[ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:

http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git

For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
our Linux wireless wiki:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw

The ar9170 device driver home page is at:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170

I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
driver so far without which this would not have been possible.

  Luis

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Gábor Stefanik]

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:04 PM, Luis R. Rodriguez<mcgrof@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
>
> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
>
> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> our Linux wireless wiki:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
>
> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
>
> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.
>
>  Luis

Great! That's a first for any wireless chip...

BTW can we expect a similar firmware source release for ar2524/zd1211?

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>



-- 
Vista: [V]iruses, [I]ntruders, [S]pyware, [T]rojans and [A]dware. :-)

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Greg KH]

On Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 12:04:55PM -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
> 
> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
> 
> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> our Linux wireless wiki:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
> 
> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
> 
> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.

Great work, it's nice to see this happening so fast!

greg k-h

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-06-05 at 12:04 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
> 
> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
> 
> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> our Linux wireless wiki:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
> 
> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
> 
> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.

So, plan: I would like to add a command that tells us
   - it's open source firmware
   - what additional capabilities the firmware has
This has to be a command like the debug commands that we can send from
the firmware unilaterally. Easy to do.

What I would then like to add is at least proper tx status reporting. I
would also like to get rid of the key limitation, if possible.

johannes

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Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Nick Kossifidis]

2009/6/5 Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@gmail.com>:
> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
>
> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
>
> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> our Linux wireless wiki:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
>
> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
>
> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.
>
>  Luis

Congratulations !


-- 
GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
Nick

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Rami Rosen]

Hi,
  Great to hear this!

rgs,
Rami Rosen

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 4:54 AM, Nick Kossifidis<mickflemm@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/6/5 Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@gmail.com>:
>> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
>> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
>> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
>> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
>>
>> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
>>
>> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
>> our Linux wireless wiki:
>>
>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
>>
>> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
>>
>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
>>
>> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
>> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
>> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.
>>
>>  Luis
>
> Congratulations !
>
>
> --
> GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
> As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
> Nick
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Fri, 2009-06-05 at 12:04 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
> 
> http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
> 
> For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> our Linux wireless wiki:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
> 
> The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
> 
> I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> driver so far without which this would not have been possible.

I just want to say thanks!

I will buy this device very soon.
Is this source for same firmware that was closed?
Will AP mode work in future?

If you were to release the documentation, then it would be really
possible to fix AP mode for this firmware.


If you could just release ath5k documentation.... I would fix its
numerous problems I have with my aspire one (AR2425)...


Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 01:22 +0300, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-06-05 at 12:04 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> > I'm pleased to announce we have released the source code to our
> > Atheros 802.11n USB Otus/ar9170 device under the GPL. You can grab the
> > source, compile and use it with the upstream ar9170 device driver.
> > Patches are welcomed. The git tree available for this is at:
> > 
> > http://git.sipsolutions.net/ar9170-fw.git
> > 
> > For more information please visit the home page for this project is on
> > our Linux wireless wiki:
> > 
> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170.fw
> > 
> > The ar9170 device driver home page is at:
> > 
> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ar9170
> > 
> > I'd like to thank Johannes Berg and Christian Lamparter for their
> > incredible contributions to the project both firmware and ar9170
> > driver so far without which this would not have been possible.
> 
> I just want to say thanks!
> 
> I will buy this device very soon.
> Is this source for same firmware that was closed?
> Will AP mode work in future?
> 
> If you were to release the documentation, then it would be really
> possible to fix AP mode for this firmware.
> 
> 
> If you could just release ath5k documentation.... I would fix its
> numerous problems I have with my aspire one (AR2425)...
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 	Maxim Levitsky
> 

What does this mean:

eeprom   : ORIGIN = 0x000000, LENGTH = 1024k


Does the device have whole 1M of eeprom?
What is there?


Also what is this:

sram     : ORIGIN = 0x100000, LENGTH = 64k



Description says that pram is 32K, but:
 
pram     : ORIGIN = 0x200000, LENGTH = 16k


Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsk

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Johannes Berg]

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On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 03:21 +0300, Maxim Levitsky wrote:

> > Is this source for same firmware that was closed?

