On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 1:37 AM, Luis R. Rodriguez<mcgrof@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > 2009/8/31 Gábor Stefanik <netrolller.3d@xxxxxxxxx>: >> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Larry Finger<Larry.Finger@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> Hin-Tak Leung wrote: >>>> >>>> I just took a look at the history - there aren't obvious bug fixes, a >>>> bunch of work queue-related changes from you & Johannes; feature-wise, >>>> Larry added LED blinking after 2.6.30, and Herton added rfkill support >>>> quite recently after 2.6.31-rc7 . But no, there isn't any change that >>>> would affect tx level beyond 2.6.31-rc7, I think. >>> >>> Your analysis matches my recollection. >>> >>> Apparently RealTek is supplying a closed-source driver for RTL8187B >>> these days. There are no sources for the B on their web site. In >>> addition, the one that Tobias loaded tainted his kernel. >>> >>> Larry >> >> The driver is not actually closed-source; they just don't provide any >> drivers on their site anymore, instead they send their reference >> drivers to OEMs, expecting the OEMs to release their own versions >> (with sources - most vendors who do release Linux drivers in fact only >> release sources, without binaries). The reason for this appears to be >> that Realtek now encourages vendors to sell RTL81xx wireless chips >> with modified USB IDs. (Or are you seeing a binary-only driver on >> realtek.com.tw? That would definitely be a GPL violation, given that >> they use a modified version of the GPLed libipw stack.) > > Gabor, do you speak to RealkTek folks? It seems what may be best for > OEMs and RealTek themselves is to post drivers for inclusion into > staging first and then for interested parties to port them properly. > > Luis Not yet, I haven't tried contacting them. I simply based my comments on the fact that OEMs are releasing sources. However, contacting them about work to include their drivers in the kernel is a good idea - apparently there is nothing keeping Realtek from taking community contributions (unlike e.g. Zydas - the vendor driver is based on Andrea Merello's old r8180-sa2400 driver, and was not developed in-house by Realtek). -- Vista: [V]iruses, [I]ntruders, [S]pyware, [T]rojans and [A]dware. :-) -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
