Atheros HAL Under Free Software License

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Atheros HAL Under Free Software License

Last year the MadWiFi project abandoned their proprietary HAL in favor of using OpenHAL. OpenHAL is a open-source HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) that was developed by OpenBSD for their Atheros WiFi driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=Njc1MA

[wiscados]

That's 2/3 of my wifi-cards that work(will soon work) with a vanilla kernel!! Now if someone does some more work on the libertas driver then I'm golden!!

The two biggest problems with linux have for a long time been wifi and high-end graphics, now it looks like those are going away...

[Regenwald]

wifi? sure
but high-end gaphics? i seriously doubt it

[jeffro-tull]

as a new owner of an Atheros card, I applaud this.

though I'm still confused as to why there are so many HAL's. Of course, if it's a BSD-style license, does that mean everything will get merged into just one HAL someday?

[ethana2]

as a new owner of an Atheros card, I applaud this.

though I'm still confused as to why there are so many HAL's. Of course, if it's a BSD-style license, does that mean everything will get merged into just one HAL someday?

Probably.. ...unless the systems all have their unique merits in which case we may end up with competitors...

[DeepDayze]

as a new owner of an Atheros card, I applaud this.

though I'm still confused as to why there are so many HAL's. Of course, if it's a BSD-style license, does that mean everything will get merged into just one HAL someday?

Yeah, would be nice if there was a "generic" HAL that would work with just about any wifi card out there so that you can at least get the vast majority of cards working with minimum fuss, albeit with just the basic features. Then Wifi woes would be pretty much gone and thus one less gripe about Linux (lack of wifi drivers). Then many distros can ship the HAL with their CD's so users can get up and running quickly

[StringCheesian]

Wait, huh?
Read this response: http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/9/26/341

So has it been released under a free software license or hasn't it?

Is that post just trying to say that even though the code is now open, it's still proprietary and kinda nonfree (like the open nv driver maybe)? Or is it trying to say that there are now 4 drivers: the 2 free ones: ath5k, ath9k, plus the closed source HAL and now something separate from the closed source HAL that they have decided to open source?

I'm confused.

[Kano]

madwifi seems to support some extra features which this open hal does not provide. but for general use it will be enough.

[cruiseoveride]

yay for legacy code.

Its like throwing your dog table scraps. In this case the scraps arent even fresh.

[dashcloud]

yay for legacy code.

Its like throwing your dog table scraps. In this case the scraps arent even fresh.

No, throwing scraps would be if Broadcom dumped a driver under an opensource license:
really late, and probably outdated.

I highly encourage anyone to throw their driver code over the wall: yes, it's better when they work with the community, but if the code is under a FSF- approved license, then at some point, it will attract attention.