Neither Conservancy nor Christoph takes this action lightly nor without + exhausting every other possible alternative first. This lawsuit is the + outgrowth of years of effort to convince VMware to comply with GPL.
+ +In October 2011, Conservancy received a GPL violation report on + BusyBox for VMware's ESXi products. Conservancy opened the matter in its + usual, friendly, and non-confrontational way. Nevertheless, VMware + immediately referred Conservancy to VMware's outside legal counsel in the + USA, and Conservancy negotiated with VMware's legal counsel throughout + late 2011, 2012 and 2013. We exchanged and reviewed + CCS candidates, and + admittedly, VMware made substantial and good efforts toward compliance on + BusyBox. However, VMware still refused to fix a few minor and one major + compliance problem that we discovered during the process. Namely, there + was a major violation regarding Linux itself that ultimately became + Christoph's key complaint in this lawsuit.
+ +Meanwhile, when Conservancy realized in late 2012 there might be a major + Linux violation still present in VMware's ESXi products, Conservancy + representatives sought every industry contact we had for assistance, + including those from trade associations, companies (both competitors and + collaborators with VMware), and everyone else we could think of who might be + able to help us proceed with friendly negotiations that would achieve + compliance. While we cannot name publicly the people we asked for help + to convince VMware to comply, they include some of the most notable + executives, diplomats, and engineering managers in the Linux community. No + one was able to assist Conservancy in convincing VMware to comply with the + GPL. Then, in early 2014, VMware's outside legal counsel in the USA finally + took a clear and hard line with Conservancy stating that they would not + comply with the GPL on Linux and argued (in our view, incorrectly) that they + were already in compliance.
+ +Conservancy in parallel informed Christoph fully of the details of the + Linux violation on Christoph's copyrights, and based on Conservancy's + findings, Christoph began his own investigation and confirmed + Conservancy's compliance conclusions. Christoph then began his own + enforcement effort with legal representation from Till Jaeger. Christoph has + been unable to achieve compliance, either, through his negotiations in + 2014. VMware's last offer was a proposal for a settlement agreement that VMware would + only provide if Christoph signed an NDA, and Christoph chose (quite + reasonably) not to sign an NDA merely to look at the settlement offer.
+ +Thus, this lawsuit comes after years of negotiations by Conservancy to + achieve compliance — negotiations that ended in an outright refusal by + VMware's lawyers to comply. Those events were then followed by a year of + work by Christoph and Till to achieve compliance in a separate action.
+ +Simply put, Conservancy and Christoph fully exhausted every possible + non-litigation strategy and tactic to convince VMware to do the right thing + before filing this litigation.
++ Conservancy prepared this diagram to show the technical situation as we + understand it. The diagram compares the technical architecture of a full, + running Linux kernel with a full, running VMware kernel: +
+
+ ![[Diagram of Linux and VMware running kernels]](/linux-compliance/linux-vs-vmkernel_en.png)
+
If you want to download the diagram, it's available + in SVG + (English), PNG + (English), SVG + (German), and PNG + (German).
+
The GPL violation at issue involves VMware's ESXi product. + Conservancy independently reviewed ESXi 5.5 and its incomplete + CCS + release as part of our GPL enforcement efforts described above.
+ +Conservancy's preliminary investigation indicated that the operating + system kernel of VMware ESXi product consists of three key components: +
-
+
- the proprietary component “vmkernel”, which is + released in binary form only, +
- the kernel module “vmklinux”, which contains modified Linux +Code, and for which (at least some) source code is provided. +
- other kernel modules with device drivers, most of which are + modified Linux drivers, and for which (at least some) source code + is provided. +
Conservancy examined the incomplete CCS alongside the + binary “vmkernel” component. Such examination indicates that functions + in “vmkernel” do make function calls to Linux's kernel code + in the usual way for a single program written in C.
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.
+ +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 “vmkernel” in a tightly coupled manner.
+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 the diagram above to exemplify that + issue. Conservancy continues to hope VMware will + agree to make public all court documents as a matter of public + good, since the court documents discuss the specifics of alleged + infringement on Hellwig's copyrights.
