable-glx \
                --enable-shared-glapi \
--->>>                $(use_enable !bindist texture-float) \
                $(use_enable debug) \

        # warn about patent encumbered texture-float
        if use !bindist; then
                elog "USE=\"bindist\" was not set. Potentially patent encumbered code was"
                elog "enabled. Please see patents.txt for an explanation."
        fi

So all i did was enable the configuration option "texture-float" to get
opengl 3.3 running on my hardware (AMD  HD5770 card / Evergreen chip).

The docs/patent.txt in the mesa source code archive tells the following:
--------------------
ARB_texture_float:

    Silicon Graphics, Inc. owns US Patent #6,650,327, issued November 18,
    2003 [1].

    SGI believes this patent contains necessary IP for graphics systems
    implementing floating point rasterization and floating point
    framebuffer capabilities described in ARB_texture_float extension, and
    will discuss licensing on RAND terms, on an individual basis with
    companies wishing to use this IP in the context of conformant OpenGL
    implementations [2].

    The source code to implement ARB_texture_float extension is included
    and can be toggled on at compile time, for those who purchased a
    license from SGI, or are in a country where the patent does not apply,
    etc.

    The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express
    or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of
    merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.
    In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any
    claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract,
    tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the
    software or the use or other dealings in the software.

    You should contact a lawyer or SGI's legal department if you want to
    enable this extension.


[1] http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=mIIOAAAAEBAJ&dq=6650327
[2] http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/ARB/texture_float.txt
-------------------------

So, i am uncertain if this possible patent issue is a danger to debian. I would 
be happy if this can be ignored. On gentoo i am safe, because all i do is to use 
it myself on my machine and dont distribute it. The big threat seems to be the 
distribution of this thing as a binary program (as far as i understand it). Debian 
does this via the apt mirrors ....

Best Regards

Georg Gast
 
-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.14-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 depends on:
ii  libc6              2.19-7
ii  libdrm-intel1      2.4.54-1
ii  libdrm-nouveau2    2.4.54-1
ii  libdrm-radeon1     2.4.54-1
ii  libdrm2            2.4.54-1
ii  libelf1            0.159-3
ii  libexpat1          2.1.0-6
ii  libffi6            3.1-2
ii  libgcc1            1:4.9.1-1
ii  libllvm3.4         1:3.4.2-6
ii  libstdc++6         4.9.1-1
ii  libtinfo5          5.9+20140712-2
ii  multiarch-support  2.19-7

Versions of packages libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 recommends:
ii  libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0 [libtxc-dxtn0]  0~git20131104-1.1

Versions of packages libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 suggests:
pn  libglide3  <none>

-- debconf information excluded

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
I don't believe this is a bug.

Cheers,
Julien

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


--- End Message ---
Reply to: