re Estech, well, that pretty well explains why WowWee hasn't been able to be very responsive to our issues with the RSM and Media Suite software.  Interesting find, PSC.

re RSM RAM, maybe we can correlate with serial numbers, whether later model RSMs have more... 

Rovio rules!
Wisconsin Iron :: Cellular Atomics

Just received my RS Media bots, but unfortunately they still sell the old 16mb version in Germany (company: CONRAD) :-(

dmesg says kernel build is from Fri Aug 25 2006 - bad news. 

 I am very interested to test some applications I have recently cross compiled for the RS Media which depend on the PPP enabled kernel.  Is there a way to get the new kernel? Does it boot with the original bootloader or is Nocturnals bootloader required?

Thank you for your reply. I will do your (great!) serial console hack anyway. I hope you will release your bootloader some day. In the meantime I have to be patient and try the Java stuff.

I have bought 4 robots (for an educational event) and just unwrap one so far, but I have nearly no hope one of the other robots is equipped with the new firmware :-(

It is really a mess that wowwee didn't released the source code with kernel config! The link to the linux sources I've seen in this or the Australian forum is just a generic 2.4 kernel with Makefiles for ARM.

With a useful kernel config  and kernel support for the custom binary modules (and in fact your bootloader) it should be possible to compile USB-WLAN support in. Could be very interesting, if they just let us do this!

If you look whats going on in the openWRT and NSLU2 community  it is really a big mistake what wowwee does with the GPL (but I think they don't kwow what they are doing). And what happens with the Java SDK is really a shame!

It's frustrating! But anyway I will contribute to this community.

Hey Max,

I have expressed similar opinions in the past. Though even with a kernel config, you wouldn't be able to compile a usable kernel. The code for the modules was not included (and is not required to be under the GPL), but mainly they stripped out the NAND memory driver (which wasn't a module, and as such, removing it is a violation of the GPL), without which, the kernel won't be able to mount the filesystem.

As I understand things, in theory WowWee should also have released the code for the bootloader, a toolchain, and any scripts required to install the new software, not to mention BusyBox is also covered by the GPL and the source was not included.

To be fair, this is not entirely WowWee's fault, since they appear to have contracted out the software developement, they can only give us the code they are given. That being said, WowWee should have determined what they would be required to provide under the terms of the GPL, and then ensured that they were actually provided with it (since they are the ones distributing a GPL covered binary without proper access to the source). They should also have ensure they had the source in hand before they started distribution of the RS Media, then they wouldn't have had to deal with me pestering them for four months.

RoboGuide - Your guide to hacking all things WowWee

Mayby somebody (Nocturnal?) should inform the busybox people, they are very strict in keeping track of GPL violations.
They just have blamed Verizon for a GPL violation.

http://www.busybox.net/license.html

The email address gpl@busybox.net is  the recommended way to contact the Software Freedom Law Center to report BusyBox license violations.

Should I try to ask Wowwee for the sources too, just to increase the pressure?

 I don't like the idea to put an additional linux board onto the RS media or to use an additional compiled in IP stack (exists for java and C) over the serial line if under the hood is a crippled closed source linux system without TCPIP compiled in.

Has somebody of the Wowwee stuff  joined this forum? What they are doing is simply illegal.

Robocommunity-ites -- please head over here for GPL requests:

http://www.robocommunity.com/forum/thread/13263/RS-Media-GPL-requests/

Thanks!

Check out my blog: The WowWee Insider.