README - pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/backports/compat-wireless-2.6-old - Git at Google


 Linux Wireless compatibility package
 =====================================

 This is a Linux wireless compatibility package which provides the latest
 Linux wireless subsystem enhancements for kernels 2.6.22 and above. We provide
 compatibility support since 2.6.22 as that is when mac80211 was introduced
 onto the stock kernel. This adds mac80211, mac80211 drivers, and any new
 full MAC driver which has had fairly recent updates worth getting such as
 libertas, ipw2100 and ipw2200.

 If you'd like to keep the wireless-testing git repository local as well,
 please read out git-guide which explains how to achieve this:

 http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/git-guide

 With a local git repository you can update the compatibility package yourself.
 For more information on how to do this please refer the Developers section below.

 Documenation
 ------------

 This package is also documented online and probably has more-up-to date
 information online than on this README file.

 http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

 Where to get the latest
 -----------------------

 This package lets you build your own 'latest', all you need is a local git repository
 checkout of wireless-testing.git. However since not many users are expected to keep
 a local git repository of wireless-testing we provide daily snapshots of this
 package + the wireless subsystem code. You can find the latest snapshot at:

 http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2

 Building, and installing
 ------------------------

 Build: build the latest linux wireless subsystem

 	make

 Install:

 We use the updates/ directory so your distribution's drivers are left intact.

 	sudo make install

 Uninstall:

 This nukes our changes to updates/ so you can go back to using your
 distribution's supported drivers.

 	sudo make uninstall

 Load:

 If you know what module you need you can simply load the module using modprobe.
 Note that if you are loading a mac80211 driver you must unload your current
 mac80211 drivers as you have a new one to replace it with. Note also that
 broadcom, zydas, and atheros devices have old legacy drivers which
 you need to be sure are removed first. We provide a mechanism to unload all
 old drivers and also load all new drivers if you are not sure what you are
 doing.

 So, if you simply are not sure you can use:

 	sudo make load

 This unloads your old wireless subsystem drivers and loads the new
 shiny ones. For example if ipw3945 and its proprietary daemon are found
 it'll be stopped and the module unloaded and then iwl3945 will be loaded.
 If you are simply upgrading a mac80211 driver this will unload
 the old one and the old mac80211 drivers and load the new ones.

 Drivers
 -------

 This is the list of drivers this package provides. It adds
 all new drivers or drivers which keep being updated which you might
 be interested in.

 Driver
 adm8211
 ath5k
 ath9k
 b43
 b43legacy
 iwl3945
 iwl4965
 iwl5000
 ipw2100
 ipw2200
 libertas_cs (Libertas)
 ub8xxx      (Libertas)
 p54pci
 p54usb
 rt2400pci (rt2x00)
 rt2500pci (rt2x00)
 rt2500usb (rt2x00)
 rt61pci	  (rt2x00)
 rt73usb	  (rt2x00)
 rtl8180	(Realtek)
 rtl8187	(Realtek)
 zd1211rw

 Known issues
 ------------

 * Strange wireless device names:

 On Ubuntu and Fedora you may end up with strange network device names,
 for example, wlan0_rename. This is a known issue and will be worked on.

 * nl80211:

 Kernels <= 2.6.22 now get nl80211 support, however, genl_multicast_group
 won't work. This compatibility cannot be extended to older
 kernels as the struct genl_family was extended on 2.6.23 to add
 the struct list_head mcast_groups.

 * b43:

 b43 and b43legacy now loads. Since there was an old softmac broadcom driver
 we provide a load script for this driver. To load the new generation
 drivers (b43 and b43legacy) you can run:

 	sudo b43load b43

 To revert back to bcm43xx you can run:

 	sudo b43load bcm43xx

 * MadWifi:

 If MadWifi is present the build system will detect this and disable it. It
 does this by simply renaming ath_pci.ko to ath_pci.ko.ignore. This lets us
 disable the MadWifi driver without blacklisting it which could cause issues
 with users later. If you would like to enable MadWifi at a later time and
 disable ath5k you can run:

 	sudo athload madwifi

 To revert back to ath5k you can run:

 	sudo athload ath5k

 * prism54, p54pci, p54usb?

 We don't provide prism54 in this package because distributions already provide
 it. p54 is its replacement. prism54 works only with full MAC cards. p54 works
 with both full MAC and soft MAC cards. p54 just doesn't yet support ad-hoc,
 and AP mode. Should prism54 get any new updates we'll start packaging it here.

 * What about net/ieee80211/softmac/ and their drivers?

 Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt is being updated to
 mark this for removal. Here is the relevant text:

 ---
 What:  iee80211 softmac wireless networking component
 When:  2.6.26 (or after removal of bcm43xx and port of zd1211rw to mac80211)
 Files: net/ieee80211/softmac
 Why:   No in-kernel drivers will depend on it any longer.
 Who:   John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
 ---

 * Firmware:

 If your driver needs firmware please be sure to check the driver page
 for that driver here:

 http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers

 Why?
 ----

 For users or developers stuck on older kernels that want to help test or
 patch wireless work. Additionally if you're on a recent kernel this lets
 you get the latest and greatest wireless-testing git work without much effort.
 This may mean new drivers for some users. Last but not least we hope this
 will encourage vendors and developers to post patches upstream first
 rather than forking or maintaining their own mac80211 releases with
 their own patches for their own drivers.

