IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

I'm trying to get "IPWireless 3G PCMCIA" to work under linux. There
are two problems:

* first, only available version is for 2.6.12, and fixes to make it
compile under 2.6.16 don't seem to be trivial

What is worse,

/*
 * IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver
 *
 *   by Stephen Blackheath <stephen@blacksapphire.com>,
 *      Ben Martel <benm@symmetric.co.nz>
 *
 * Copyrighted as follows:
 *   Copyright (C) 2004 by Symmetric Systems Ltd (NZ)
 */

...so I'm not even allowed to fix it. I believe that driver should be
GPLed -- it is unusable without pcmcia packages after all.

Can you clarify copyright situation? Does anyone have 2.6.16 version
by chance?
									Pavel
-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

> I'm trying to get "IPWireless 3G PCMCIA" to work under linux. There
> are two problems:
> 
> * first, only available version is for 2.6.12, and fixes to make it
> compile under 2.6.16 don't seem to be trivial
> 
> What is worse,
> 
> /*
>  * IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver
>  *
>  *   by Stephen Blackheath <stephen@blacksapphire.com>,
>  *      Ben Martel <benm@symmetric.co.nz>
>  *
>  * Copyrighted as follows:
>  *   Copyright (C) 2004 by Symmetric Systems Ltd (NZ)
>  */
> 
> ...so I'm not even allowed to fix it. I believe that driver should be
> GPLed -- it is unusable without pcmcia packages after all.

Uhuh, I was blind, there's MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") there, so all should
be fine. So... there are no legal problems and it is all "simple
matter of programming". Now... if someone lent me the PCMCIA/SIM
combination for a month, I guess I should be able to get it going in
2.6.16, and I should be able to get it into shape for mainline, too...

									Pavel
-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Alan Cox]

Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 14:44 +0200, ysgrifennodd Pavel Machek:
> combination for a month, I guess I should be able to get it going in
> 2.6.16, and I should be able to get it into shape for mainline, too...

Main thing is probably the tty driver changes, those are fairly easy to
do and should cleanup pretty fast. 

Alan

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Charles Majola]

Alan Cox wrote:
> Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 14:44 +0200, ysgrifennodd Pavel Machek:
>   
>> combination for a month, I guess I should be able to get it going in
>> 2.6.16, and I should be able to get it into shape for mainline, too...
>>     
>
> Main thing is probably the tty driver changes, those are fairly easy to
> do and should cleanup pretty fast. 
>   
I have the card and the drivers working with 2.6.12 (Ubuntu Breezy) 
also, I can help update and test
 it. I'm actually due it get it working with Dapper (2.6.15) in the near 
future.

Alan, can you please give me pointers on the tty changes since 2.6.12?

--
chmj

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Alan Cox]

Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 15:21 +0200, ysgrifennodd Charles Majola:
> Alan, can you please give me pointers on the tty changes since 2.6.12?

The newest kernels have a replacement set of tty receive functions that
use a new buffering system.

http://kerneltrap.org/node/5473

covers the changes briefly. The internals of the buffering changes are
quite complex because Paul did some rather neat things with SMP locking
but the API is nice and simple.

Its fairly easy to express the old API in terms of the new one if you
are doing compat wrappers as well

Alan

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Patrick McFarland]

On Friday 23 June 2006 09:53, Alan Cox wrote:
> Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 15:21 +0200, ysgrifennodd Charles Majola:
> > Alan, can you please give me pointers on the tty changes since 2.6.12?
>
> The newest kernels have a replacement set of tty receive functions that
> use a new buffering system.
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/5473
>
> covers the changes briefly. The internals of the buffering changes are
> quite complex because Paul did some rather neat things with SMP locking
> but the API is nice and simple.
>
> Its fairly easy to express the old API in terms of the new one if you
> are doing compat wrappers as well

Actually, its rather neat that something as 'simple' as tty still gets heavily 
hacked on every once in awhile.

