Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 07:10:28 -0500 From: Jerry <jerry@seibercom.net> To: FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Realtek RTL8191SEvB Linux driver? Message-ID: <20120103071028.4964dd33@scorpio> In-Reply-To: <4F02A3CE.7020404@herveybayaustralia.com.au> References: <CAFpTYWM3ppJsVo-qZC=OXWHW1U5zAt3y5m==6hFw3JQNH%2B5NAg@mail.gmail.com> <4F02A3CE.7020404@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
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On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:44:30 +1000 Da Rock articulated: > On 01/03/12 11:15, Jeffrey McFadden wrote: > > I have a Toshiba Satellite U505-S2950 laptop with a Realtek > > RTL8191SEvB wireless card built in. FreeBSD doesn't recognize this > > card and can't use it, but Ubuntu does. > > > > Would it be possible to go glom a Linux driver off the web > > someplace and install it in my FreeBSD and get the wireless to > > work? I'm using a USB Belkin in it now, but that's an unhandy > > thing sticking out like it does. > > > Unfortunately the API's are completely different. Adrian Chadd does a > lot of work on Wifi in FreeBSD, but I'm not sure if its on the todo > list or not. Try a search on google... This is what drives me to pull my hair out. I have stated several times that all the *nix/*BSD consortium needs to do to become truly competitive in the market is to devise a uniform API that works the same on FreeBSD as on Ubuntu and every other non-windows based system. The concept is so simple that it amazes me that it was not implemented eons ago. The problem is that the non-windows operating system authors all behave live little children. None of them can simply get along. The all have to insist that "they" have the best and everyone else is wrong. They swing between Narcissism and Paranoia on any given day. You would have an easier time getting a Jew and a Muslim to sit down at a table and enjoy a ham dinner than you have of getting the powers that be in the non-windows community to agree to anything, other than their hatred of Microsoft of course. I have spoken with representatives of companies, the last one being Brother International, who plain out stated that they only support Microsoft (naturally - they offer the easiest and best documented system for driver installation) and a vanilla Linux solution. They openly stated that there is no way that they would even attempt to write software for a market as fractured as the *nix/*BSD community and then be straddled with the problem of supporting such software. Hell, every time someone in the BSD community dotted an "i" in the kernel source code the poor driver authors would have to rewrite their device code. Certainly a task I would not want to be assigned. Ubuntu is years ahead of FreeBSD in creating a useful and fully functional desktop, I read where they were working on making it possible to use a driver disk intended for Microsoft's Windows OS usable in Ubuntu. They were working on a method of simply extracting the code needed directly from a CD and using it directly on Ubuntu. Now that is what I call true "forward" thinking. The authors of FreeBSD, and to a lesser extend Linux remind me of group of of passengers left floating in the ocean after their ship sank. The best case scenario at that point would be to be rescued by another passing ship. However, while waiting for that to occur it would seem logical to grab onto any object that floated by and thereby allow the stranded individual a better chance at survival. If these were Ubuntu survivors there would be no question as to what they would choose to do, as well as some of the more enlighten *nix" users. However, the *BSD users, especially the FreeBSD ones would rather drown than accept a solution that was not counter to what everyone else was trying to accomplish. I have, mistakenly I admit, stated that there are no drivers for lots of devices currently available on the market, especially the higher end ones. That statement is essentially incorrect. There are drivers for these devices, and other OSs are taking advantage of them. FreeBSD, in its unending war against simplicity and continued insistence on reinventing the wheel, refuses to avail itself of them. You can lead a horse to water; however, you cannot stop it from running head long into the desert and dying of thirst. Stupidity IS its own punishment. It took the Catholic church until 1992 to admit that Galileo Galilei was correct and the earth does rotate around the sun. So there is hope. Perhaps someday FreeBSD will become "enlightened" also. -- Jerry ♔ Disclaimer: off-list followups get on-list replies or get ignored. Please do not ignore the Reply-To header. __________________________________________________________________
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