Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Dave]

Greg KH wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
>> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
>>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
>>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
>>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
>>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
>>>> 
>>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
>>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
>>>> users for it.
>>>
>>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
>>>
>>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
>>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
>>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
>>>
>>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
>>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
>>
>> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
>> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> 
> Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> 
> As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?

(cc'ing linux-wireless)

FYI, Hermes I hardware is already covered by the orinoco driver. WPA and firmware download functionality (which is supported by the Agere driver, but not orinoco in 2.6.27) is already in the wireless queue for 2.6.28.

This leaves Hermes-II (and USB?) hardware which orinoco does not support, but could if someone had access to a card for development.


Regards,

Dave.

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Andrey Borzenkov]

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TJ you can answer me using arvidjaar (at) newmail dot ru. Hopefully
one of them works. Re WPA2 - there is no information how to setup
CCMP/AES (even if firmware supports it); so no WPA2.

On Thursday 02 October 2008, Dave wrote:
> Greg KH wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
> >> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> >>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
> >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> >>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
> >>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
> >>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
> >>>> 
> >>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
> >>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
> >>>> users for it.
> >>>
> >>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
> >>>
> >>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
> >>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
> >>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
> >>>
> >>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
> >>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
> >>
> >> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
> >> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> > 
> > Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> > 
> > As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> > Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> > work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?
>

I do not mind but it is likely makes no sense for H-I now; and
I do not own H-II myself so cannot work on it. If we are focusing on
H-2/2.5, it would make more sense to make similar modifications to
7.22 driver set from Agere to avoid overlap with Orinoco.
 
> (cc'ing linux-wireless)
>
> FYI, Hermes I hardware is already covered by the orinoco driver. WPA and firmware download functionality (which is supported by the Agere driver, but not orinoco in 2.6.27) is already in the wireless queue for 2.6.28.
> 

Yes, I discovered this yesterday as well. Thank you!

How are you going to distribute firmware? You will need 9.x firmware from
original Agere driver; do I understand it correctly that it will come
with orinoco in binary form?

> This leaves Hermes-II (and USB?) hardware which orinoco does not support, but could if someone had access to a card for development.
> 

As I initially wrote driver for internal consumption my mods supports
PCMCIA only.

Unfortunately I do not own Hermes-II device myself. I was asked recently
by Alexander who is owing such device and modification of Agere sources was
pretty trivial. I Cc to him; Aexander are you interested in aiding of
H-II driver development for mainstream?

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Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Dave]

Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
>> FYI, Hermes I hardware is already covered by the orinoco driver. WPA and firmware download functionality (which is supported by the Agere driver, but not orinoco in 2.6.27) is already in the wireless queue for 2.6.28.
>>
> 
> Yes, I discovered this yesterday as well. Thank you!
> 
> How are you going to distribute firmware? You will need 9.x firmware from
> original Agere driver; do I understand it correctly that it will come
> with orinoco in binary form?

I was hoping we could get it into David Woodhouses firmware tree. However I haven't had a response to my original message. I'll try again with a patch.


Dave.

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:37:18AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> TJ you can answer me using arvidjaar (at) newmail dot ru. Hopefully
> one of them works. Re WPA2 - there is no information how to setup
> CCMP/AES (even if firmware supports it); so no WPA2.
> 
> On Thursday 02 October 2008, Dave wrote:
> > Greg KH wrote:
> > > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
> > >> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > >>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
> > >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > >>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
> > >>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
> > >>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
> > >>>> 
> > >>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
> > >>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
> > >>>> users for it.
> > >>>
> > >>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
> > >>>
> > >>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
> > >>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
> > >>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
> > >>>
> > >>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
> > >>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
> > >>
> > >> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
> > >> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> > > 
> > > Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> > > 
> > > As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> > > Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> > > work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?
> >
> 
> I do not mind but it is likely makes no sense for H-I now; and
> I do not own H-II myself so cannot work on it. If we are focusing on
> H-2/2.5, it would make more sense to make similar modifications to
> 7.22 driver set from Agere to avoid overlap with Orinoco.

Ok, let me know what you think is the best thing to do, and I'll be glad
to help you out with it.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Dan Williams]

On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 13:00 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:37:18AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > TJ you can answer me using arvidjaar (at) newmail dot ru. Hopefully
> > one of them works. Re WPA2 - there is no information how to setup
> > CCMP/AES (even if firmware supports it); so no WPA2.
> > 
> > On Thursday 02 October 2008, Dave wrote:
> > > Greg KH wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
> > > >> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > >>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
> > > >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > >>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
> > > >>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
> > > >>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
> > > >>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
> > > >>>> users for it.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
> > > >>>
> > > >>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
> > > >>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
> > > >>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
> > > >>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
> > > >>
> > > >> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
> > > >> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> > > > 
> > > > Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> > > > 
> > > > As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> > > > Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> > > > work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?
> > >
> > 
> > I do not mind but it is likely makes no sense for H-I now; and
> > I do not own H-II myself so cannot work on it. If we are focusing on
> > H-2/2.5, it would make more sense to make similar modifications to
> > 7.22 driver set from Agere to avoid overlap with Orinoco.
> 
> Ok, let me know what you think is the best thing to do, and I'll be glad
> to help you out with it.

I tend to think that only for USB hardware do we need a new driver, and
that driver can share some things with both hostap and orinoco.  If at
all possible, lets integrate missing hardware support into _existing_
drivers instead of importing drivers of questionable quality.  I've seen
wlags49 before and it's not great.  Right now we don't have any viable
Orinoco USB driver, and while linux-wlan-ng was proposed, there's no way
we're taking a third 802.11 "stack" or the bits in those drivers that
overlap with existing drivers' hardware support.

