MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-05-05 |
| FROM | From: "Paul Robert Marino"
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] ASUS EEE PC Disk Space
|
Ruben
As far as the ndiswrapper goes thats how most of the non free wifi
drivers for linux work. It is kind of like introducing wine into the
kernel.
The Atheros chipset uses the Madwifi driver (EEEPC's use Atheros chipsets)
http://madwifi.org/
there are two versions of the driver
here is the statement at the top of their home page
"
MadWifi is one of the most advanced WLAN drivers available for Linux
today. It is stable and has an established userbase. The driver itself
is open source but depends on the proprietary Hardware Abstraction
Layer (HAL) that is available in binary form only.
ath5k is a relatively new and emerging driver and does not depend on
the HAL. It is intended to replace MadWifi in the long run and exceed
it feature-wise. ath5k is where most of our development resources are
spent on now.
"
keep in mind both of these drivers are GPL it just the current stable
one still relies on a closed source binary provided by the hardware
manufacturer. the hardware manufacture did however let them see the
source code so that they could get full Linux support for all of the
features of the card immediately and later write there own fully GPL
driver.
and here is Atheros's press release on the subject
http://www.atheros.com/news/linux.html
"
Press Release
Open Source Linux Driver Now Available for Atheros 802.11b/g and
802.11a/b/g Chipsets
Linux Community Rallies Behind Atheros Advanced Wireless LAN Technology
SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 23, 2003—Atheros Communications, the leading
developer and market share leader in advanced wireless LAN (WLAN)
chipsets, today announced that the first open source Linux and FreeBSD
software drivers for 802.11b/g and universal 802.11a/b/g products are
now available as a free download from the Internet.
Created by Open Source developer Sam Leffler, the 802.11a/b/g Linux
driver is intended to be used as a building block for creating fully
featured Linux-based 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g products such as
network adapters, access points, and home gateways. The new Linux
driver supports all three generations of Atheros' industry-leading
chipsets for high performance 802.11b/g and universal 802.11a/b/g
connectivity.
"Providing support for the Atheros products is an important
development for the open source community," said Sam Leffler of Errno
Consulting. "Open source developers and researchers have been
hamstrung by limited access to wireless technology. Now that these
drivers are available, we'll no longer be constrained to use legacy
hardware. Developers can start implementing solutions based on
Atheros' industry-leading 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g chipsets."
"We are committed to making wireless technology more accessible for
all developers," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive
officer for Atheros. "Mr. Leffler's recent contribution to the Open
Source community empowers Linux users to take advantage of the most
advanced 802.11b/g and universal 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN chips
available on the market."
To download a copy of the new Linux device driver please go to:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/.
The FreeBSD device driver is a standard part of the FreeBSD operating
system; it is available at: http://www.freebsd.org/.
"
here is the deal that Microsoft made with the Samba group
http://samba.org/samba/PFIF/
Samba and the PFIF
Samba Team Receives Microsoft Protocol Documentation
December 20th 2007. Today the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation
(PFIF), a non-profit organization created by the Software Freedom Law
Center, signed an agreement with Microsoft to receive the protocol
documentation needed to fully interoperate with the Microsoft Windows
workgroup server products and to make them available to Free Software
projects such as Samba.
Microsoft was required to make this information available to
competitors as part of the European Commission March 24th 2004
Decision in the antitrust lawsuit, after losing their appeal against
that decision on September 17th 2007.
Andrew Tridgell, creator of Samba, said, "We are very pleased to be
able to get access to the technical information necessary to continue
to develop Samba as a Free Software project. Although we were
disappointed the decision did not address the issue of patent claims
over the protocols, it was a great achievement for the European
Commission and for enforcement of antitrust laws in Europe. The
agreement allows us to keep Samba up to date with recent changes in
Microsoft Windows, and also helps other Free Software projects that
need to interoperate with Windows".
Jeremy Allison, co-creator of Samba said, "Andrew did a superb job in
negotiating the agreement with Microsoft. We will be able to use the
information obtained to continue to develop Samba and create more Free
Software. We are hoping to get back to the productive relationship we
had with Microsoft during the early 1990's when we shared information
about these protocols. The agreement also clarifies the exact patent
numbers concerned so there is no possibility of misunderstandings
around this issue."
Volker Lendecke, head of the Samba Team in Europe said, "I am very
pleased to see that the European Commission acknowledged Free Software
as a valid competitor in the IT industry and that the License
conditions on the protocol information offered to the Free Software
world are indeed compatible with the GPL. This is much better than
what we have seen in similar cases in other countries and the
Commission has done a great job to push the case to this point."
Compatible with Free Software
After paying Microsoft a one-time sum of 10,000 Euros, the PFIF will
make available to the Samba Team under non-disclosure terms the
documentation needed for implementation of all of the workgroup server
protocols covered by the EU decision.
Although the documentation itself will be held in confidence by the
PFIF and Samba Team engineers, the agreement allows the publication of
the source code of the implementation of these protocols without any
further restrictions. This is fully compatible with versions two and
three of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Samba is published
under the GNU GPL which is the most widely used of all Free Software
licenses. In addition it allows discussion of the protocol information
amongst implementers which will aid technical cooperation between
engineers.