+ +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 + downloading and installing the binary and source + packages for VMware's ESXi 5.5 Update 2.) 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.
+ +Example of “vmkernel”'s combination with Linux code
+Our example begins with examination of the file
+ called vmkdrivers/src_92/vmklinux_92/vmware/linux_pci.c,
+ 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 LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(), reads as follows:
+#include <linux/pci.h>
+[...]
+/*
+ * This function [...] is modelled after pci_remove_device, the function which would
+ * be called in a linux system.
+ */
+static void
+LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(vmk_PCIDevice vmkDev)
+{
+ LinuxPCIDevExt *pciDevExt;
+ struct pci_dev *linuxDev;
+[...]
+ if (unlikely(
+ vmk_PCIGetDeviceName(vmkDev, vmkDevName, sizeof(vmkDevName)-1) != VMK_OK))
+ {
+ vmkDevName[0] = 0;
+ }
+[...]
+VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID(pciDevExt->moduleID,
+ linuxDev->driver->remove,
+ linuxDev);
+
+
+Combination of “vmkernel” code with “vmkdrivers”
+ +The function, vmk_PCIGetDeviceName() must be defined, with an
+ implementation, for this code above to work, or even compile.
+ Inside BLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/device/vmkapi_pci_incompat.h,
+ found in the vmkdrivers package of ESXi 5.5U2, shows a
+ function header definition for vmk_PCIGetDeviceName().
+ However, the source of its implementation is not provided there or
+ anywhere in the source release.
Further evidence that the implementation of this function occurs elsewhere
+ can by found by running objdump -x on the un-vmtar'ed
+ vmklinux_9 module. Note the following output in the “SYMBOL
+ TABLE” section:
+0000000000000000 *UND* 0000000000000000 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName ++ +
+…and the following lines found in the “RELOCATION RECORDS FOR +[.text]” section: +
+ ++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 ++ +
The above two properties both suggest that the vmklinux_9
+ module requires: (a) a definition of the vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()
+ function to operate, but (b) that function is not defined
+ inside vmklinux_9 itself.
The definition can however be found in binary-only software provided in
+ ESXi 5.5U2 — specifically, inside a file named k.b00,
+ which is located in partition 5 on a disk where ESXi has been installed (or
+ in the ESXi 5.5U2 installer ISO image). Running file
+ after gunzip on this file yields “ELF 64-bit LSB shared
+ object”. Meanwhile, file k.b00 reports “gzip
+ compressed data, was ‘vmvisor64-vmkernel.stripped’”.
+ These findings strongly suggests this is an image of the
+ “vmkernel” component. An objdump -x yields this
+ “SYMBOL TABLE” section:
+000041800036a408 g F .text 0000000000000137 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName ++ +
… which indicated these binary file contains the function body
+for vmk_PCIGetDeviceName.
Furthermore, after detailed searching, Conservancy found no evidence that any
+ other code (other than modified Linux code) makes calls
+ to vmk_PCIGetDeviceName. 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.
Linux's struct pci combined with LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved()
+
+Having established the direct and close combination
+ of vmk_PCIGetDeviceName
+ and LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(), focus now on the
+ quoted code from LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(). That code, note
+ that one of the local variables is struct pci_dev *linuxDev;.
+ A definition of pci_dev is found in
+ vmkdrivers/src_92/include/linux/pci.h (which
+ is #include'd above) reads:
+struct pci_dev {
+[...]
+ struct pci_driver *driver; /* which driver has allocated this device */
+[...]
+truct pci_driver {
+ char *name;
+[...]
+ void (*remove) (struct pci_dev *dev); /* Device removed (NULL if not a hot-plug capable driver) */
+[...]
+#if defined(__VMKLNX__)
+ /* 2008: Update from Linux source */
+ u8 revision; /* PCI revision, low byte of class word */
+#endif /* defined(__VMKLNX__) */
+ };
+
+
+These structures, and based on those from Linux itself + (a + similar version of this file can be seen in Linux 2.6.24), and as can + be seen above, have been modified to work with “vmkernel”
+ +In LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(), we saw a macro called with a
+ variable, linuxDev which was of type struct pci.
