James Ketrenos announced a new 80211 based driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection adapter, "this new driver uses the new d80211 subsystem previously only available as part of the wireless-dev tree." An earlier incarnation of the driver code was much criticized for its inclusion of a userland binary-only daemon [story], prompting the OpenBSD project to create their own blob-free driver for the card [story]. "The [new] iwlwifi driver for the 3945 does not require the user space daemon, but does require a new microcode image," James explained, "over the past year we were able to make the necessary changes to the microcode used with the 3945 such that we were able to remove the regulatory daemon."

When the question was asked if the driver was going to be pushed for inclusion into the mainline kernel it was noted, "hmmm...I think we need to spend a cycle or so in -mm. 2.6.22 seems more likely for mainline." Pavel Roskin suggested, "iwlwifi is surprisingly good for a just announced driver. It worked for me from the first attempt, and that's the first d80211 driver to do so. In my opinion, it should go to wireless-dev as soon as possible so it can go to -mm together with other drivers."

From: James Ketrenos [email blocked]
To:  linux-kernel [email blocked]
Subject: [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:12:42 -0800

Please hold all questions until I am done with this email.  Thank you.

We are pleased to announce the availability of a new driver for the 
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection adapter.  This new driver 
uses the new d80211 subsystem previously only available as part of the 
wireless-dev tree.

You can find the new driver, and additional information about it, here:

   http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi.

Within the new driver package are sources which we plan to submit for 
kernel inclusion as well as scripts and patches which create a version 
of the driver which can be loaded into kernels based on 2.6.18 and newer 
(provided you have installed the d80211 subsystem as well)  The README 
document can walk you through pretty quickly.

Since a lot of our users are not able to move to the latest versions of 
the Linux kernel, we have put together a d80211 package allowing the 
installation of the d80211 subsystem into an existing kernel image 
without the need to migrate to wireless-dev, or upgrade to a newer 
kernel at all (assuming you are using 2.6.18 or newer).

You can find that package at:

   http://intellinuxwireless.org/d80211

Ok.  Now... any questions?

Thanks,
James / Intel Corporation



From: Neil Brown [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:26:22 +1100

On Friday February 9, [email blocked] wrote:
> 
> Ok.  Now... any questions?
> 

Yes.  Does this require a closed user-space helper like the other
3945ABG driver, or is it completely open (maybe excepting firmware)?

Thanks,
NeilBrown



From: James Ketrenos [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:52:32 -0800

Neil Brown wrote:
> On Friday February 9, [email blocked] wrote:
>> Ok.  Now... any questions?
> 
> Yes.  Does this require a closed user-space helper like the other
> 3945ABG driver, or is it completely open (maybe excepting firmware)?

The iwlwifi driver for the 3945 does not require the user space daemon, 
but does require a new microcode image.

Over the past year we were able to make the necessary changes to the 
microcode used with the 3945 such that we were able to remove the 
regulatory daemon.

James


From: Theodore Tso [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:22:54 -0500

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 01:12:42PM -0800, James Ketrenos wrote:
> Please hold all questions until I am done with this email.  Thank you.
> 
> We are pleased to announce the availability of a new driver for the 
> Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection adapter.  This new driver 
> uses the new d80211 subsystem previously only available as part of the 
> wireless-dev tree.

Very cool!  Is it likely that d80211 and iwlwifi will be pushed into
mainline in time for 2.6.21?

Regards,

						- Ted



From: "John W. Linville" [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:39:34 -0500

On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 11:22:54AM -0500, Theodore Tso wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 01:12:42PM -0800, James Ketrenos wrote:
> > Please hold all questions until I am done with this email.  Thank you.
> > 
> > We are pleased to announce the availability of a new driver for the 
> > Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection adapter.  This new driver 
> > uses the new d80211 subsystem previously only available as part of the 
> > wireless-dev tree.
> 
> Very cool!  Is it likely that d80211 and iwlwifi will be pushed into
> mainline in time for 2.6.21?

Hmmm...I think we need to spend a cycle or so in -mm.  2.6.22 seems
more likely for mainline.

John
-- 
John W. Linville
linville@tuxdriver.com



From: Pavel Roskin [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ipw3945-devel] [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:53:51 -0500

Quoting "John W. Linville" [email blocked]:

> > Very cool!  Is it likely that d80211 and iwlwifi will be pushed into
> > mainline in time for 2.6.21?
>
> Hmmm...I think we need to spend a cycle or so in -mm.  2.6.22 seems
> more likely for mainline.

I think we should take this as a goal.  Last time I checked, d80211 wasn't in
-mm.  Perhaps it should go there.  And by the way, the latest changes from
netdev->class_dev to netdev->dev break d80211.  Perhaps we should rebase
wireless-dev immediately after 2.6.21-rc1, fix all compile issues and submit
the patch to -mm.

And iwlwifi is surprisingly good for a just announced driver.  It worked for me
from the first attempt, and that's the first d80211 driver to do so.  In my
opinion, it should go to wireless-dev as soon as possible so it can go to -mm
toghether with other drivers.  A couple of wrinkles in the standalone build
system are irrelevant to the kernel interation.

--
Regards,
Pavel Roskin



From: "John W. Linville" [email blocked]
Subject: Re: [ipw3945-devel] [ANNOUNCE] d80211 based driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Date:	Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:41:11 -0500

On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 12:53:51PM -0500, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> Quoting "John W. Linville" [email blocked]:
> 
> > > Very cool!  Is it likely that d80211 and iwlwifi will be pushed into
> > > mainline in time for 2.6.21?
> >
> > Hmmm...I think we need to spend a cycle or so in -mm.  2.6.22 seems
> > more likely for mainline.
> 
> I think we should take this as a goal.  Last time I checked, d80211 wasn't in
> -mm.  Perhaps it should go there.  And by the way, the latest changes from
> netdev->class_dev to netdev->dev break d80211.  Perhaps we should rebase
> wireless-dev immediately after 2.6.21-rc1, fix all compile issues and submit
> the patch to -mm.

That is basically the plan. :-)

John
-- 
John W. Linville
[email blocked]

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