FreeBSD 802.11a/g Support

ByTor-2112 writes "If you are like me, you feel like the "next generation" 802.11 technology was leaving the group of people who got the revolution started in the first place -- the Linux/BSD network enthusiasts -- out in the cold. Well No more. With help from Atheros Comunications, Sam Leffler has built a new 802.11 layer for BSD and drivers for the Atheros chipsets (which are found on many of your 11a/g cards). A Linux version of the driver is here. I will certainly make sure to recommend these supported cards to all my friends."

Comments

cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

good job folks. makes me even happier to plunk down my cash for the FreeBSD DVD.

now, where can I find a list of products that use this chipset? as I understand it, the broadcom chips are the ones to avoid?

somebody school me proper, yo.

Re:cool!

[tigga]

now, where can I find a list of products that use this chipset?

From ath(4) manpage:

D-Link DWL-AB650 AR5211 Cardbus
D-Link DWL-AG520 AR5212 PCI
D-Link DWL-AG650 AR5212 Cardbus
Linksys WMP55AG AR5212 Cardbus
Linksys WPC51AB AR5211 Cardbus
Linksys WPC55AG AR5212 PCI
Netgear WAB501 AR5211 Cardbus
Netgear WAG511 AR5212 Cardbus

there should be other of course.

Re:cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on now! It is no secret that *BSD is a failure. But why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

Re:cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

No matter which way you look at it, *BSD is dead.

airport extreme

[seann]

Which chipsets do the Airport extreme Mini PCI standard use?

I'd kill to be able to use my 12" PB on a linux based system ocasionaly with 802.11g.

Re:airport extreme

[zonker]

broadcom i believe...

Informative links

[Mensa Babe]

good job folks. makes me even happier to plunk down my cash for the FreeBSD DVD. now, where can I find a list of products that use this chipset? as I understand it, the broadcom chips are the ones to avoid?

You can find everything here. (And please, for the love of god, before anyone make this old and completely unintelligent joke with Atheros/uterus pun -- it is not funny!)

Re:Informative links

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, good, you changed your sig.

And, look, you've inserted a clever spelling error in order to attract the slashbots.

Happy trolling :)

Re:Informative links

[tarius8105]

Hey are you working for SCO? You're claiming fact when you have lack of proof, much like the SCO vs Linux case. Netcraft doesnt mention that BSD is losing Market Share. I will not listen to a psychic because thats bullsh!t. And you're telling me the only users who use BSD are on Usenet!?! I'm a BSD user and I dont use usenet. FreeBSD did not go out of business, you have to have a business in the first place to go out of business. BSDI maybe on life support, thats about the only accurate claim you had made. Get proof before you post your little crappy "BSD is Dying" posts.

Semi-closed driver

[Fluffy the Cat]

Note that the author claims that the manufacturers will only allow the release of the code that actually interfaces with the hardware in binary form. It looks like he's happy to provide modules for different architectures so it ought to be possible to run one of these things in an Alpha (for instance), but as-is it's i386 only. This is supposedly due to FCC regulations forbidding radio devices being entirely under user control, so manufacturers outside the US may be a better bet for a driver that can be integrated into the OSs.

Re:Semi-closed driver

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone agrees that *BSD is a failure, but why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

for linux too!

[andrewl6097]

There is a linux port of these drivers. I've tested them and they work with an Orinoco a/b combo card. http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi

Re:for linux too!

[andrewl6097]

Oops, I fail. Didn't see that in the submission. (though I /did/ submit this yesterday. grr.)

Re:for linux too!

[jo42]

If *BSD dies, from where will Linux steal its drivers??

Re:for linux too!

[zdzichu]

SCO ?

Re:for linux too!

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Linux is about being the best tool for multiple jobs, so if someoen else with a usable license does something that the linux userbase would enjoy, it gets thrown into linux.

Free and Open BSD(not sure about Net, as I don't follow it) on the other hand are about doing things the traditional(read: archaic) BSD way. When faced with the choices of A) do something current to help usability or B) do things the way we've been doing them since 1980, the [FO]BSD maintainers always choose B.

As a result of that enforced old/hard to use standard, [FO]BSD's main userbase are the skillless kiddies that just use BSD because of the implied elitism -- They think that if it's hard to use and they can use it, They must be better. Unfortunately explaining to them that all it means is they choose the path of wasted time is near impossible.

For the record: I've admined an OpenBSD free shell provider (brained, for anyone keeping track), a FreeBSD based hosting provider, and now multiple servers for a different hosting provider, all running Debian Linux. At home I've ran OpenBSD 2.9, FreeBSD 4.2, Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, And a variety of others.