+ Thus, the combination of code from Linux's pci.h
+ and VMware's vmware/linux_pci.c is very tightly coupled and
+ interdependent.
VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID macro calls driver's code
+
+The
+ file BLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/base/vmkapi_module.h
+ contains the macro definition of VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID,
+ which is quoted below (with debug lines removed):
+
+#define VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID(moduleID, function, args...) \
+do { \
+ vmk_ModInfoStack modStack; \
+ vmk_ModulePushId(moduleID, function, &modStack); \
+ (function)(args); \
+ ) \
+ vmk_ModulePopId(); \
+} while(0)
+
+
+When the macro is expanded, it means that (function)(args) is
+ actually expanded to linuxDev->driver->remove(linuxDev).
+ Therefore, we see LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved(), makes directs calls
+ to a driver's remove() function, by combining with Linux's struct
+ pci, and by VMware's introduction of this new calling code.
+ Conservancy has confirmed many drivers from Linux are incorporated via
+ these mechanisms; one specific example is discussed next.
Combination of the tg3 driver with “vmkernel”
+ +VMware includes a file vmkdrivers/src_9/drivers/net/tg3/tg3.c
+ in their source release. This file appears to be Linux's tg3 driver. It
+ includes a definition of the struct pci_dev for this device,
+ which reads:
+static struct pci_driver tg3_driver = {
+[...]
+ .remove = __devexit_p(tg3_remove_one),
+
+
+Therefore, when the code in LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved()
+ calls linuxDev->driver->remove(linuxDev), the code ultimately
+ called (in the case where a tg3 card is driven by the kernel)
+ is tg3_remove_one(), which is found in tg3.c and
+ comes directly from Linux.
(Note: __devexit_p is a straightforward macro found
+ in vmkdrivers/src_92/include/linux/init.h (which also comes
+ from Linux) that will simply expand to its first argument in this
+ case.)
VMware distribution of binary version of tg3.c
+
+VMware furthermore distributes a modified version of tg.c in
+ binary form. This can be found in usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/tg3,
+ which is extracted by un-vmtar'ing the file net_tg3.v00 (found
+ on the ESXi 5.5U2 installer ISO image). Conservancy has confirmed that
+ file is a compiled version of tg3.c
Conclusions
+ +Given this evidence and related contextual clues, the only logical + conclusions are:
+vmklinux_9, a binary object, dynamically links with + the binary objects:k.b00andtg3(the + driver built fromtg3.c's source). These three binary + objects together form a single running binary (likely along with many + other binary objects as well).
+ - That single running binary contains code licensed under the GPLv2
+ — namely the code derived from
tg3.c+ andpci.h. Thus, the single running binary may be + distributed in binary form only under permissions provided under GPLv2 + — in + particular GPLv2§2 + and GPLv2§3.
+ - GPLv2§3(a–b) requires that
complete corresponding + machine-readable source code
must accompany binary + distributions such as these. GPLv2§3 further states + thatfor an executable work, complete source code means all the + source code for all modules it contains
.
+ - The binary work in question contains modules from
k.b00, +vmlinux_9andtg3.
+ - VMware did not provide source code for any modules found in
+
k.b00.
+ - Therefore, VMware failed to comply with the GPLv2, as such
+ compliance requires source code (or an offer therefor) for the material
+ in
k.b00.
+
The above is but one piece of evidence among many, but hopefully it helps + to explain some of the “combined work” violations found in + VMware's ESXi product.
+ +The binary and source packages mentioned above are available
+on VMware's website. These packages contain the
+previously-mentioned linux_pci.c,
+vmkapi_pci_incompat.h, and k.b00 files, as well as
+ vmklinux_9 and the source code that builds the latter.
