Conservancy independently reviewed ESXi 5.5 and its incomplete

      <acronym title="complete, corresponding source">CCS</acronym>

    release as part of our GPL enforcement efforts described above.</p>

    <p>Conservancy's preliminary investigation indicated that the operating

    system kernel of VMware ESXi product consists of three key components:

        <ul>

          <li> the proprietary component &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo;, which is

            released in binary form only,</li>

            <li>the kernel module &ldquo;vmklinux&rdquo;, which contains modified Linux

Code, and for which (at least some) source code for which is provided.

            <li>other kernel modules with device drivers, most of which are

            modified Linux drivers, and for which (at least some) source code

              is provided.</li>

        </ul>

    <p>Conservancy examined the incomplete CCS alongside the

           binary “vmkernel” component.  Such examination indicates that function

           in “vmkernel” do make function calls to Linux's kernel code

      in the usual way for a single program written in C.</p></dd>

    <dt>Doesn't VMware's &ldquo;shim layer&rdquo; insulate them from GPL

    obligations and allow them to keep certain code in their kernel

    proprietary?</dt>

    <p>Many in the media have talked about the possibility that VMware might

    use some so-called “shim layer” between Linux code and

    VMware's proprietary code.  While, for decades, there has been much talk of

    various mechanisms of GPL obligation avoidance, Conservancy believes that

    merely modifying technical details of a combination's construction

    does not typically influence the legal analysis in a combined or

    derivative work scenario.</p>

    <p>Furthermore, the technical details of VMware's alleged GPL violation

    do not even mirror the typical scenarios that have usually been called

    “shim layers”.  Conservancy's analysis of VMware's ESXi

    product, in fact, indicates that VMware rather flagrantly combined Linux

    code in their own kernel, and evidence seems to indicate the work as a

    whole was developed by modifying Linux code in tandem with

    modifications to &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo; in a tightly coupled manner.</p>

    <dt>Can you give a <em>specific</em> example, with code, showing how

    VMware combined Linux source code with their binary-only components?</dt>

     <dd><p>There are numerous examples available that show this.  The

       details of alleged infringement specifically relating to Hellwig's

       contributions to Linux are of course the main matter of the

       allegations in the litigation, and Conservancy

       released <a href="#diagram">the diagram above</a> to exemplify that

       issue.  Conservancy continues to <a href="#court-documents">hope VMware will

       agree to make public all court documents</a> as a matter of public

       good, since the court documents discuss the specifics of alleged

         infringement on Hellwig's copyrights.</p>

       <p>However, Conservancy examined VMware's ESXi 5.5 product in detail

       even before Hellwig's enforcement action began.  Below is one example

       among many where VMware's CCS was incomplete per GPLv2§2(c) and

       GPLv2§3(a).  (One can verify these results by

       <a href="#verify">downloading and installing the binary and source

       packages for VMware's ESXi 5.5 Update 2</a>.)  Note that this

       example below is not necessarily regarding

       Hellwig's copyrights; VMware incorporated Linux code copyrighted by

       many others as well into their kernel.</p>

       <h4>Example of &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo;'s combination with Linux code</h4>

       <p>As one example, examine the file

           called <code>vmkdrivers/src_92/vmklinux_92/vmware/linux_pci.c</code>,

           which can be found in the “Open Source” release for

           ESXi 5.5.0 Update 2 (5.5U2).  A small excerpt from that file, found in the

           function <code>LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved()</code>, reads as follows:

<pre>

if (unlikely(

  /* NOTE: vmk_PCIGetDeviceName is defined in vmvisor64-vmkernel */

  vmk_PCIGetDeviceName(vmkDev, vmkDevName, sizeof(vmkDevName)-1) != VMK_OK))

{

    vmkDevName[0] = 0;

}

[...]

/* VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID is a macro calling driver's remove() here */

VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID(pciDevExt->moduleID,

                        linuxDev->driver->remove,

                        linuxDev);

</pre>        

</p>

<p>The function, <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code> must be defined, with an

      implementation, for this code above to work, or even compile.

      Inside <code>BLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/device/vmkapi_pci_incompat.h</code>,

      found in the <code>vmkdrivers</code> package of ESXi 5.5U2, shows a

      function header definition for <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code>.

      However, the source of its implementation is not provided there or

      anywhere in the source release.</p>

<p>Further evidence that the implementation of this function occurs elsewhere

  can by found by running <code>objdump -x</code> on the un-vmtar'ed

  <code>vmklinux_9</code> module.  Note the following output in the &ldquo;SYMBOL

  TABLE” section:

<pre>

0000000000000000         *UND*  0000000000000000 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName

</pre>

…and the following lines found in the  “RELOCATION RECORDS FOR

[.text]” section:

<pre>

00000000000327ff R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

0000000000035318 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

00000000000387e1 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

000000000003cf40 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

</pre>

</p>

<p>The above two properties both suggest that the <code>vmklinux_9</code>

 module requires: (a) a definition of the <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code>

 function to operate, but (b) that function is not defined

 inside <code>vmklinux_9</code> itself.</p>

<p>The definition can however be found in binary-only software provided in

  ESXi 5.5U2 &mdash; specifically, inside a file named <code>k.b00</code>,

  which is located in partition 5 on a disk where ESXi has been installed (or

  in the ESXi 5.5U2 installer ISO image).  Running <code>file</code>

  after <code>gunzip</code> on this file yields &ldquo;ELF 64-bit LSB shared

  object&rdquo;.  Meanwhile, <code>file k.b00</code> reports &ldquo;gzip

  compressed data, was ‘vmvisor64-vmkernel.stripped’”.

  These findings strongly suggests this is an image of the

  &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo; component.  An <code>objdump -x</code> yields this

  “SYMBOL TABLE” section:

<pre>

000041800036a408 g     F .text  0000000000000137 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName

</pre>

… which indicated these binary file contains the function body

for  <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName</code>.</p>

<p>Finally, after detailed searching, Conservancy found no evidence that any

  other code (other than modified Linux code) makes calls

  to <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName</code>.  This provides a strong indication

  that this function's primary purpose is to combine Linux code with

  “vmkernel”.  Conservancy also found other functions where similar analysis

  yields similar results as above.</p>

<p>Given this evidence and related contextual clues, the only logical

  conclusions are:

    <ul><li><code>vmklinux_9</code>, as a binary object, dynamically links

 with <code>k.b00</code>, another binary object, to form a single running

 binary.</li>

      <li>That binary contains code licensed under the GPLv2, and can be

       distributed in binary form only under permissions provided under

        GPLv2 &mdash; in particular <a href="https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html#section2">GPLv2&sect;2</a> and <a href="https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html#section3">GPLv2&sect;3</a>.</li>

      <li>GPLv2&sect;3(a&ndash;b) requires that <q>complete corresponding

          machine-readable source code</q> must accompany binary

          distributions such as these.  GPLv2§3 further states

          that <q>for an executable work, complete source code means all the

          source code for all modules it contains</q>.</li>

      <li>The binary work in question contains modules from <code>k.b00</code> and

        <code>vmlinux_9</code>.</li>

      <li>VMware did not provide source code for any modules found in

        <code>k.b00</code>.</li>

      <li>Therefore, VMware failed to comply with the GPLv2, as such

      compliance requires source code (or an offer therefor) for the material

        in <code>k.b00</code>.</li>

    </ul>

    </p>

<p>The above is but one piece of evidence among many, but hopefully it helps

  to explain the types of “combined work” violations found in

  VMware's ESXi product.</p>

<dt id="verify">How can I verify Conservancy's technical findings above?</dt>

<dd><p>The binary and source packages mentioned above are available

on VMware's website.  These packages contain the

previously-mentioned <code>linux_pci.c</code>,

<code>vmkapi_pci_incompat.h</code>, and <code>k.b00</code> files, as well as

    <code>vmklinux_9</code> and the source code that builds the latter.</p>

  <p>To obtain the source components, follow these steps (no login is required):

<ol>

<li>Visit <a href="https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI55U2_OSS&productId=353">https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI55U2_OSS&productId=353</a>.</li>

<li>Click the &ldquo;Download&rdquo; button beside the text that reads

&ldquo;Open Source Code for VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 Update 2&rdquo;.</li>

<li>Confirm that the SHA-1 hash matches the published one

  (d121634668a137ec808b63679fd941cef9a59715), found under “Read

  More&rdquo; on that web page.</li>

<li>Mount (or otherwise open) the

  downloaded <code>VMware-ESX-550U2-ODP.iso</code>.</li>

<li>Extract <code>vmkdrivers/src_92/vmklinux_92/vmware/linux_pci.c</code>

  and <code>BLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/device/vmkapi_pci_incompat.h</code>

  from <code>vmkdrivers-gpl/vmkdrivers-gpl.tgz</code> with tar and gzip.</li>