> Just a few words. I'm not involved in the driver development at all, but > I think that it would be important to insist on the "overall reason" first > thing, stating that there are many *nix users, and since _they_ (thomson) > claim that *nix is supported but don't provide a driver, it would be well > to provide some information. And as the speedtouch.sf.net project has been > very successfull, they can trust this information will be used wisely, > etc... I think the first people who will read your email will _not_ be > technical people, so insisting on the technical details may be a mistake. > (even if the technical details have to be there too)
OK, let me just point out that Alcatel did/does provide a driver, written by Johan Verrept when he was at Alcatel. It is usually referred to as the kernel mode driver since it uses a kernel module, see http://www.linux-usb.org/SpeedTouch/ This kernel module was always open source, but the program used to upload the firmware (called speedmgmt, equivalent to modem_run) and the firmware itself is closed source. You have to download the closed source stuff from Alcatel/Thomson. The kernel module was slowly bit-rotting since Johan didn't do any work on it in the last few years. Also it crashed a lot, didn't work with SMP machines, or with preempt, and didn't work with the speedtouch 330. For me, the need to use run the closed source speedmgmt program was a big turn off as well. Interestingly, when you ask Thomson about linux drivers they no longer point you to the web page for the kernel mode driver, they point you to the web page for Benoit's user mode driver, the one this mailing list discusses. All that to say that they do/did provide a driver, but they no longer recommend it themselves! Now for an interesting developement: late last year, the kernel mode driver went into the 2.5 kernel (Richard Purdie submitted it, and Greg Kroah-Hartman, the USB king, accepted it). In Decembre, Johan Verrept announced that he no longer wished to be the maintainer of the driver, and that he was happy for some else to take over the job. I am now the maintainer of the kernel mode driver. Almost all bugs have been fixed in the CVS version, so it should now: crash little, work with SMP machines and preempt (though the kernel's ATM layer has some SMP problems), and work with the speedtouch 330. Also, there is no longer any need to use the closed source speedmgmt, since modem_run with the new -k switch does the job fine. The driver will go into one of the upcoming 2.4 kernels (Greg KH already suggested this). So this means that now even Alcatel's own driver is being entirely maintained by the open source community with no input from Alcatel's people. So the least they can do is provide us with some documentation to smooth off the rough spots! After all, the drivers are being provided at zero cost to themselves. The speedtouch USB is also at the end of it's life-cycle (being replaced by the speedtouch 330), so releasing specs for it should not help their competitors. I can see three possibilities: (1) they refuse to release the specs (2) they release the specs to a limited group of developers (3) they release the specs publically. Is (2) acceptable? All the best, Duncan. Liste de diffusion modem ALCATEL SpeedTouch USB Pour se d�sinscrire : mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe
