Hi all,
I'm about to write a new driver for mac80211.
Alas I'm not familiar with wireless basic concepts.
I have read everything in http://www.linuxwireless.org/
but I don't think that's enough.
Can you please point me to known good knowledge
references/overviews/tutorials on the subject ?
Thank You !!
Neshama
Hi Johannes,
On Feb 7, 2008 3:26 PM, Johannes Berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > Can you please point me to known good knowledge
> > references/overviews/tutorials on the subject ?
>
> The best can currently offer is
> (a) checking http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/files/mac80211/
> (b) reading include/net/mac80211.h
> (c) comparing to an existing driver, for example b43's main.c
> (d) asking questions here
Those are great, thanks !!
Any idea where I can find an updated, general, panoramic introduction for
the wireless subject and terms (without having to delve into the specs
themselves..) ?
I guess I ought to understand basic concepts before delving into the actual
code and interfaces.
Again thank you for the help, it is much appreciated.
Neshama.
>
> johannes
>
> Can you please point me to known good knowledge
> references/overviews/tutorials on the subject ?
Get a linux kernel via git. Look at the drivers in
drivers/net/wireless. Some of them use mac80211, you can find
out which one by looking at Kconfig there, e.g. when they have a
line "depends on MAC80211" there.
Those existing drivers should be a great inspiration to you :-)
It also helps when you share more about your incentives. E.g.
writing
> I'm about to write a new driver for mac80211.
doesn't give a great deal of insight into what you're up to.
Maybe someone else already begin to write a driver for your
hardware ?!?! No one can tell you this right now, so you can't
possibly save work on your side.
For example, the openmoko people are writing a mac80211 driver
for ar6k. Not every driver is already in the wireless-2.6 git
tree.
> For example, the openmoko people are writing a mac80211 driver
> for ar6k. Not every driver is already in the wireless-2.6 git
> tree.
[OT]
As far as i know Atheros released a GPLed driver along with their SDIO stack.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sdio-linux/
Do you have a plan to include this in kernel ? What's the status ?
--
GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
Nick
On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 17:04 +0200, Nick Kossifidis wrote:
> > For example, the openmoko people are writing a mac80211 driver
> > for ar6k. Not every driver is already in the wireless-2.6 git
> > tree.
>
> [OT]
>
> As far as i know Atheros released a GPLed driver along with their SDIO stack.
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/sdio-linux/
>
> Do you have a plan to include this in kernel ? What's the status ?
2.6.24 already has an SDIO stack; hence the Atheros one is redundant.
The openmoko people already have a port of their ar6k driver to the
in-kernel SDIO stack.
Dan
On Feb 7, 2008 3:35 PM, Johannes Berg <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Any idea where I can find an updated, general, panoramic introduction for
> > the wireless subject and terms (without having to delve into the specs
> > themselves..) ?
>
> Not really. Some stuff is on linuxwireless.org but you said you read
> that already :) I'm sure there are books like "An introduction to
> 802.11" or so but I never read any so I can't recommend anything.
No time either to order and read a book. I was really looking for whitepapars,
HOWTOs, tutorials and such. But all I can find is very outdated stuff,
from years back..
>
> > I guess I ought to understand basic concepts before delving into the actual
> > code and interfaces.
>
> That is probably a good idea, yes.
>
> johannes
>
On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 11:09 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 17:04 +0200, Nick Kossifidis wrote:
> > > For example, the openmoko people are writing a mac80211 driver
> > > for ar6k. Not every driver is already in the wireless-2.6 git
> > > tree.
> >
> > [OT]
> >
> > As far as i know Atheros released a GPLed driver along with their SDIO stack.
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/sdio-linux/
> >
> > Do you have a plan to include this in kernel ? What's the status ?
>
> 2.6.24 already has an SDIO stack; hence the Atheros one is redundant.
> The openmoko people already have a port of their ar6k driver to the
> in-kernel SDIO stack.
Which of course means that one big barrier to including the ar6k driver
is already removed. You can browse the ar6k openmoko code at:
http://svn.openmoko.org/developers/sameo/patches/ar6k-ng/
Dan
> (a) checking http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/files/mac80211/
Mind you, that is outdated because of recent work in mac80211, there are
no more hw modes and BSS config was introduced.
johannes
2008/2/7, Dan Williams <[email protected]>:
> On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 11:09 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 17:04 +0200, Nick Kossifidis wrote:
> > > > For example, the openmoko people are writing a mac80211 driver
> > > > for ar6k. Not every driver is already in the wireless-2.6 git
> > > > tree.
> > >
> > > [OT]
> > >
> > > As far as i know Atheros released a GPLed driver along with their SDIO stack.
> > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/sdio-linux/
> > >
> > > Do you have a plan to include this in kernel ? What's the status ?
> >
> > 2.6.24 already has an SDIO stack; hence the Atheros one is redundant.
> > The openmoko people already have a port of their ar6k driver to the
> > in-kernel SDIO stack.
>
> Which of course means that one big barrier to including the ar6k driver
> is already removed. You can browse the ar6k openmoko code at:
>
> http://svn.openmoko.org/developers/sameo/patches/ar6k-ng/
>
> Dan
>
>
Great news !
Thnx for the info ;-)
--
GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
Nick
Hi,
> Can you please point me to known good knowledge
> references/overviews/tutorials on the subject ?
The best can currently offer is
(a) checking http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/files/mac80211/
(b) reading include/net/mac80211.h
(c) comparing to an existing driver, for example b43's main.c
(d) asking questions here
johannes
> Any idea where I can find an updated, general, panoramic introduction for
> the wireless subject and terms (without having to delve into the specs
> themselves..) ?
Not really. Some stuff is on linuxwireless.org but you said you read
that already :) I'm sure there are books like "An introduction to
802.11" or so but I never read any so I can't recommend anything.
> I guess I ought to understand basic concepts before delving into the actual
> code and interfaces.
That is probably a good idea, yes.
johannes
> Currently I'm only studying the subject, so no specific
> hardware, I will probably write preliminary driver just for
> education, so I don't care if someone is working on it now.
In that case you can fill the (documentation) gap. Maybe it would
even be fun to, e.g., write a "How I mastered to write a
mac80211 driver" blog and post that.
Hi Holger,
On Feb 7, 2008 3:35 PM, Holger Schurig <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Can you please point me to known good knowledge
> > references/overviews/tutorials on the subject ?
>
> Get a linux kernel via git. Look at the drivers in
> drivers/net/wireless. Some of them use mac80211, you can find
> out which one by looking at Kconfig there, e.g. when they have a
> line "depends on MAC80211" there.
Ok, thanks.
> It also helps when you share more about your incentives.
Currently I'm only studying the subject, so no specific hardware,
I will probably write preliminary driver just for education, so I don't
care if someone is working on it now.