Here is an update on the imminent problem of Smartlink chipset, USB modem support, under post 2.4.24 kernels. Likely one of the code rewrites will be implemented. Is there anyone with enough skill to help Zello? It is beyond my skills/experience. MarvS ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: zello <zello@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 8:28 AM Subject: kernel 2.6.25 doesn't export usb kernel api to non-gpl'ed modules To: sashakh@xxxxxxxxx Cc: Marvin Stodolsky <marvin.stodolsky@xxxxxxxxx> The subject says all, there's no way to compile slusb under 2.6.25 (unless you cheat on the license...). I'm no linux device drivers hacker, but I see three way to handle this: - we can rewrite the Makefile and compile/install slusb as a different target (so that a make all && make install will compile, link and install only the pci module slamr) - we can rewrite from scratch the whole slusb driver, which does not use any .o file (the whole source is in st7554.c & modem_defs.h), and release under gpl (or bsd) license [BTW, bsd license is not that far than the original SmartLink license]. We don't even need to do any reverse engineering, but I suppose that's not fair. - we can move the usb driver in userspace (if it's possible, I did not try as I ain't got an usb modem to test), using /proc/bus/usb & libusb. There's no need to adhere to gpl if we stay in userland. Moreover, since libusb seems to be portable, it would be a step towards porting slusb & slmodem under *bsd and other unices. I don't know if I got the skills, but I got no modem to test, that's sure. Let me know. Have a nice day. -- zello
