From owner-freebsd-wireless@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 24 06:17:38 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB0A4565; Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:17:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kevlo@kevlo.org) Received: from ns.kevlo.org (220-135-115-6.HINET-IP.hinet.net [220.135.115.6]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 010762C2A; Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:17:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (mail.kevlo.org [220.135.115.6]) by ns.kevlo.org (8.14.6/8.14.6) with ESMTP id r9O6BWRe008017; Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:11:33 +0800 (CST) (envelope-from kevlo@kevlo.org) Message-ID: <5268BB16.9@kevlo.org> Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:15:50 +0800 From: Kevin Lo User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Thomas Mueller , freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [rfc] removing the NDISulator References: <5265878B.1050809@yandex.ru> <201310212146.r9LLkqZ1044966@fire.js.berklix.net> <52684E48.20709@unsane.co.uk> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Discussions of 802.11 stack, tools device driver development." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:17:38 -0000 Thomas Mueller wrote: > >> The later driver model isn't supported by ndisulator. We'd have to >> implement all the newer NDIS stuff for wifi and ethernet. > >> In the later NDIS layer the Microsoft Wireless Services implement a bunch >> of stuff that used to be up to the driver. Ie, the driver just exposed an >> ethernet "device" with some extra bits for wifi. Ie, the whole stack runs >> in the driver. That has changed. > > ... > >> This is why I'd rather us bite the bullet now and deprecate it, versus have >> it in there and put in the work to upgrade it to handle NDIS 6.x drivers >> with the Microsoft wireless extensions stuff. > > >> -adrian > How much extra work would there be to update the ndis(ulator/wrapper)? > > Would it be more than writing native FreeBSD drivers which might be ported > from NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux? > > What about cases where specifications might be a trade secret? > > How difficult is it to port or write a wifi or Ethernet driver for FreeBSD? > > I have no experience writing device drivers but have some experience with C and C++. > > I notice NetBSD and OpenBSD have drivers for some chips that FreeBSD lacks. > > I have motherboard (MSI Z77 MPOWER) with Realtek 8111E Ethernet that fails to > connect in FreeBSD or OpenBSD, OK with NetBSD-current and Linux, and > Atheros AR9271 onboard wifi: device athn is included in NetBSD (current only) > and OpenBSD. No offence, but you have mentioned several times that Realtek 8111E Ethernet and athn(4) do not work on FreeBSD, just wondering why you don't sit down and start coding then all your questions will be answered. > > Tom > > Kevin