Re:for linux too!

[Anonymous Coward]

wow.. those are some truly impressive credentials.. before I got to that last paragraph I really thought you had no idea what the fuck you were talking about

No need to ask

[Mensa Babe]

Which chipsets do the Airport extreme Mini PCI standard use?

There is no need to ask. You can find it here.

I'd kill to be able to use my 12" PB on a linux based system ocasionaly with 802.11g.

I wish you good luck with porting. We need more people like you.

802.1x and Dynamic WEP

[riclewis]

We still won't be really caught up in the corporate business world until 802.1x and Dynamic WEP are supported by BSD and Linux. Without these security measures, wireless connections are too insecure to be used for anything other than the "oooh cool!" factor. Ric

Re:802.1x and Dynamic WEP

[Anonymous Coward]

How about OSX users...thats *BSD right? Is that included in the above numbers? Apple is hardly dying and the OSX core is *bsd.

Re:802.1x and Dynamic WEP

[Anonymous Coward]

please, don't feed the trolls

Re:802.1x and Dynamic WEP

[Brian Feldman]

Do a search for xsupplicant. For 802.1x authentication servers, check out hostapd which I've made work for OpenBSD and will for FreeBSD when I get the scratch computer up.

also this other linux driver - "ar5k"

[Splork]

http://team.vantronix.net/ar5k/ is a linux driver for these chipsets as well.

Re:also this other linux driver - "ar5k"

[jforman]

Have you seen the support? So far they have the card initialized and can flash the LED's. i wouldnt exactly call that support yet. I have this card and have to boot into windows to use it. Thankfully I've kept my Orinoco Gold 802.11b card in the interim.

I'm IN HEAVEN!!

[zbowling]

Just downloaded and it works GREAT! I hated being forced to use windows on my wireless boxes because that is all that was supported. I love this now. Ironicly like most thinks in Linux/BSD that have to do with networking, it runs so much faster!

Re:I'm IN HEAVEN!!

[lwbecker2]

Ironicly like most thinks in Linux/BSD that have to do with networking, it runs so much faster!

No... it ISN'T ironic

I'd have thought this would be on the front page

[edhall]

Given that there have been a lot of complaints that 802.11{a,g} wasn't available for Linux & BSD and that this announces both FreeBSD and Linux drivers for 802.11{a,g}, I'd have expected this to appear on the front page. Not that this driver is a perfect solution -- part of the driver is closed due to "legal requirements" -- but that hasn't kept, say, Nvidia's drivers from being Big News.

Curious...

In any case, Thanks, Sam!

-Ed

How hard is it anyway

[Znonymous Coward]

for companies to release open source drivers for BSD and GNU/Linux? I'm always seeing drivers disks that have NT, DOS, and OS/2 drivers. You would think that they could scrap DOS and OS/2 development and switch to Linux. /Rant

Hopefully now Intel will follow suit...

[salimma]

... Ever since the Centrino platform was released, Intel has had a Linux driver for the wireless chipset tested in-house, but it has not been released 'awaiting market demand'.

I might actually settle for a semi-closed driver rather than having to plug a battery-hogging PC Card get wi-fi connectivity...

-1 {troll,flamebait}

[Anonymous Coward]

troll & flamebait
all-in-one

802.11g with HOSTAP???

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi
anyone knows if there is a 802.11g card with hostap??? so we can build our own Access point with *BSDs OSs

Thanks

ALERT! GPL VIOLATION!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody's interested in some halfass closed source solution!

Information wants to be free! Viva la informacion.

What about the Orinoco a/b/g combo card?

[Mistah Blue]

Does it work with the a/b/g combo card? I too, am using an Orinoco Gold b card in the interim, until I can use my a/b/g card.

Re:also this other linux driver - "ar5k" [LOUSY]

[Splork]

yes, as those who've tried "it" have found, it apparently doesn't deserve to be called a driver at all.

i guess when you use google to search for something that doesn't exist and it returns the vapor.

Hard times for *BSD

[Anonymous Coward]

So why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

Re:*BSD is dying

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the lovely Troll there, but the fact is that FreeBSD nor is BSD dying.

Things happen in circles, we gain and we loose momentum.

But what will happen is with the SCO lawsuit(s) it will shine a bigger light on BSD instead of Linux. Since we originally handled that some time ago. SCO isn't worried about BSD, it's wanting a piece of linux.

Just think before you type, for once. The Bigger picture isn't always easy to see.

Re:I'd have thought this would be on the front pag

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a thought: *BSD is dying.