On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 04:56:11PM -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > 2009/8/31 Gábor Stefanik <netrolller.3d@xxxxxxxxx>: > > 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). > > If anyone has contacts that does indeed seem reasonable to do, seems > like it could help them and their customers. I do have a few contacts there, and have been trying to work with them to do this, but it is slow going :( thanks, greg k-h -- 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