 How about compatibility work for kernels < 2.6.22 ?
 ---------------------------------------------------

 Sure, feel free to send patches. The main work was designed to support
 kernels >= 2.6.22 as that was when mac80211 was introduced.

 Building for external kernels
 ----------------------------------

 If you have a kernel you do not have installed but yet want to build the
 compat-wireless-2.6 drivers for it you can use this syntax:

 make KLIB=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9 KLIB_BUILD=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9

 Bugs
 -----

 If you've found a bug please report it to our linux-wireless mailing list:

 linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org

 Report the bug because you are working with the latest and greatest.
 If your bug is compatibility-related then we should still try to fix
 it within the compat.[ch] work.

 ChangeLog
 ---------

 Here you see the list of changes to all wireless drivers, the wireless core and mac80211.

 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git;a=log;

 This views all the changes on the 'everything' branch of wireless-testing.git.

 License
 -------

 This work is a subset of the Linux kernel as such we keep the kernel's
 Copyright practice. Some files have their own copyright and in those
 cases the license is mentioned in the file. All additional work made
 to building this package is licensed under the GPLv2.

 Developers
 ----------

 Compatibility work goes into compat/compat.[ch]. If using those files do
 not suffice additional actual code changes can go into compat/compat.diff.

 If you have your own wireless-testing git tree, before running admin-update.sh
 be sure to set your GIT_TREE variable. For example:

 export GIT_TREE=/home/mcgrof/wireless-testing/

 scripts/admin-clean.sh		- Cleans the compat-wireless-2.6 tree
 scripts/admin-update.sh		- Updates compat-wireless-2.6 with your git tree
 scripts/admin-refresh.sh	- Does the above two

 TODO
 ----

 * Compatibilty work for 2.6.18 --> 2.6.21
 * Dialog (make menuconfig) option for this package

 Patches for compatibility work
 ------------------------------

 Please send patches against:

 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/compat-wireless-2.6.git

 To: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@winlab.rutgers.edu>
 CC: compat-masters@lists.madwifi.org
 Subject: [PATCH] compat-2.6: add driver foo

 Patches for drivers
 -------------------

 If you'd like to send patches for a driver though you can send it using our
 Submitting Patches guideline:

 http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/SubmittingPatches

	Linux Wireless compatibility package
	=====================================

	This is a Linux wireless compatibility package which provides the latest
	Linux wireless subsystem enhancements for kernels 2.6.22 and above. We provide
	compatibility support since 2.6.22 as that is when mac80211 was introduced
	onto the stock kernel. This adds mac80211, mac80211 drivers, and any new
	full MAC driver which has had fairly recent updates worth getting such as
	libertas, ipw2100 and ipw2200.

	If you'd like to keep the wireless-testing git repository local as well,
	please read out git-guide which explains how to achieve this:

	http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/git-guide

	With a local git repository you can update the compatibility package yourself.
	For more information on how to do this please refer the Developers section below.

	Documenation
	------------

	This package is also documented online and probably has more-up-to date
	information online than on this README file.

	http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

	Where to get the latest
	-----------------------

	This package lets you build your own 'latest', all you need is a local git repository
	checkout of wireless-testing.git. However since not many users are expected to keep
	a local git repository of wireless-testing we provide daily snapshots of this
	package + the wireless subsystem code. You can find the latest snapshot at:

	http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2

	Building, and installing
	------------------------

	Build: build the latest linux wireless subsystem

	make

	Install:

	We use the updates/ directory so your distribution's drivers are left intact.

	sudo make install

	Uninstall:

	This nukes our changes to updates/ so you can go back to using your
	distribution's supported drivers.

	sudo make uninstall

	Load:

	If you know what module you need you can simply load the module using modprobe.
	Note that if you are loading a mac80211 driver you must unload your current
	mac80211 drivers as you have a new one to replace it with. Note also that
	broadcom, zydas, and atheros devices have old legacy drivers which
	you need to be sure are removed first. We provide a mechanism to unload all
	old drivers and also load all new drivers if you are not sure what you are
	doing.

	So, if you simply are not sure you can use:

	sudo make load

	This unloads your old wireless subsystem drivers and loads the new
	shiny ones. For example if ipw3945 and its proprietary daemon are found
	it'll be stopped and the module unloaded and then iwl3945 will be loaded.
	If you are simply upgrading a mac80211 driver this will unload
	the old one and the old mac80211 drivers and load the new ones.

	Drivers
	-------

	This is the list of drivers this package provides. It adds
	all new drivers or drivers which keep being updated which you might
	be interested in.