-- 
Patrick McFarland || www.AdTerrasPerAspera.com
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids,
we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and
listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo,
Inc, 1989

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Ben Martel]

Y'all,

I have had a look at the changes to the 2.6.1{6,7} kernel to do with the 
buffering and I think that this driver will benefit greatly from the 
changes away from the flip/flop scheme.

When Steve and I originally wrote the driver it always seemed to be 
limited throughput wise, due to the inefficient char handling it did.

Good luck in the 'hacking it for 2.6.1{6,7} department' let me know if I 
can help at all :)

BTW: Can someone tell me the version that you are changing - I may have 
a later version that fixes a problem with the V2 PCMCIA cards from 
IPWireless/T-Mobile.

    ~benm

Patrick McFarland wrote:
> On Friday 23 June 2006 09:53, Alan Cox wrote:
>> Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 15:21 +0200, ysgrifennodd Charles Majola:
>>> Alan, can you please give me pointers on the tty changes since 2.6.12?
>> The newest kernels have a replacement set of tty receive functions that
>> use a new buffering system.
>>
>> http://kerneltrap.org/node/5473
>>
>> covers the changes briefly. The internals of the buffering changes are
>> quite complex because Paul did some rather neat things with SMP locking
>> but the API is nice and simple.
>>
>> Its fairly easy to express the old API in terms of the new one if you
>> are doing compat wrappers as well
> 
> Actually, its rather neat that something as 'simple' as tty still gets heavily 
> hacked on every once in awhile.
> 

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Charles Majola]

Ben Martel wrote:
> Y'all,
>
> I have had a look at the changes to the 2.6.1{6,7} kernel to do with 
> the buffering and I think that this driver will benefit greatly from 
> the changes away from the flip/flop scheme.
>
> When Steve and I originally wrote the driver it always seemed to be 
> limited throughput wise, due to the inefficient char handling it did.
>
> Good luck in the 'hacking it for 2.6.1{6,7} department' let me know if 
> I can help at all :)
>
> BTW: Can someone tell me the version that you are changing - I may 
> have a later version that fixes a problem with the V2 PCMCIA cards 
> from IPWireless/T-Mobile.
>

I have version 1.0.1 - 28 Mar 2004, working with the 2.6.15 kernel, with 
some minor changes I made.

--
chmj

>    ~benm
>
> Patrick McFarland wrote:
>> On Friday 23 June 2006 09:53, Alan Cox wrote:
>>> Ar Gwe, 2006-06-23 am 15:21 +0200, ysgrifennodd Charles Majola:
>>>> Alan, can you please give me pointers on the tty changes since 2.6.12?
>>> The newest kernels have a replacement set of tty receive functions that
>>> use a new buffering system.
>>>
>>> http://kerneltrap.org/node/5473
>>>
>>> covers the changes briefly. The internals of the buffering changes are
>>> quite complex because Paul did some rather neat things with SMP locking
>>> but the API is nice and simple.
>>>
>>> Its fairly easy to express the old API in terms of the new one if you
>>> are doing compat wrappers as well
>>
>> Actually, its rather neat that something as 'simple' as tty still 
>> gets heavily hacked on every once in awhile.
>>
>
>

Re: IPWireless 3G PCMCIA Network Driver and GPL

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

> >I have had a look at the changes to the 2.6.1{6,7} kernel to do with 
> >the buffering and I think that this driver will benefit greatly from 
> >the changes away from the flip/flop scheme.
> >
> >When Steve and I originally wrote the driver it always seemed to be 
> >limited throughput wise, due to the inefficient char handling it did.
> >
> >Good luck in the 'hacking it for 2.6.1{6,7} department' let me know if 
> >I can help at all :)
> >
> >BTW: Can someone tell me the version that you are changing - I may 
> >have a later version that fixes a problem with the V2 PCMCIA cards 
> >from IPWireless/T-Mobile.
> >
> 
> I have version 1.0.1 - 28 Mar 2004, working with the 2.6.15 kernel, with 
> some minor changes I made.

Can you post it somewhere? Radek was trying to make it work with
2.6.16...
								Pavel
-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html