Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Reverse Engineered 802.11b+ Drivers

Posted by Hemos on from the if-you-build-it-they-will-use-it dept.

orv writes "When Andreas Mohr found that his new wireless networking card wasn't supported under Linux rather than returning the card and getting himself a supported one, he decided to set up a project to write his own drivers instead - http://acx100.sourceforge.net. Companies such as D-Link had initially promised to release linux drivers for these cards but later backed down from that promise and announced that Linux would not be supported and that customers should not hold on to the cards in the hope of getting them working, as shown on their current FAQ. Texas Instruments, the makers of the chipsets upon which these 802.11b+ cards are based refused to release code or specifications for the cards, no doubt for similar reasons that were recently discussed here. The fact that the current alpha release is certainly as good, and in some areas better, than the binary drivers that escaped from one of the card manufactureres speaks volumes for the quality and determination of the team to create their own drivers."

10 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    For those of us who actually have sex with a living, breathing, *biped* (of the OPPOSITE sex), can you Linux people please explain what a "Reverse Engineered 802.11b+ Driver" is?

    Thanks.

    1. Re:Wha? by beezly · · Score: 0, Funny

      Err, sorry, I think you got lost on your way to Internet Kindergarten.

      Google is your friend. Try the following search terms.

      "Reverse Engineering"
      "802.11b"
      "Device Driver"

      Type and learn.

    2. Re:Wha? by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 2, Funny

      For those of us who actually have sex with a living, breathing, *biped* (of the OPPOSITE sex)

      Biped does not imply human. Care to qualify that?

      --
      Join Tor today!
  2. Linux Development Process by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Discover your hardware is not supported by Linux
    2. Write your own driver
    3. ????
    4. Still never get laid

    1. Re:Linux Development Process by blancolioni · · Score: 3, Funny

      4. Still never get laid

      I have to wonder if the annoyingly repetitive "not getting laid" jokes are made by people who themselves never get laid, and are hoping against hope that everybody else is in the same situation.

      And what does this meta-not-getting-laid comment say about me? Maybe that I can't talk about it.

  3. Can't happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    The hackers can't be prosecuted under the DCMA, in the United States or anywhere else.

    They might have to worry about the DMCA though, because thats an actual law with the correct acronym and everything.

  4. Google by beezly · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to give you the link to Google... it's.

    http://www.google.com/

    Now, you make sure you put the slashes in the right way ok?

  5. Re:DCMA Anyone? by JessLeah · · Score: 2, Funny

    It wasn't intended as regexp. Most SlashDotters nowadays come from a DOS/Windoze background, and would not understand regexp. Hence, I used something more understandable to those used to "delete *.*", or whatever the command would be in DOS. I always forget. (delete? erase? remove?)

    If I were going for regexp, I'd just go "(RI|MP)AA". But most Windozies would parse that as "Rimpaa", which sounds more like Puumba's evil twin brother than anything. ;)

    --
    Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
  6. Re:What could have happened - what will happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You see the solution to this problem would have been to release the DeCSS in closed-source. No one could have modified it to do bad stuff with it.

  7. Re:Don't buy unsupported hardware by (startx) · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe :) you ;) should :P use :-) a ;-P few ;-/ less :-/ smilies ;-)