Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 11:54:38 -0500 From: Rob Deker <deker@slackdot.org> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Porting the OpenBSD free Atheros HAL Message-ID: <4190F64E.2090009@slackdot.org> In-Reply-To: <20041108220840.GA45808@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <418F9241.10609@slackdot.org> <20041108220840.GA45808@xor.obsecurity.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Kris Kennaway wrote: >On Mon, Nov 08, 2004 at 10:35:29AM -0500, Rob Deker wrote: > > >>Hi, >> >>I was just wondering if anybody was working on porting the new >>open-source Atheros HAL from OpenBSD to FreeBSD yet. >> >> > >Why would you want to do this? Doesn't it provide a subset of what >the FreeBSD driver already provides? > > > You're right, it does. However, myself and collegue recently presented our work in raw Atheros raw frame injection at ToorCon based on the Atheros HAL and Sam's driver/HAL wrapper. If you're familliar with these cards and their current status in the open-source world, you'll know that the only method of using them relies solely on the binary-only HAL provided by Atheros that Sam Leffler was kind enough to wrap in a FreeBSD driver shell. Given the nature of the work we've done to date, you might imagine that we were very interested to hear of a non-binary solution to communication with these wireless chipsets. Given that our current codebase is written against FreeBSD 5.2 and that the new alternative HAL is attempting to be interface compatible with the HAL from Sam/Atheros, it should be pretty close to a drop-in replacement. There will however be a minor porting effort required to bring it from OpenBSD, and we simply didn't want to duplicate any efforts that other parties may be undertaking. So, as we mentioned before, if anybody is already doing this, or would like to work on it, we're offering any assistance we can provide. Otherwise, we're willing to tackle the problem ourselves, but it will likely take us a bit longer than others who are more familliar with the FreeBSD and OpenBSD kernels (our original driver work was our first foray into the FreeBSD kernel). -d
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4190F64E.2090009>