[ltp] Re: Intel 2100b WiFi Card

[wes schreiner]

Martin Gramatke wrote:

>Frank Schaeckermann wrote:
>
>  
>
>>[...] really a pitty and shows how far the
>>Intel commitment to Linux REALLY goes...
>>    
>>
>
>To double the pressure on Intel, I wrote them a similar mail. :-)
>
>I don't understand why they keep the technical info under disclosure. A
>distrustful mind might suspect a microsoft deal.
>  
>

No, the reason is the FCC (the US Federal Communications Commission). 
The latest generation of wlan cards have the radio controlled directly 
by software (the driver) not by firmware like the older cards. Since now 
the code to set frequency and trasmit power is in software, companies 
can't open-source their drivers (or give out the technical specs) 
because that would give an easy way to adjust power and frequency, and 
giving that kind of information away to people not licensed by the FCC 
violates FCC rules. Companies must abide by FCC rules in order to be 
certified in the US, and they need certification in order to sell in the 
US. So blame the FCC.

The best we are going to see for now are drivers with closed-source 
binary lumps in them, like in the Atheros and ADMtek drivers. The binary 
lump is a hardware access layer and controls the frequency and transmit 
power settings. If you read the Atheros driver source you will see that 
several unexplained values are passed to this binary lump. Those values 
might have something to do with frequency or power but there is no easy 
way to tell.

Eventually someone will reverse engineer the hardware and we will have 
entirely open-source drivers for at least one chipset, but I expect that 
by the time that happens nobody will care much about 802.11[abg].

wes