From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 23 15:22:57 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0BAB37B401 for ; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:22:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from tomts17-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts17-srv.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.71]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A20B843FAF for ; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:22:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from matt@compar.com) Received: from hermes ([65.95.177.176]) by tomts17-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.05.32 201-253-122-126-132-20030307) with SMTP id <20030723222250.ATL8847.tomts17-srv.bellnexxia.net@hermes>; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:22:50 -0400 Message-ID: <009e01c35168$c0738270$1200a8c0@gsicomp.on.ca> From: "Matthew Emmerton" To: "Brad Knowles" , "Kevin Oberman" References: <20030723220757.49A565D07@ptavv.es.net> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:21:23 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 cc: FreeBSD-CURRENT Mailing List Subject: Re: We have ath, now what about Broadcom? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 22:22:57 -0000 > > Folks, > > > > Okay, so now I just figured out what the "ath" driver is. Sigh... > > > > Of course, I find this out through searching for open source > > drivers for the Broadcom chipset as used in the Linksys WPC54G > > cardbus device, which I happen to have just bought. > > > > > > I've already done quite a bit of Googling and searching through > > the archives, and I haven't found anything obviously relevant to the > > issue of drivers for the Broadcom chipset, at least not anything > > recent. > > > > I did find a lot of old references to drivers for this chipset in > > the April timeframe, mostly having to do with people discovering that > > Linksys was shipping access points & routers using this chipset, > > using Linux for MIPS and BusyBox, but not providing the drivers > > themselves under their GPL obligations. > > > > > > Can anyone provide some pointers or links that would bring me > > up-to-date on the current state of affairs on this subject, > > especially as it related to FreeBSD or *BSD in general? > > The folks at Broadcom have not been willing to release any information > on their 800.11g chips for fear of violating FCC regs. The required > NDA would prohibit the release of the source. You can program > both the transmit power and frequency if you have this. (I make no > claim as to whether their concerns have any validity.) > > For that reason there has been no open-source support for these chips. Why would Broadcom be scared? Obviously it's the _driver_ that controls the power/freq output of the chip, so the responsibility of staying within FCC regs is that of the driver authors. Of course, the "no warranty" aspects of open source drivers turns a blind eye to liability, but would things really come back to Broadcom? -- Matt Emmerton