MadWifi HAL now open source

Daevid Vincent <[email protected]> Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:31:10 -0800
Newsgroups gmane.network.wireless.seattle.general
Message-ID <1228869070.29210.7.camel@psedev1>
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So does this mean I'll be able to use one of those newer 802.11g or n
cards as my AP on my linux box?

Currently I'm stuck at 802.11b with my Engenius Senao NL-2511 PCMCIA
card and hostap. I'm dying.

________________________________________________________________________
MadWifi HAL now open source

Sam Leffler, maintainer of the binary HAL used in MadWifi releases,
announced last weekend that he was releasing the source code for the
hardware abstraction layer (HAL) of the MadWifi Linux Wifi driver. It is
now available under an ISC license via a subversion repository (svn web
interface).

For a long time, MadWifi was the only Linux driver able to handle
Atheros Wifi cards. A few weeks ago, Atheros released a HAL under the
same license, to help develop the ath5k, IEEE 802.11a/b/g, Wifi driver,
which some developers, including Atheros employee Luis R. Rodriguez, had
ported from OpenBSD to Linux last year. Ath5k and the ath9k Draft-N WLAN
driver, which dispense entirely with proprietary parts in favour of
OpenHAL, have been part of the Linux kernel since versions 2.6.25 and
2.6.27 respectively. Before now, MadWifi used the manufacturer's
proprietary HAL, which prevented direct access to the Wifi hardware. The
developers of the MadWifi driver had tolerated this situation, although
it meant that parts of the software project resembled a black box and
could not be incorporated in the Linux kernel. 

The release of the MadWifi HAL concludes the agreement between Leffler
and Atheros which gave him access to information on the manufacturer's
devices. All fixes and updates for new chips will be carried out by the
developer community from now on. The published source code uses the
Linux operating system as its reference platform. Potential developers
can find out more on the ath5k-devel and ath9k-devel mailing lists; note
that these lists are SSL secured with an unverifiable certificate and
will require an exception be made in your browser.


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So does this mean I'll be able to use one of those newer 802.11g or n cards=
 as my AP on my linux box?<BR>
<BR>
Currently I'm stuck at 802.11b with my Engenius Senao NL-2511 PCMCIA card a=
nd hostap. I'm dying.<BR>

<HR NOSHADE>
<BR>
<B><FONT SIZE=3D"6">MadWifi HAL now open source</FONT></B><BR>
<BR>
Sam Leffler, maintainer of the binary HAL used in MadWifi releases, <A HREF=
=3D"http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/news/20081129/sam-leffler-releases-hal-=
source">announced</A> last weekend that he was releasing the source code fo=
r the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) of the MadWifi Linux Wifi driver. It=
 is now available under an ISC license via a subversion repository (<A HREF=
=3D"http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base/projects/ath_hal/">svn web interface=
</A>).<BR>
<BR>
For a long time, MadWifi was the only Linux driver able to handle Atheros W=
ifi cards. A few weeks ago, Atheros released a HAL under the same license, =
to help develop the ath5k, IEEE 802.11a/b/g, Wifi driver, which some develo=
pers, including Atheros employee <A HREF=3D"https://launchpad.net/%7Emcgrof=
">Luis R. Rodriguez</A>, had <A HREF=3D"http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/=
Open-source-Atheros-HAL-to-help-Wifi-developers-under-Linux--/111621">porte=
d</A> from OpenBSD to Linux last year. Ath5k and the ath9k Draft-N WLAN dri=
ver, which dispense entirely with proprietary parts in favour of OpenHAL, h=
ave been part of the Linux kernel since versions 2.6.25 and 2.6.27 respecti=
vely. Before now, MadWifi used the manufacturer's proprietary HAL, which pr=
evented direct access to the Wifi hardware. The developers of the MadWifi d=
river had tolerated this situation, although it meant that parts of the sof=
tware project resembled a black box and could not be incorporated in the Li=
nux kernel. <BR>
<BR>
The release of the MadWifi HAL concludes the agreement between Leffler and =
Atheros which gave him access to information on the manufacturer's devices.=
 All fixes and updates for new chips will be carried out by the developer c=
ommunity from now on. The published source code uses the Linux operating sy=
stem as its reference platform. Potential developers can find out more on t=
he <A HREF=3D"https://lists.ath5k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath5k-devel">ath5k-d=
evel</A> and <A HREF=3D"https://lists.ath9k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath9k-deve=
l">ath9k-devel</A> mailing lists; <I>note that these lists are SSL secured =
with an unverifiable certificate and will require an exception be made in y=
our browser.</I><BR>
<BR>
<br>
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the SeattleWireless=
 Talk list, hosted by Google Groups
 <br> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
 <br> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
 <br> [email protected]
 <br> For more options, visit this group at
 <br> http://groups.google.com/group/swn-talk?hl=3Den
 <br> <p>For more about the SeattleWireless.NET project, see http://seattle=
wireless.net/<br>
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