	Driver
	adm8211
	ath5k
	ath9k
	b43
	b43legacy
	iwl3945
	iwl4965
	iwl5000
	ipw2100
	ipw2200
	libertas_cs (Libertas)
	ub8xxx (Libertas)
	p54pci
	p54usb
	rt2400pci (rt2x00)
	rt2500pci (rt2x00)
	rt2500usb (rt2x00)
	rt61pci (rt2x00)
	rt73usb (rt2x00)
	rtl8180 (Realtek)
	rtl8187 (Realtek)
	zd1211rw

	Known issues
	------------

	* Strange wireless device names:

	On Ubuntu and Fedora you may end up with strange network device names,
	for example, wlan0_rename. This is a known issue and will be worked on.

	* nl80211:

	Kernels <= 2.6.22 now get nl80211 support, however, genl_multicast_group
	won't work. This compatibility cannot be extended to older
	kernels as the struct genl_family was extended on 2.6.23 to add
	the struct list_head mcast_groups.

	* b43:

	b43 and b43legacy now loads. Since there was an old softmac broadcom driver
	we provide a load script for this driver. To load the new generation
	drivers (b43 and b43legacy) you can run:

	sudo b43load b43

	To revert back to bcm43xx you can run:

	sudo b43load bcm43xx

	* MadWifi:

	If MadWifi is present the build system will detect this and disable it. It
	does this by simply renaming ath_pci.ko to ath_pci.ko.ignore. This lets us
	disable the MadWifi driver without blacklisting it which could cause issues
	with users later. If you would like to enable MadWifi at a later time and
	disable ath5k you can run:

	sudo athload madwifi

	To revert back to ath5k you can run:

	sudo athload ath5k

	* prism54, p54pci, p54usb?

	We don't provide prism54 in this package because distributions already provide
	it. p54 is its replacement. prism54 works only with full MAC cards. p54 works
	with both full MAC and soft MAC cards. p54 just doesn't yet support ad-hoc,
	and AP mode. Should prism54 get any new updates we'll start packaging it here.

	* What about net/ieee80211/softmac/ and their drivers?

	Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt is being updated to
	mark this for removal. Here is the relevant text:

	---
	What: iee80211 softmac wireless networking component
	When: 2.6.26 (or after removal of bcm43xx and port of zd1211rw to mac80211)
	Files: net/ieee80211/softmac
	Why: No in-kernel drivers will depend on it any longer.
	Who: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
	---

	* Firmware:

	If your driver needs firmware please be sure to check the driver page
	for that driver here:

	http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers

	Why?
	----

	For users or developers stuck on older kernels that want to help test or
	patch wireless work. Additionally if you're on a recent kernel this lets
	you get the latest and greatest wireless-testing git work without much effort.
	This may mean new drivers for some users. Last but not least we hope this
	will encourage vendors and developers to post patches upstream first
	rather than forking or maintaining their own mac80211 releases with
	their own patches for their own drivers.

	How about compatibility work for kernels < 2.6.22 ?
	---------------------------------------------------

	Sure, feel free to send patches. The main work was designed to support
	kernels >= 2.6.22 as that was when mac80211 was introduced.

	Building for external kernels
	----------------------------------

	If you have a kernel you do not have installed but yet want to build the
	compat-wireless-2.6 drivers for it you can use this syntax:

	make KLIB=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9 KLIB_BUILD=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9

	Bugs
	-----

	If you've found a bug please report it to our linux-wireless mailing list:

	linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org

	Report the bug because you are working with the latest and greatest.
	If your bug is compatibility-related then we should still try to fix
	it within the compat.[ch] work.

	ChangeLog
	---------

	Here you see the list of changes to all wireless drivers, the wireless core and mac80211.

	http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git;a=log;

	This views all the changes on the 'everything' branch of wireless-testing.git.

	License
	-------

	This work is a subset of the Linux kernel as such we keep the kernel's
	Copyright practice. Some files have their own copyright and in those
	cases the license is mentioned in the file. All additional work made
	to building this package is licensed under the GPLv2.

	Developers
	----------

	Compatibility work goes into compat/compat.[ch]. If using those files do
	not suffice additional actual code changes can go into compat/compat.diff.

	If you have your own wireless-testing git tree, before running admin-update.sh
	be sure to set your GIT_TREE variable. For example:

	export GIT_TREE=/home/mcgrof/wireless-testing/

	scripts/admin-clean.sh - Cleans the compat-wireless-2.6 tree
	scripts/admin-update.sh - Updates compat-wireless-2.6 with your git tree
	scripts/admin-refresh.sh - Does the above two

	TODO
	----

	* Compatibilty work for 2.6.18 --> 2.6.21
	* Dialog (make menuconfig) option for this package

	Patches for compatibility work
	------------------------------

	Please send patches against:

	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/compat-wireless-2.6.git

	To: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@winlab.rutgers.edu>
	CC: compat-masters@lists.madwifi.org
	Subject: [PATCH] compat-2.6: add driver foo

	Patches for drivers
	-------------------

	If you'd like to send patches for a driver though you can send it using our
	Submitting Patches guideline:

	http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/SubmittingPatches