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Date:      Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:08:08 +1000
From:      Da Rock <freebsd-questions@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Realtek RTL8191SEvB Linux driver?
Message-ID:  <4F03A678.6050903@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1201031922400.26468@nber4.nber.org>
References:  <CAFpTYWM3ppJsVo-qZC=OXWHW1U5zAt3y5m==6hFw3JQNH%2B5NAg@mail.gmail.com> <4F02A3CE.7020404@herveybayaustralia.com.au> <20120103071028.4964dd33@scorpio> <4F030E00.5020806@herveybayaustralia.com.au> <Pine.GSO.4.64.1201031101580.7621@age7.nber.org> <4F038F8F.3090701@herveybayaustralia.com.au> <alpine.LFD.2.00.1201031922400.26468@nber4.nber.org>

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On 01/04/12 10:38, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Da Rock wrote:
>
>> On 01/04/12 02:10, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Da Rock wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 01/03/12 22:10, Jerry wrote:
>>>>> On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:44:30 +1000
>>>>> Da Rock articulated:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 01/03/12 11:15, Jeffrey McFadden wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Don't ndis(4) ndiscvt and ndisgen(8)  essentially accomplish what 
>>> the OP is requesting? See the handbook section 12.8.1.1:
>>>
>>>     
>>> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html
>>>
>>> or the man page for ndiscvt:
>>>
>>>   http://www.gsp.com/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=8&topic=ndiscvt
>>>
>>>
>>> While doing the conversion looks a bit beyond what we would expect 
>>> of an end-user, it does seem to offer a path for using hardware 
>>> whose manufacturer does not support FreeBSD. Is there anything 
>>> beyond licensing issues preventing such drivers from being included 
>>> in the distribution, or made downloadable in FreeBSD form?
>
>> Oh yes, it is possible, just not probable :)
>
> At
>
>   
> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Category:USB
>
> almost 800 compatible devices are listed. Not everything, but I have 
> found that a willingness to spend a few dollars on a different card 
> helps immensely in enjoying FreeBSD and Linux. For me at least it is 
> easier to find a compatible card than to write a compatible driver.
Indeed :)

I did notice that the card in question wasn't on that list. But my own 
experience with ndiswrapper and wifi cards were far less than 
satisfactory- the firmware always got in the road. But I may have just 
been too stupid at the time :)
> I would also observe that most people involved with computers, whether 
> as users or developers, have little symphathy for people with 
> different needs from the device. This is a great impediment to 
> progress. It is a mistake to assume that because you don't need 
> something, another person's desire for it is illegitimate. In this 
> case, I fully agree that it is an injustice that hardware vendors do 
> not supply FreeBSD drivers, but that does not mean that users 
> requiring such drivers are immoral or of poor character, and therefore 
> to be ignored or insulted. There is little that FreeBSD coders and 
> users can do about that injustice directly, however it is within their 
> power to mitigate it with the NDIS wrapper. If that wrapper allows 
> another user to enter the FOSS world, that will (in the fullness of 
> time) contribute to reforming the vendor.
No they are absolutely not of poor character, I agree. Some messages can 
be misconstrued, though, in that the replies can be terse and more 
logical than sympathetic. Sometimes it is easier to replace with a 
different card than flog a dead horse, although a user may take offense 
for emotional or financial reasons more than logical.

Mitigation is a difficult path as I have found personally, although NDIS 
helps immensely with wired nics (not so much of a problem these days), 
and I believe Luigi Rizzo's work with the linuxulator and drivers is to 
be applauded ten fold. It takes a great deal of time though- I put 
forward the idea when I was still a BSD pup not entirely realising the 
challenges :) Luigi (and his colleagues) has been working hard ever 
since to facilitate the more challenging aspects of multimedia drivers 
(whether or not that had to do with my comments or not, I don't know).



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