Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:29:47 +0100 From: Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org> To: dbc <mail@dcollins.info>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: how to encourage a wireless driver to exist? Message-ID: <53F36D6B.6040602@qeng-ho.org> In-Reply-To: <20140817085355.GA74530@slackbox.erewhon.home> References: <003e01cfb9db$8c11b1e0$a43515a0$@dcollins.info> <20140817085355.GA74530@slackbox.erewhon.home>
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On 17/08/2014 09:53, Roland Smith wrote: > On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 03:24:27PM +1000, dbc wrote: >> Hello, >> >> I have a new laptop which I'm well sick of having to run linux on. Is there >> a way to encourage someone to write a driver for intel 7260 wifi card? > > You might want to ask on the freebsd-wireless list. But I think Cedric Gross > is working on it. > >> I am a C programmer, and I would be willing to volunteer time, but I don't >> know how useful I will be with neither driver writing nor wifi protocol nor >> FreeBSD development process experience. Still, if anyone would point me in >> the right direction I would happily give it a shot. Where can this stuff be >> learnt? I also see that linux drivers exist, but I'm not sure about legal >> problems when copying from those. > > There is a github repo; https://github.com/KreizIT/FreeBSD-IWN > > The Linux and FreeBSD kernels are quite different internally. So just copying > code would be useless. > > And Linux kernel code is under the GPL, which AFAIK is not acceptable in the > FreeBSD base system. > > What is usually done is study how the Linux driver works, and re-implement it > in the way FreeBSD drivers are written. You can study existing drivers as > references. You should consider joining the freebsd-hackers list if you start > working on FreeBSD code. > > The standard book about the internals of FreeBSD is; > > Marshall Kirk McKusick, George V. Neville-Neil > The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System. > Boston, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 2004. ISBN 0-201-70245-2 I would add this book specifically about FBSD device drivers http://www.nostarch.com/bsddrivers.htm > Marshall Kirk McKusick teaches courses about the internals of FreeBSD. IIRC > you can order videos of them online. > > See also > https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography-osinternals.html > >> Or, while I probably couldn't afford to fund it entirely myself, is there a >> way I could chip into a pot to help fund someone with more experience to at >> least make a start on it? > > You can always make a donation; https://www.freebsd.org/donations/ > > Roland >
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