Slashdot Mirror
Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released
chrb writes "With the recent discussion here on proprietary blobs in the Linux kernel, it's nice to see that today Sam Leffler has released the source for the Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer under the ISC license, which is both GPL and BSD compatible. The Atheros chipset is used in many laptops, so this is another important step towards running a completely free distribution."
I have a Macbook from just over a year ago, and it uses a Atheros wireless card, and it's the biggest pain to get running in Linux. Hopefully, with the Source released, it will be easier in the future to get the wireless working on this model of computer.
The argument about BLOBs - binary loadable objects in the kernel - is not new, despite Bruce Byfield's recent report. I guess he just doesn't read the kernel list and other distro internal discussions, where this has been going on for a decade. And FSF did not "redefine" anything, they've always held that opinion.
It would be nice to draw a line at the hardware bus, with all above that Open Source and all below that whatever the hardware manufacturer likes because we don't deal with it. But BLOBs break that, because they are both above and below the bus. If we're going to handle the code, we can't really deny that there's a computer there running closed-source code. And given the degree to which wifi firmware sucks the world would be nicer if it was Free Software. Now, we just have to drive some sense into FCC, etc.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I didn't see this coming, although I have to say I don't keep up with MadWifi news anymore since they fixed 64-bit support for the AR5007 chipset...
Does this mean the sleep function will finally work as it should without draining the batteries? I have yet to see a laptop running Linux go into hibernate mode and not bleed off the batteries.
Cool. Now we need free DVD and Blu-ray decryption. That always made me feel funny when I would try Linux. Totally free OS... but if you want to watch DVDs, you download an illegal DVD decrypter. (I know there are legal ones you can pay for.)
-- http://ninthagenda.com/
I noticed this on the dd-wrt.com website a couple of months back (dated 8.28.08) We would like to announce the release of a new HAL for Atheros WLAN devices. The new HAL is the result of a collaboration between OpenWrt.org, DD-WRT and MakSat Technologies (P) Ltd. It is the first result of a common effort, and the present collaborators would like to share the product of this work. It is the intention to provide reliable and continued support for other projects using this new HAL for Atheros WLAN devices. The HAL provides a defined API to access and contol Atheros WLAN chipsets, and is an integral part for many drivers such as MadWifi. Comparing it with the HAL that's currently used by MadWifi, the most important changes are: * many known bugs have been fixed * improved noise immunity measures * added support for additional architectures, such as ARM11, MIPS64 and MIPS32r2 * enhanced support for Atheros WiSOC (Wireless System on Chip) * added support for Atheros AR7100 Home of the new HAL will be the website of the madwifi.org project, http://madwifi.org./ Future development will be coordinated here, and the bug tracking facility can be used to report bugs or file feature requests. For commercial requests please contact hal@maksat.deThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . So with the new news maybe things will really get rolling
OpenBSD likes the ISC license. deRaadt was a bit unhappy with the old arrangement.
I wonder if this could be used to help port OpenWRT over to the atheros chipset. Currently the only routers that OpenWRT (and conversely by that DD-WRT) really work well on are the broadcom chipsets. Many routers that use the Atheros chipset have been written off as impossible to port to. Maybe they could be used if this proves any insight to how they operate.
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
What if it is not just about running a completely free distro, but also about running a completely functional one? The WiFi hardware in my notebook fails to work for a mysterious reason and a certain transparency of hardware internals would not hurt when trying to make it work.
Ezekiel 23:20
From the article apparaently he had "an agreement with Atheros" to "access to information about their devices". Does that mean he developed the HAL with little help from the company? (And apparaently he'll have no more access since the agreement is "concluded".)
It is nice to have an open source driver released, but it is NOT nice that an individual have to go jump through hoops and write it himself to make it happen.
I was under the impression that the atheros HAL is not a binary blob in the sense the summary refers to, but a program executed on the host CPU. That makes this even better news than if it were a blob. It is debatable whether or not a system that needs to load a bunch of blobs onto its peripherals at startup is free or not(personally, I'm inclined to say it is, as long as the mechanisms for loading the firmware and interacting with the peripheral are open and the firmware is freely redistributable); but a system with a big binary lump running in kernel space definitely isn't.
