Hello, for some time I have been interested in situation of firmware
for Linux drivers. I found something interesting.
Some time ago I found that Agree firmware for orinoco driver was
submitted to linux-firmware tree. From driver documentation
(http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/orinoco) I found that
orinoco driver also works with Symbol "Spectrum24" chipset. The
documentation states that firmware for that chipset is only available
by cutting it from Windows or Apple drivers (like Broadcom microcode).
Fortunately I found that it is not true. The firmware binary blobs for
Spectrum24 can be found on NetBSD and OpenBSD servers under BSD
license. Both have build in this firmware in their operating systems.
This statement can be found in OpenBSD CVS:
from netbsd:
Generated from the firmware binaries for T3 series CF adapter.
Obtained from Tim Gardner <[email protected]> who developed the Linux driver.
And approved by Brad Lefore <[email protected]> to redistribute it
with BSD license.
(http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/esecsym?sortby=rev)
This means that the only difference between firmware that Linux uses
and the *BSD firmware is that BSD people successfully negotiated
license change to BSD. Theoretically by simple drag and dropping the
files from OpenBSD/NetBSD to linux-firmware tree and renaming the
files will allow Linux users out of the box support of Symbol cards
without any firmware extraction tools. Just in case, contacting Mr.
Lefore of Symbol first would be also recommended.
I hope this information will be helpful for orinoco driver development.
OpenBSD resources:
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/?sortby=rev#dirlist
and licence:
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/symbol-license?rev=1.4;content-type=text%2Fplain;sortby=rev
NetBSD resources:
http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/microcode/wi/?only_with_tag=MAIN
On Thursday 20 November 2008, Kamil Dzida wrote:
> Hello, for some time I have been interested in situation of firmware
> for Linux drivers. I found something interesting.
>
> Some time ago I found that Agree firmware for orinoco driver was
> submitted to linux-firmware tree. From driver documentation
> (http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/orinoco) I found that
> orinoco driver also works with Symbol "Spectrum24" chipset. The
> documentation states that firmware for that chipset is only available
> by cutting it from Windows or Apple drivers (like Broadcom microcode).
> Fortunately I found that it is not true. The firmware binary blobs for
> Spectrum24 can be found on NetBSD and OpenBSD servers under BSD
> license. Both have build in this firmware in their operating systems.
>
Does it support WPA and/or WPA2? Have you tested this firmware with
orinoco driver?
Thank you!
>
> This statement can be found in OpenBSD CVS:
>
> from netbsd:
> Generated from the firmware binaries for T3 series CF adapter.
> Obtained from Tim Gardner <[email protected]> who developed the Linux driver.
> And approved by Brad Lefore <[email protected]> to redistribute it
> with BSD license.
>
> (http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/esecsym?sortby=rev)
>
> This means that the only difference between firmware that Linux uses
> and the *BSD firmware is that BSD people successfully negotiated
> license change to BSD. Theoretically by simple drag and dropping the
> files from OpenBSD/NetBSD to linux-firmware tree and renaming the
> files will allow Linux users out of the box support of Symbol cards
> without any firmware extraction tools. Just in case, contacting Mr.
> Lefore of Symbol first would be also recommended.
>
> I hope this information will be helpful for orinoco driver development.
>
>
> OpenBSD resources:
> http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/?sortby=rev#dirlist
>
> and licence:
>
> http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/symbol-license?rev=1.4;content-type=text%2Fplain;sortby=rev
>
> NetBSD resources:
> http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/microcode/wi/?only_with_tag=MAIN
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to [email protected]
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>
>
On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 6:53 PM, Andrey Borzenkov <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thursday 20 November 2008, Kamil Dzida wrote:
>> Hello, for some time I have been interested in situation of firmware
>> for Linux drivers. I found something interesting.
>>
>> Some time ago I found that Agree firmware for orinoco driver was
>> submitted to linux-firmware tree. From driver documentation
>> (http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/orinoco) I found that
>> orinoco driver also works with Symbol "Spectrum24" chipset. The
>> documentation states that firmware for that chipset is only available
>> by cutting it from Windows or Apple drivers (like Broadcom microcode).
>> Fortunately I found that it is not true. The firmware binary blobs for
>> Spectrum24 can be found on NetBSD and OpenBSD servers under BSD
>> license. Both have build in this firmware in their operating systems.
>>
>
> Does it support WPA and/or WPA2? Have you tested this firmware with
> orinoco driver?
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>>
>> This statement can be found in OpenBSD CVS:
>>
>> from netbsd:
>> Generated from the firmware binaries for T3 series CF adapter.
>> Obtained from Tim Gardner <[email protected]> who developed the Linux driver.
>> And approved by Brad Lefore <[email protected]> to redistribute it
>> with BSD license.
>>
>> (http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/esecsym?sortby=rev)
>>
>> This means that the only difference between firmware that Linux uses
>> and the *BSD firmware is that BSD people successfully negotiated
>> license change to BSD. Theoretically by simple drag and dropping the
>> files from OpenBSD/NetBSD to linux-firmware tree and renaming the
>> files will allow Linux users out of the box support of Symbol cards
>> without any firmware extraction tools. Just in case, contacting Mr.
>> Lefore of Symbol first would be also recommended.
>>
>> I hope this information will be helpful for orinoco driver development.
>>
>>
>> OpenBSD resources:
>> http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/?sortby=rev#dirlist
>>
>> and licence:
>>
>> http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/microcode/symbol/symbol-license?rev=1.4;content-type=text%2Fplain;sortby=rev
>>
>> NetBSD resources:
>> http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/microcode/wi/?only_with_tag=MAIN
>> --
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
>> the body of a message to [email protected]
>> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>
>>
>
>
>
Unfortunately I haven't got Symbol card to test the firmware. OpeBSD
driver seems to be more advanced still their online manual doesn't
mention WPA/WPA2 only WEP 104-bit. Actually I did not know that
extracted firmware that Linux uses include WPA support. Why not try
the NetBSD trick? Extract the firmware with WPA support and ask Symbol
to re-licence it under BSD/ISC. On the other hand as far as I know
OpenBSD got WPA support in their system in summer this year (no
kidding!), so perhaps the firmware can do WPA, but software part is
not ready to handle it yet. Summarizing someone with Spectrum based
card is needed here.