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LinuxAnt's DriverLoader Loads Centrino Drivers

Posted by timothy on from the look-ma dept.

cRueLio writes "The latest release of Linuxant's DriverLoader can now load Centrino drivers. This is very useful, because Intel has been resisting the release of Linux Centrino drivers. For those of you who don't know, DriverLoader is practically a wrapper for Windows wireless drivers."

13 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. why by Roryking · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do hardware manufacturers not release drivers for Linux (or for that matter any other non-Windows/Macintosh platform)? It would seem that the idea would be, more supported plaforms = wider customer base = more profit. I can understand how development might be an issue... but considering OS'es like Linux are open source, it would seem that development would be at least marginally easier and cheaper. Has anyone written/emailed/asked a HW maker this question? What was their reply?

    1. Re:why by stubear · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're forgetting the part of the equation that deals with development time = drain on profits and if this drain > profits then it's not worth investing the development time.

    2. Re:why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In addition to which you have to remember that it is impossible to realease up to date binary drivers for linux without having to constantly maintain 100 different versions for all the different kernel builds by Redhat/Suse/Mandrake/etc (forget about gentoo, slack or custom kernels). The only way hardware manufacturers could get out of that pain is by releasing the source for their drivers which many are hesitant to do. The module versioning issue is really a pain compared to say windows where a vendor can release drivers that he knows will pretty much work across multiple versions of windows. I think this has got to be holding driver development for linux back.

    3. Re:why by edwdig · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In the case of Linux, the problem is the kernel is an unstable target. A driver written for the 2.2 kernel won't work with the 2.4 kernel. Sometimes even a point release will break compatibility.

      Now factor in that most users aren't going to compile their own kernel and drivers. So you need packaged versions. What distros do you package for? What versions of that distro? It very quickly becomes a lot to maintain for little benefit.

      As to other OS's, they've got such small userbases it isn't worth the effort.

      What should happen is companies should just release documentation on the hardware when appropriate. I can somewhat understand NVidia and ATI's reluctance, but someone like a network card vendor shouldn't care.

      My biggest gripe is companies that change the chipset on a product without changing the model number. Sometimes it makes it really difficult to ensure you're getting hardware that works outside of windows - or that it meets your needs.

    4. Re:why by yanos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it is impossible to realease up to date binary drivers for linux without having to constantly maintain 100 different versions for all the different kernel builds

      why is that so? it's been a few years that nvidia does so.

    5. Re:why by frohike · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In the case of Linux, the problem is the kernel is an unstable target. A driver written for the 2.2 kernel won't work with the 2.4 kernel. Sometimes even a point release will break compatibility.

      Now factor in that most users aren't going to compile their own kernel and drivers. So you need packaged versions. What distros do you package for? What versions of that distro? It very quickly becomes a lot to maintain for little benefit.


      In the case of Windows, the problem is the OS is an unstable target. A driver written for the '98 kernel won't work with the 2000 kernel. Sometimes even a point release will break compatibility.

      Now factor in that most users are going to use an OEM install. What OEMs do you package for? What service pack of that variant? It very quickly becomes a lot to maintain for little benefit.


      I'm being a little facetious :) (yes I understand that a kernel patch/module is quite a lot more pain to make compatible across different versions than a Windows driver), but Windows drivers are not without their problems too. Hardware people just put up with them because of the size of the market. People like nVidia who have made fully unified drivers for all OS versions and all cards have done very similar and very successful things on Linux in the same way.

      --
      Cryptic Allusion - New Mac and Dreamcast Games!
  2. Wonderful. by base3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now hardware vendors can blow off developing drivers for Linux. "Just download the wrapper and use the Win32 driver."

    --
    One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
  3. Re:FOR SLASHDOT OUTAGE AND BUGS, SEE TACO'S JOURNA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    He doesn't like to hear any criticism that might hurt his precious ego.

    So, how does he differ from any other open-source developer?

  4. You forget by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As soon as they release the source, the community maintains it. Try that with windows drivers.

  5. Re:Seems to work for many.. by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is commonly cited, but I've never seen any actual evidence. Looking at, for example, public information regarding Atheros' wireless chipsets, the RF bits include bandpass filtering to prevent the device from radiating in adjacent bands. No amount of register fiddling is going to change the underlying physics of the situation. My Cisco Aironet radio can be configured to radiate outside of power and band limits for most of the markets where it was sold, but that doesn't prevent them from releasing the source code to the driver.

    I look at the situation like this: you could replace a capacitor or resistor or oscillator on the radio to make it out-of-spec, and maybe you could do the same thing by writing the wrong value in a register. But either way, the user is has to hack either the hardware or the software. Hardware hacking concerns don't prevent the sale of radios, and software hacking concerns shouldn't prevent the sale of radio drivers.

  6. Re:windows drivers by Quarters · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Your statement is funny because everyone knows that there has never been a faulty or buggy driver written for Linux!

    (rolls eyes)

  7. Re:Today'a paranoia is tommorow's reality by MrLint · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Indeed what is the motivation. For instance, Garmin GPS wont work on the MacOS. Someone offered to write the drivers and app for free and garmin refused. The USB adapter wont even work under VPC (as i understand) it checks if its running under VPC.

    You work out the reasons cause i sure as hell cant.

  8. Interesting, but... by mwood · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ...if Intel doesn't want any Linux business, let's just not give them (or their OEMs) any.