Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
On Wednesday 27 October 2004 11:16 am, Christian Weisgerber wrote: Compared to other types of hardware, the support for wireless cards is lacking on *BSD because many vendors don't provide documentation or the cards require the upload of a binary firmware image that, absurdly as it sounds, may not be redistributed. Well, some people are working on improving this situation step by step and you can help by writing to the hardware vendors. Specifically, there already is a FreeBSD 5.x driver for the Texas Instruments ACX100 802.11b chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and others), which is currently maintained externally: http://wlan.kewl.org/modules/mantis/main_page.php However, a firmware binary blob must be uploaded to the card, and since TI doesn't allow redistribution it can't be included with the driver, rendering it useless. mucho snippo A few comments/questions: 1) The only driver I've tried is: http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ It worked pretty well for me. As I recall there is a script to download the firmware - I don't recall from where it was d/l, but I don't remember having to check off any license agreement forms during the process. Pretty painless... I never realized it was an issue 'til I saw your post. 2) Wouldn't voting with your pocketbook be more persuasive than whining? I recently bought two WiFI cards that use the Prism chipset (seattlewireless.net) 'cause they've got better support in the systems I use. This purchase represents a loss for TI the mfrs who buy their ACX100 chips, and a gain for Intersil and their customers. The free market is pretty effective at sorting these things out. 3) As far as 'activism' goes, I think you and the other merry men would be heard much more clearly if you each bought a single share of TI stock (it's real cheap right now :) and used your status as shareholders to submit motions or resolutions to TI's Board of Directors. Better yet, attend the annual shareholder's meeting, and let your voices be heard! Good Luck, Jay ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
On Sunday, 31. October 2004 09:51, Jay Moore wrote: 2) Wouldn't voting with your pocketbook be more persuasive than whining? I recently bought two WiFI cards that use the Prism chipset (seattlewireless.net) 'cause they've got better support in the systems I use. This purchase represents a loss for TI the mfrs who buy their ACX100 chips, and a gain for Intersil and their customers. The free market is pretty effective at sorting these things out. It's obviously not, because (as a !Windows user) your pocketbook isn't even registered for voting. -- ,_, | Michael Nottebrock | [EMAIL PROTECTED] (/^ ^\) | FreeBSD - The Power to Serve | http://www.freebsd.org \u/ | K Desktop Environment on FreeBSD | http://freebsd.kde.org pgpZ7SeIFdw0M.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
On Sunday 31 October 2004 07:41 am, Michael Nottebrock wrote: 2) Wouldn't voting with your pocketbook be more persuasive than whining? I recently bought two WiFI cards that use the Prism chipset (seattlewireless.net) 'cause they've got better support in the systems I use. This purchase represents a loss for TI the mfrs who buy their ACX100 chips, and a gain for Intersil and their customers. The free market is pretty effective at sorting these things out. It's obviously not, because (as a !Windows user) your pocketbook isn't even registered for voting. Oh yes it is... my vote may go for Ralph Nader, but it's still a vote! And I think you may under-estimate just how many people and organizations are using open source and/or free software. Respectfully, Jay ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
On Sunday, 31. October 2004 18:21, Jay Moore wrote: And I think you may under-estimate just how many people and organizations are using open source and/or free software. No, it doesn't work that way. You as a *BSD/Linux user were never meant to purchase a $40 wireless NIC with a TI chipset that says software requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP on the box or a $1399 OEM notebook with a builtin TI chipset that comes with Windows XP Home Edition. If you do, it's your problem, and if you don't, your purchase won't be missed by anyone. -- ,_, | Michael Nottebrock | [EMAIL PROTECTED] (/^ ^\) | FreeBSD - The Power to Serve | http://www.freebsd.org \u/ | K Desktop Environment on FreeBSD | http://freebsd.kde.org pgpqSVAwHSEYJ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
On Sunday 31 October 2004 11:36 am, Michael Nottebrock wrote: And I think you may under-estimate just how many people and organizations are using open source and/or free software. No, it doesn't work that way. You as a *BSD/Linux user were never meant to purchase a $40 wireless NIC with a TI chipset that says software requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP on the box or a $1399 OEM notebook with a builtin TI chipset that comes with Windows XP Home Edition. If you do, it's your problem, and if you don't, your purchase won't be missed by anyone. Well join the whiners then, Michael. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ACX100 Firmware Licensing