Under the agreement, Microsoft is required to make available and keep
current a list of patent numbers it believes are related to the
Microsoft implementation of the workgroup server protocols, without
granting an implicit patent license to any Free Software
implementation.
No per-copy royalties are required from the PFIF, Samba developers,
third party vendors or users and no acknowledgement of any patent
infringement by Free Software implementations is expressed or implied
in the agreement.
The patent list provides us with a bounded set of work needed to
ensure non-infringement of Samba and other Free Software projects that
implement the protocols documented by Microsoft under this agreement.
Any patents outside this list cannot be asserted by Microsoft against
any implementation developed using the supplied documentation. Unlike
the highly dubious patent covenants recently announced by some
companies this warranty extends to all third parties. Also unlike past
agreements, this agreement has been carefully scrutinized by the
Software Freedom Law Center, the premier legal experts for the GPL and
Free Software.
Microsoft must keep the documentation up to date with new products and
provide error correction assistance to parties signing the agreement.
Disputes will be resolved by the Trustee appointed by the Commission
as part of the court decision.
The Samba Team would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Carlo
Piana from the Free Software Foundation Europe and Eben Moglen of the
Software Freedom Law Center, who have been our legal representation on
this case. They have provided world-class legal services for many
years and we are sincerely grateful.
The Samba Team.
20th December 2007
press-at-samba.org
For more information see:
* The Samba Web site
* An article on the history of the case
* An article explaining some details of the agreement
* The PFIF Web site
* The PFIF agreement text
On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 6:30 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
> On Fri, May 02, 2008 at 05:47:31PM -0400, Paul Robert Marino wrote:
> > its using the Madwifi-NG driver
> >
> > its semi native but its partially closed source there is a GPL version
> > being worked on.
> > the madwifi-ng driver is kind of like a customized version of the ndis
> > wrapper used to support windows wifi drivers, however it has a
> > customized version of the firmware driver that allows it to integrate
> > all of the extended features of the Atheros chipset with the Linux
> > kernel.
> > it was developed through a similar agreement to the one Microsoft made
> > with the Samba group. They allowed the developer to see the source
> > code of the windows driver including the "firmware" and make a custom
> > version of the "firmware" file under the condition that he wouldn't
> > show the source code of the "firmware" file to any one else.
> >
>
> I don't know what that means. It is just a wrapper for the Windows
> binary? And why would MS suddenly cooperate with Linux users.
>
> But most importantly, what aren't there any Free Software drivers for
> any wireless cards yet?
>
> Ruben
>
>
>
> > On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
> > > On Fri, May 02, 2008 at 09:39:55AM -0400, Mark Simko wrote:
> > > > BTW,
> > > >
> > > > I got one of those cloudbook thingies.
> > > >
> > > > I think it is great except for a very limited wireless range, which is a
> > > > serious achilles heel.
> > > >
> > > > I took it apart yesterday, and added an antenna to the wireless card,
> > > > but that only gave a slight improvement. I may have to use the windows
> > > > drivers for the wireless card, which I really hate the idea of doing.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I picked up a wireless connection yesterday right over the center of
> > > the Manhattan bridge while on the subway. I thought that was cool.
> > >
> > > Does the ASUS use native wifi drivers?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Also, This cloudbook had gOS, but that got clobbered the other day. The
> > > > update manager tried to install Ubuntu 8.04, and the kernel and image
> > > > files were lost. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 from the alternative disk, now.
> > > > Still some issues like getting sound working, but I like Ubuntu better
> > > > than gOS anyway.
> > > >
> > > > I've been looking over some cool mods that some guys are doing to these
> > > > things. I'm itching to change my screen over to a touch screen.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I few weeks ago I published a company where you can buy a touch screen
> > > that fits over the monitor. Nice device.
> > >
> > >
> > > > Some guys are putting XP on their cloudbooks, but I just can't see it.
> > > > Then you have to run antivirus, eventually get winrot, and have to
> > > > reinstall again. Gotta keep in mind that these UMPC are niche devices,
> > > > not general purpose.
> > >
> > > At this point I'm using the ASUS for near everything that I'd use a desktop for
> > > but a few extra things as well, like using it as a mobile phone.
> > >
> > > Ruben
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > cheers,
> > > > Mark
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 23:31 -0400, Ruben Safir wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm looking at y EEE hard drive and it's very strange.
> > > > >
> > > > > It's a 2 gig drive. fdisk confirms it is a 2 gig drive and there
> > > > > is a /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2
> > > > >
> > > > > df -h says that root partition has about 410 Megs and its nearly full
> > > > >
> > > > > mount says I have 3 patitions all mounted to / and that one is called
> > > > > the unionfs
> > > > >
> > > > > What is unionfs
> > > > >
> > > > > When I mount /dev/sda2 by hand it is a dulicate of /dev/sda1
> > > > >
> > > > > wat the hell is going on here and where is my hard drive space?
> > > > >
> > > > > Ruben
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
> > > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
> > >
> > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
> > >
> > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
> > >
> > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
> > >
> > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
> > >
> > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
> > > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
> > >
> > > (c) Copyright for the Digital Millennium
> > >
>
> --
>
> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
>
> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
>
> http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
>
> "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
>
> "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
>
> "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
>
>
>
> (c) Copyright for the Digital Millennium
>
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