To obtain the source components, follow these steps (no login is required):
+ +-
+
- Visit https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI55U2_OSS&productId=353. + +
- Click the “Download” button beside the text that reads +“Open Source Code for VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 Update 2”. + +
- Confirm that the SHA-1 hash matches the published one + (d121634668a137ec808b63679fd941cef9a59715), found under “Read + More” on that web page. + +
- Mount (or otherwise open) the
+ downloaded
VMware-ESX-550U2-ODP.iso.
+
+ - Extract
vmkdrivers/src_92/vmklinux_92/vmware/linux_pci.c+ andBLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/device/vmkapi_pci_incompat.h+ fromvmkdrivers-gpl/vmkdrivers-gpl.tgzwith tar and gzip.
+
+ - Generate
vmklinux_9by following the steps + invmkdrivers-gpl/BUILD.txtin the ISO. + (Note:vmklinux_9is also available pre-built on a running + ESXi system; see below for instructions on how to access it).
+
+ - You may need the “Supporting Toolchain packages for VMware
+ vSphere ESXi 5.5.0 Update 2” file from the above download page to
+ complete the build — upon downloading you will find it is named
+
VMware-TOOLCHAIN-550u2-ODP.isoand has a SHA-1 hash of + f679e81ffb2f92729917bbc64c2d541cf75b5b94.
+
+
To obtain the binary components, follow these steps (a login is required):
+ +
-
+
- Register for an account at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/registration. + +
- Click the “Activate Now” link in the follow-up email. Enter + the password used at registration time. Click “Continue”. + +
- Visit https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi5. + +
- Click “Register” (under the text that reads “You have + not registered for this product”). + +
- Enter the number of servers you plan to install on (e.g., 1). Click + “Continue”. + +
- If the “VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5 Update 2 – + Binaries” section is not expanded, click the plus sign next to it. + +
- Click the “Manually Download” link that's beside “ESXi + 5.5 Update 2 ISO image (Includes VMware Tools)”. + +
- Confirm that the SHA-1 hash matches the published one (9475938b51cafc86c8b17d09f2493cb6b4fae927). + +
- Mount (or open via some other means) the
+downloaded
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update02-2068190.x86_64.iso.
+
+ - Find the
k.b00file in the root directory. Extract it +usingzcat k.b00 > vmvisor64-vmkernel(or a similar command). +Repeat the steps described above usingobjdump -x +vmvisor64-vmkernel.
+
+ - To retrieve
vmklinux_9you will need to install +ESXi on your system by booting the ISO and following the instructions. Once +booted, you can then enable SSH access using “Customize System/View Logs -> +Troubleshooting Options -> Enable SSH”. Login to the system with SSH +and then runfind /vmfs -name misc_dri.v00 -print. On the +resulting file, runzcat misc_dri.v00 > misc_dri.vmtarthen +vmtar -x misc_dri.vmtar -o misc_dri.tar. You can then extract +misc_dri.tarusing the usualtarto extract +usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmklinux_9. Themisc_dri.v00+file is also available next tok.b00in the root directory of +the ISO (mentioned above), but thevmtarcommand itself is only +available when logged into an ESXi system.vmtarcan be found +atbin/vmtarinside +sb.v00on the ISO, but one needsvmtarto open +sb.v00, similar tomisc_dri.v00above.
+
+
Note that VMware may present you with EULAs and ToS when you download + software from VMware's website. Conservancy strongly suggests that you review these + terms in great detail with the assistance of your own legal counsel before + downloading the software and/or engaging in the process that Conservancy + discusses above.
+ +-
+
- APRIL +
- Free + Software Foundation +
- Free + Software Foundation Europe +
- GNOME Foundation +
- Open Source Initiative +
- The + Samba Team +
- The + SWIG Project +
- Dave Airlie, Linux Developer +
- Matthew Garrett, Linux Developer +
- Grant Likely, Linux Kernel Engineer +
- Michal Nazarewicz, Linux Developer +
- Luis R. Rodriguez (aka mcgrof), Linux Developer +
- Wolfram Sang, Linux Developer +
- Josh + Triplett, Linux Developer +
- Rik van Riel, Linux Developer +