Yes, but it was compiled differently afaik so you won't arrive at the
same binary.

> > Will AP mode work in future?

Well, not TYPE=AP, but we'll integrate whatever is necessary into one
firmware, I expect. It shouldn't be very hard given that AP mode really
works with the TYPE=STA firmware already, almost.

> What does this mean:
> 
> eeprom   : ORIGIN = 0x000000, LENGTH = 1024k
> 
> 
> Does the device have whole 1M of eeprom?
> What is there?

The eeprom is mapped there, but I don't think it's 1M, it's just the max
size of the mapping to the CPUs address space.

> Also what is this:
> 
> sram     : ORIGIN = 0x100000, LENGTH = 64k

This is just memory. It's used for buffering frames and dma descriptors
etc. internally. I want to change the code to do this with the linker
script rather than manually assigning addresses in the source. But if
you grep for this address you'll find how it's used.

> Description says that pram is 32K, but:
>  
> pram     : ORIGIN = 0x200000, LENGTH = 16k

Yeah, we're not exactly sure about this yet, but using 32k definitely
crashes the device.

johannes

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Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 11:43 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 03:21 +0300, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> 
> > > Is this source for same firmware that was closed?
> 
> Yes, but it was compiled differently afaik so you won't arrive at the
> same binary.
> 
> > > Will AP mode work in future?
> 
> Well, not TYPE=AP, but we'll integrate whatever is necessary into one
> firmware, I expect. It shouldn't be very hard given that AP mode really
> works with the TYPE=STA firmware already, almost.
> 
> > What does this mean:
> > 
> > eeprom   : ORIGIN = 0x000000, LENGTH = 1024k
> > 
> > 
> > Does the device have whole 1M of eeprom?
> > What is there?
> 
> The eeprom is mapped there, but I don't think it's 1M, it's just the max
> size of the mapping to the CPUs address space.
Fine, like I expected, but still, I guess there is some 'loader' in
eeprom?



> 
> > Also what is this:
> > 
> > sram     : ORIGIN = 0x100000, LENGTH = 64k
> 
> This is just memory. It's used for buffering frames and dma descriptors
> etc. internally. I want to change the code to do this with the linker
> script rather than manually assigning addresses in the source. But if
> you grep for this address you'll find how it's used.
Great.


> 
> > Description says that pram is 32K, but:
> >  
> > pram     : ORIGIN = 0x200000, LENGTH = 16k
> 
> Yeah, we're not exactly sure about this yet, but using 32k definitely
> crashes the device.
Thats fine too.


If there were a documentation too.
Isn't it possible to publish it?

This firmware contains so many 'magic' registers.

Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky

Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Johannes Berg]

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On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 12:54 +0300, Maxim Levitsky wrote:

> Fine, like I expected, but still, I guess there is some 'loader' in
> eeprom?

Yes.

> If there were a documentation too.
> Isn't it possible to publish it?
> 
> This firmware contains so many 'magic' registers.

There is some, but it's not public. We can try to document some when we
replace the magic values by constants.

johannes

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Re: [ANN] Atheros 802.11n USB firmware source code released

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 12:24 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 12:54 +0300, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> 
> > Fine, like I expected, but still, I guess there is some 'loader' in
> > eeprom?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > If there were a documentation too.
> > Isn't it possible to publish it?
> > 
> > This firmware contains so many 'magic' registers.
> 
> There is some, but it's not public. We can try to document some when we
> replace the magic values by constants.
> 
> johannes

Exactly.

If you could make it public.....

I am taking even not especially about this device, but 
about ath5k AR2425.

My aspire one has several very nasty bugs, and little hope they will be
fixed, and I blame no one for that, developers are busy, and  load is
high.

But on the other hand, chances I fix them are low, I already read whole
ath5k drivers, and without documentation it is hard to see what it going
on.

The only way out I see, it to load windows driver in ndiswrapper, pray
that it will work, and then use mmiotrace to see what is done
differently. I really hate going this way.


Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky