* i have taken a long time to think about what to say and how to say
it so please everyone read it fully. If anyone would like to comment
on the matter you are invited to do so, from the bottom of my heart *
dear ricardo,
i am john crispin, the maintainer of the sdk toolchain. When i started
using the foxboard, when they were first released, the sdk came
straight from Axis in sweden (the producer of the chip). it was
missing a lot of drivers (like wifi) and packages (like wireless
tools), that i added to the sdk using what was previously know as the
"phrozen patch" and is now known as the FoxSDK. Being an OpenSource
developer, i did this fully in my spare time, contributing to the
community of nice people, just for the fun and because i have the
knowledge to do so. All the code in the sdk is under the GPLv1/v2
license with the clauses probably known to you (but we will come back
to this later in the mail).
*** hence this statement is purely personal and not an official
Acmesystems statement. They will contact you directly very soon ***
Let me respond now to the interesting mail that you send to the list
> Being deeply involved in Marco's and Cristian's work (I am their
> supervisor), I regret to say that the whole matter is being treated in a
> completely wrong way. The problem is not wether kernel 2.4 is more or
> less stable than 2.6 as far as wireless is concerned: the point is that,
> on Acme's website, the Foxboard is advertised as WORKING with wi-fi, and
> specifically with that particular USB stick (the DWL G122).
> We therefore bought the device FROM THEM trusting the ad, and later
> discovering that
You are correct, that on the acme site it is stated that the stick is
supported. Form my point of view as a developer it does work. There
are known issues that the 2.6.15 support of the usb host driver
provided by the cpu manufacturer has problems under heavy load. I did
respond very quickly to the bug report issued by your students,
however i regret to haver sent only a short mail. The reason for this
is that the issue has been reported lots and lots and lots on this
list and it has also been announced just as often that a fix is being
worked on. As i said i do the developement of the SDK in my free time
and under GPL, so some times it takes a bit longer to have a fix fully
working and tested. I do however agree with you that the information
on the website is not complete, it states that the wifi stick works,
however with the limitations i explained above.
>>>>> yes this is a known problem
>
> and that
>
>>>>> unfortunatley the issue will not be resolved until we
>>>>> have 2.6.19
>
As i said i am working on a fix, there will be a lot of new software
using a new release, which is a complete rework of the code base,
adding more new features than most would dream of. With the upcoming
release i will prove once again that the community means alot to me
personally, otherwise i would not invest hundreds of "free" hours into
the support. I am in constant contact with a lot of users, reachable
via skype, icq and even telphone, giving free support where i can, but
i am not a magician and 100 mips is only 100 mips. making usb stable
on 2.4 was hard work and so will the part of making it stable on 2.6.
However as i said it does take its time.
> At this point, I think there are only two possibilities: either, as the
> Italian law states, the problem is fully solved (by Acme, not by us)
> within a REASONABLE amount of time, or they will have to provide a full
> refund for all expenses we incurred, given that their product is not
> conforming to advertised specifications. And this means that we need a
> VERY FAST response from Acme.
I am from germany, so i have no idea of the italian law. But what do
you understand as a very fast response and reasonable amount of time ?
i spoke to Mr. Asquini - Co-Founder of Acmesystems SRL. today to
discuss your e-mail, he will contact you directly on friday 15.june.
as i stated before, in my opinion the producer is "conforming to
advertised specifications" just that there are known issues when using
webcam+wifi
> I am sorry for being somewhat rude, but we are all wasting precious
> research time on a trivial problem that someone else claimed did not
> exist.
dont worry, i am sure you took as much time as me to think about the
words said. And rest assured you REALLY said them clear enough.
now for the really shoking part
> doesn't add much, so to speak, to Acme's reputation.
I have meet the guys from acme on several occasions and i have only
rarely meet such nice supportive people. I have worked with linux
hardware for many years now and the foxboard is by far the most fun i
ever had with any embedded device. It has been taken from the whole
linux community with a lot of anticipation and joy. I have seen lots
and lots of great project using the fox, from industry automation,
train controls, roborts, toy helicopters, routers, print servers, ...
(i have not enough time to give you a full list, but believe me it is
long). Up to know you are the first person i have come across that is
so unhappy with his fox in the 2 years that i have been using it.
especially as the problem is well documented in the mailing list (and
yes i know it should be noted on the website, which was added just 2
minutes ago). So basically your statement implying Acme has a bad
reputation is shrudely false. I grant you your own opinion however, i
just believe it is totally none representative from an academic point
of view.
Finally i would like to point out to you the following. The device you
are trying to use runs linux. By using the software you implictly
accept the GPL which clearly states the following text
--- quote ---
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
--- quote ---
thanks,
John
