Return-path: Received: from emita2.mittwald.de ([85.199.184.189]:38294 "EHLO emita2.mittwald.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756327Ab0FGIEP (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 Jun 2010 04:04:15 -0400 Received: from mx51.mymxserver.com (mail5104.internal [172.16.51.4]) by emita2.mittwald.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9C2A1F9E23 for ; Mon, 7 Jun 2010 09:55:03 +0200 (CEST) From: Holger Schurig To: Ray Subject: Re: New developer to linux and ath5k, request for assistance :) Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 09:54:53 +0200 Cc: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-Id: <201006070954.53380.holgerschurig@gmail.com> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: > The next step I suppose is to download the ATH5k source and start to look > into the codes. But I have several questions in mind and would appreciate if > some of you can shed me some light and point me to the right direction. Go and visit http://wireless.kernel.org/ There's a large section there for "Developers". You don't download the source of ath5k. Instead, you download the source of Linux, it contains the source of ath5k. The best option is to use the wireless-testing tree. More info about that on the above mentioned web page. > I understand that this version is Ubuntu already comes with ATH5k installed > by default. For any serious linux kernel hacking you need to learn how to work without a Distribution supplied kernel. Basically, you want to load and run your own kernel on your distribution. Forget about all the Distribution supplied things. At least this is what I make, your mileage may vary. I personally get the "vanilla" or "wireless-testing" source tree via git, do a "make xconfig" or similar, and then a "make && make install". Now I reboot into this kernel, look if everything works still, and maybe do one more iteration. I keep the distro-supplied kernel just for reference, or in case I make something horribly. then I reboot into the distro-kernel via the grub menu. Later, when you have your wireless-kernel up & running, you simply do "make && make modules_install", remove all old modules and reload the new modules, without booting into new kernels. I have made my own custom scripts for that. I'm assuming you already know "Linux Device Drivers 3", available as paper- book and in the web? And also http://kernelnewbies.org? Which parts of ath5k do you want to modify?