Compared to other types of hardware, the support for wireless cards is lacking on *BSD because many vendors don't provide documentation or the cards require the upload of a binary firmware image that, absurdly as it sounds, may not be redistributed. Well, some people are working on improving this situation step by step and you can help by writing to the hardware vendors. Specifically, there already is a FreeBSD 5.x driver for the Texas Instruments ACX100 802.11b chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and others), which is currently maintained externally: http://wlan.kewl.org/modules/mantis/main_page.php However, a firmware binary blob must be uploaded to the card, and since TI doesn't allow redistribution it can't be included with the driver, rendering it useless. THIS CONCERNS ALL OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEMS: FreeBSD, the other BSDs, Linux, you name it. OpenBSD's Ryan McBride has tried to contact TI about this but has been ignored and now asks the user community for assistance. Please contact the people at Texas Instruments by email or phone and ask them to enable us to provide a useful driver. Time and again it has been shown that vendors will be swayed if the user community expresses its interest vocally enough. Here is a list of contacts scrounged together from various sources: Bill Carney [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 707 521 3069 Mr Taketo Fukui [EMAIL PROTECTED] 81-3-4331-2060 Dr John T Coffey [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 707 284 2224 Mr Srikanth Gummadi [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 707 284 2209 Dr Srinath Hosur [EMAIL PROTECTED] (214) 480-4432 Dr Jie Liang [EMAIL PROTECTED] (214) 480-4105 Mr Joe Mueller [EMAIL PROTECTED] 858 646 3358 Mr Lior Ophir [EMAIL PROTECTED] (972) 9 970-6542 Dr Stephen Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] (510) 841-8315 Mr Yoram Solomon [EMAIL PROTECTED] (408) 965-2196 Tim Riker [EMAIL PROTECTED] DuVal, Mary [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anand Dabak [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anand G. Dabak [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tim Schmidl [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sean Coffey [EMAIL PROTECTED] Srikanth Gummadi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Srinath Hosur [EMAIL PROTECTED] Muhammad Ikram [EMAIL PROTECTED] Joseph Mueller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lior Ophir [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stephen Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ian Sherlock [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manoneet Singh [EMAIL PROTECTED] Richar Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hirohisa Yamaguchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Forwarded message from Ryan McBride [EMAIL PROTECTED] - From: Ryan McBride [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ACX100 Firmware Licensing Greetings Since I do not know which one of you to contact, I am contacting all of you in the hopes that someone can redirect me to the responsible party who can help me. I am contacting on behalf of the open source operating system called OpenBSD, but the message applies to all of the other open source operating systems (Linux, the other BSD's, etc). In open source operating systems the support for some 802.11 devices, drivers such as TIs ACX100 chip, is lagging because the vendors are taking rather restrictive approaches regarding their technology. We have begun working on a driver for this chip, but it will be crippled in our operating system due to the absence of a freely available firmware image. Our policy is as follows: We will include a firmware from a vendor if it is freely redistributable. It can be a binary blob of data. It must be copyrighted, of course, but that is in the interest of the vendor. Our user community is very compatibility driven in their purchasing decisions; they seek out the components that are stable and well supported, and it is not the ACX100 varients that they will select. Even if a free driver exists, they will avoid these cards since the firmware is not included in the operating system, so you are selling fewer cards than you could. I don't know if the open source operating systems are rising as much some of the press leads us to believe, but if they are, you can no longer afford to turn your back on a fickle and technically savvy community. In the past, vendors have gotten by because there were no options, but now that some have begun opening up with freely licensed firmware and usable technical documentation, open source users have a choice, and they will be chosing the best supported cards, ie those from vendors who cooperate with the open source projects. There is another threat to your business model of remaining closed. Some vendors like RealTek and Ralink have come out with fully documented chipsets. Even Intel's Centrino-associated chipsets are now fully documented, and Cisco's remain documented. And of course we fully support the old Lucent, Prism, and Symbol devices. Texas Instruments can avoid getting sidelined in the open source market, by working with us to release the firmware in a way we can use it. Other companies that have met with the same firmware choices? Qlogic ISP scsi/fiberchannel PCI cards 3com Ethernet cards that do IPSEC offloading Adaptec Intel 100mbit card firmware upgrades for bugs NCR for their scsi products
