Re: Wireless in FC4

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005, Rodd Clarkson wrote:
> >Non-upstream drivers that appear quite a bit are:
> >Intel Pro Wireless 2100 and 2200
> >Atheros a/b/g & SuperG (madwifi, ex Netgear WG511T)
> 
> Just to clarify.
> 
> Does this mean that drivers for these will be included in the kernel (or
> are already in the devel kernel), or not?

Hi,

ipw drivers have been included in the Red Hat/Fedora kernels for a while, and 
bits of them are now in the netdev branch of the kernel.  You need the firmware 
package to operate the cards though, which Fedora will not be able to distribute 
because the firmware requires a non FOSS license.

Atheros drivers will never be in the kernel because they require build-time 
linkage to a binary-only .o file, which of course means that the .o file is not 
open source.  Therefore, you can't compile the driver without non FOSS software, 
and thtat's a showstopper for kernel integration.

Dan