[Voyage-linux] Voyage Linux Feature requests

[Clint Ricker]

Exactly.  I'm a bit new to wireless development, but, having the 
CONFIG_ATH* causes the ath.h, etc... to be built in the kernel; this in 
turn causes problems when trying to build atheros drivers using 
madwifi.  I agree with the disadvantage of standardization being for 
madwifi-ng (I need it because my card needs the latest hal, but that is 
just my case, most people would be better off with the old).  But, doing 
it outside and keeping packages makes for easier switching as well as 
upgrading the madwifi, which longterm will probably be updated more 
frequently than the kernel.  (IE it is not necessary to upgrade the 
kernel very often; there is a good incentive to update madwifi with 
newer releases).

Thanks,
Clint

>
> About config change.  Do you mean to remove CONFIG_ATH*, so that 
> madwifi and madwifi-ng module can be built in debian packages?  
> Currently, the I used marlow's madwifi kernel module package and it 
> downloads the madwifi-old from cvs.  If found that there is still some 
> difference in madwifi(csv) and madwifi-old(svn).  All latest in-kernel 
> madwifi drivers are from madwifi-old.  Moreover, madwifi-ng still not 
> have a proper versioned release that I comfortable with.  That's why I 
> only offers madwifi-ng as a module package.
> - Punky
>
> Clint Ricker wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone!  I'm new to Voyage Linux, but definitely not new to 
>> Linux; I am a longtime sysadmin who is now in charge of a some 
>> wireless projects for my company, an ISP located in the Eastern US.  
>> Since we are a linux shop, I am planning on using the WRAP boards and 
>> have landed on Voyage since it is really the only suitable 
>> distribution that seems to be actively developed in any sort of open 
>> manner.  So, we'll have about 2 engineers working half time on this 
>> for the next few months, and will contribute what we get.  Thank you, 
>> everyone, for the work that you've done--it looks great and seems to 
>> be solid and functional.
>>
>> The only thing that I would tweak at this point is removing all of 
>> the atheros drivers from within the included kernel.  They are 
>> currently compiled as modules (2.6.15); the problem with this being 
>> simply the dual reason that the same functionality / code is supplied 
>> through the madwifi packages.  However, having the modules compiled 
>> into the kernel breaks at least compilation of madwifi-ng (I assume 
>> madwifi-old as well) and possibly the existing madwifi modules???.  
>> However, madwifi-ng compiles and runs great with the atheros modules 
>> removed from within the kernel tree compile.  (I didn't try the 
>> existing madwifi/madwifi-ng package with the atheros drivers removed 
>> from the kernel; madwifi-ng wasn't working for me when I tried it 
>> with the supplied voyage-linux-2.6.15 kernel).
>>
>> I've attached an update .config for the voyage linux 2.6.15 kernel; 
>> this simply removes the atheros drivers from within the kernel.  It 
>> also sets the CONFIG_LOCALVERSION to "-486-voyage"; this fixed a 
>> problem that I had in compiling modules against the kernel (MADWIFI) 
>> being set with kernel version 2.6.15 rather than 2.6.15-486-voyage 
>> and subsequently not loading cleanly.
>> I'll try to throw the debian packages together for both the updated 
>> kernel and madwifi-ng modules and tools as soon as I figure out 
>> debian packages (I'm a redhat RPM veteran of 9 years now but have 
>> never learned debian packaging that well).
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Clint
>
>
>


-- 
Clint Ricker
Vice President of Product Development
NEGIA
(e) cricker at negia.net
(o) 706-546-5787
(c) 706-254-7350