Dan

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 04:31:57PM -0400, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 13:00 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:37:18AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > TJ you can answer me using arvidjaar (at) newmail dot ru. Hopefully
> > > one of them works. Re WPA2 - there is no information how to setup
> > > CCMP/AES (even if firmware supports it); so no WPA2.
> > > 
> > > On Thursday 02 October 2008, Dave wrote:
> > > > Greg KH wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
> > > > >> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > > >>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > > >>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
> > > > >>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
> > > > >>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
> > > > >>>> 
> > > > >>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
> > > > >>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
> > > > >>>> users for it.
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
> > > > >>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
> > > > >>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
> > > > >>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
> > > > >> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> > > > > 
> > > > > As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> > > > > Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> > > > > work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?
> > > >
> > > 
> > > I do not mind but it is likely makes no sense for H-I now; and
> > > I do not own H-II myself so cannot work on it. If we are focusing on
> > > H-2/2.5, it would make more sense to make similar modifications to
> > > 7.22 driver set from Agere to avoid overlap with Orinoco.
> > 
> > Ok, let me know what you think is the best thing to do, and I'll be glad
> > to help you out with it.
> 
> I tend to think that only for USB hardware do we need a new driver, and
> that driver can share some things with both hostap and orinoco.  If at
> all possible, lets integrate missing hardware support into _existing_
> drivers instead of importing drivers of questionable quality.  I've seen
> wlags49 before and it's not great.  Right now we don't have any viable
> Orinoco USB driver, and while linux-wlan-ng was proposed, there's no way
> we're taking a third 802.11 "stack" or the bits in those drivers that
> overlap with existing drivers' hardware support.

I just added the wlan-ng usb driver (and stack) to the drivers/staging/
tree a few hours ago :)

So yes, we do need to do this kind of migration, at the moment I am
trying to track down all out-of-tree drivers that distros and users are
relying on to get them into staging/ and then we can work on cleaning
them up and moving them to the proper place in the kernel tree.

Sound good?

So, for this driver, should I do the same thing, as I don't think these
devices are covered by any other driver at the moment, right?

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: Agere Hermes source-code: copyright situation

[Dan Williams]

On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 13:37 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 04:31:57PM -0400, Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 13:00 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> > > On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:37:18AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > > TJ you can answer me using arvidjaar (at) newmail dot ru. Hopefully
> > > > one of them works. Re WPA2 - there is no information how to setup
> > > > CCMP/AES (even if firmware supports it); so no WPA2.
> > > > 
> > > > On Thursday 02 October 2008, Dave wrote:
> > > > > Greg KH wrote:
> > > > > > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:40:29PM +0100, TJ wrote:
> > > > > >> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 14:13 +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > > > >>>On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > > >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 09:49:34AM +0400, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > > > >>>>> I have here driver that can be built for two different types of
> > > > > >>>>> hardware from basically the same sources (this is port of old Agere
> > > > > >>>>> drivers for Hermes-I/Hermes-II chipsets).
> > > > > >>>> 
> > > > > >>>> Cool, do you have a link to the code, I'd be glad to add it to
> > > > > >>>> drivers/staging/ if it's not in a fully-mergable state yet to get wider
> > > > > >>>> users for it.
> > > > > >>>
> > > > > >>> You can look at it here: http://arvidjaar.newmail.ru/wlags49.tar.bz
> > > > > >>>
> > > > > >>> I doubt that it is suitable for inclusion at current state if ever.
> > > > > >>> This is taken directly from Agere 2.4 sources; the only parts that were
> > > > > >>> touched are kernel glue and wireless extensions interface.
> > > > > >>>
> > > > > >>> And it is not GPL'ed, of course. I attach E-Mail I received a while
> > > > > >>> back with answere from Agere legal department.
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> I'm attaching the original email I sent to Agere and their response for
> > > > > >> the record, hoping it helps clarify the legal position.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Very nice, thanks for forwarding this on.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > As the license is BSD, that means we can place it in the kernel tree.
> > > > > > Do you all mind if I add it to the drivers/staging/ directory so you can
> > > > > > work on cleaning it up within the main kernel tree infrastructure?
> > > > >
> > > > 
> > > > I do not mind but it is likely makes no sense for H-I now; and
> > > > I do not own H-II myself so cannot work on it. If we are focusing on
> > > > H-2/2.5, it would make more sense to make similar modifications to
> > > > 7.22 driver set from Agere to avoid overlap with Orinoco.
> > > 
> > > Ok, let me know what you think is the best thing to do, and I'll be glad
> > > to help you out with it.
> > 
> > I tend to think that only for USB hardware do we need a new driver, and
> > that driver can share some things with both hostap and orinoco.  If at
> > all possible, lets integrate missing hardware support into _existing_
> > drivers instead of importing drivers of questionable quality.  I've seen
> > wlags49 before and it's not great.  Right now we don't have any viable
> > Orinoco USB driver, and while linux-wlan-ng was proposed, there's no way
> > we're taking a third 802.11 "stack" or the bits in those drivers that
> > overlap with existing drivers' hardware support.
> 
> I just added the wlan-ng usb driver (and stack) to the drivers/staging/
> tree a few hours ago :)
> 
> So yes, we do need to do this kind of migration, at the moment I am
> trying to track down all out-of-tree drivers that distros and users are
> relying on to get them into staging/ and then we can work on cleaning
> them up and moving them to the proper place in the kernel tree.
> 
> Sound good?
> 
> So, for this driver, should I do the same thing, as I don't think these
> devices are covered by any other driver at the moment, right?

Prism II USB devices are only covered by linux-wlan-ng, yes.

Dan