Return-path: Received: from ra.tuxdriver.com ([70.61.120.52]:4485 "EHLO ra.tuxdriver.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759961AbYBLOb4 (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:31:56 -0500 Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:58:57 -0500 From: "John W. Linville" To: Budhee Jamaich Cc: Dan Williams , linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, Kalle Valo Subject: Re: madwifi is not fully open source Message-ID: <20080212135857.GA3051@tuxdriver.com> (sfid-20080212_143200_210670_8DF4458C) References: <57314e840802111427i7e8d00capbe430727faff78a1@mail.gmail.com> <1202770112.6824.35.camel@localhost.localdomain> <57314e840802120045h6e6960d8jde5657da8aff0e3e@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <57314e840802120045h6e6960d8jde5657da8aff0e3e@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 10:45:40AM +0200, Budhee Jamaich wrote: > First - thank you for the detailed response! Yes, thanks Dan! > So even if a vendor is willng to completely Open Source it's code, > having FCC troubles > is a serious problem. The answer of course is "it depends". For example, depending on the device it might be possible to provide code to configure the device in "good" ways without necessarily revealing how to configure it in "bad" ways...YMMV. This may be more or less difficult depending on the exact details of your hardware design. > Is there any vendor who walked this path ? complete Open Source RF code ? > If yes, has it's chip got FCC certified ? The rtl8180 driver does not use any firmware and is completely open source. The driver code contains lots of "magic number" tables related to initializing and configuring the device. I don't know enough about the hardware to tell you if the hardware is flexible enough to be easily forced into non-compliant power or frequency settings, so I can't really characterize the risk to Realtek. I do know that Realtek supported rtl8180 driver development with datasheets and access to developers. Presumably they feel that whatever risk there is is acceptable to their business. Hth! John -- John W. Linville linville@tuxdriver.com