It is very encouraging to see progress towards removing one of the most common causes of tainted kernels(probably second only to video card drivers); but it isn't really related to the blob question.
Because those movies are shit? Your local library has a better selection of Hollywood titles than the site you reference. Most of these have never been in circulation, and for a very good reason.
Not to mention some of the movies on this site are in formats that are not "free and open" like Linux. AVI, DIVX, MPEG4? Hell, one I looked at was itself a 4 gig ISO file of MPEG2 video. How far must one dig through the site before finding the OGG format videos?
"When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
Just because they are open and free doesn't mean they don't suck.
Can someone please explain to me what the advantage (presumably to the hw manufacturer) there is by having binary loadable code on the computer? Why not just store it on the hardware? Is the h/w somehow cheaper to manufacture because this is done? I really don't see how that could be.. the things have flash memory already.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
What's the ICS license? I think someone may have got their acronyms mixed up... of course, that person may be me.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
I really wish people would stop repeating this myth that the UK (and Europe) are free of software patents. There many, many software patents here - you just have to write the patent in a certain way that gets around the very weak restrictions. See http://eupat.ffii.org/patents/samples/index.en.html for sample of these patents with summaries, from an anti-patent group.
I just wanted to say thanks for creating and supporting such a great product. I've been buying and recommending Atheros based wifi cards for years (for both Windows and Linux applications) specifically because of your fantastic support of open systems. They are rock solid and fast.
Kudos!
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
As for existing installs, can it be used as a drop-in replacement for an existing blob hal?
This should have come a lot earlier, not when it is marked legacy.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Sam deserves a huge round of applause for all the work he has put in to wireless drivers and support. The long standing criticism of his work, that it was released as a BLOB, was Atheros' choice, not his. Sam stopped direct involvement in Linux drivers a while back, but continued to release BLOBs for many platforms. His release of the HAL source was accompanied by the announcement that his HAL was no longer the reference. Thanks a Whole Lot, Sam, you sure took a lot of grief that wasn't rightfully yours.
In the last couple of years,the Madwifi team undertook the initiative to negotiate opening the HAL source. Not long after the Madwifi team took up the task, a rework of the old BSD RE effort was used as a legal jimmy and Atheros agreed to accept that work without legal assault, This became the Ath5k driver. Atheros then did something remarkable, and embraced opening the source to several of it's chip lines. They have hired staff, released the 5112 HAL. Madwifi could no longer be written off as a closed source driver, but no one has made an official release of madwifi with the released HAL, so the label remains valid. Recently Atheros has tweaked their NDA rules to permit the HAL certified folks to work on the open drivers, so progress is apace.
The entire wireless community owes Sam and the old madwifi hands, like Mike Renzmann a world of thanks, and the new HAL coders like Nick Kossifidis and Felix Fietkau all the help one can.
As a user I found open source to be a lot more hassle free than closed source. Usually it open source is supported better and longer. I can download everything from Debian mirrors. When I used Nvidia I always had to do some additional steps.
Because those movies are shit?
Linux was shit once, even compared to Windows NT.
Not to mention some of the movies on this site are in formats that are not "free and open" like Linux.
The page I linked contained a link to a page titled Rederiving our movies to Ogg Theora and more.
Note that atheros already release a "legacy" HAL 2 months ago : http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=122246623707038&w=2
If your are like me and you don't want to buy another card because you are broke and you like to distro hop, then this is a great thing! I do get tired of re-installing M/A and the like just to try it out.
I really hope the programmers behind KisMAC are reading this thread.
We MacBook users are really hoping that we can run injections and other advanced features using our built-in network cards now. Until now, all our packets were trash and we couldn't work out the SSID.
Sad days they have been, but now we have reason to be optimistic!
Another really good idea would be changing the name. Every time I hear "atheros", I think of atheos, beos, skyos, and then, eventually, remember it's some obscure wifi driver.