Status report, October 16, 2007

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

Greg KH schrieb:
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2007 at 08:59:41PM +0200, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

(...)

>> Here's my short list:
>>
>> 1. linux-wlan project
>>
>> http://linux-wlan.org/
>>
>> Still, they have drivers for some wireless devices not available in the 
>> main kernel.
> 
> They are currently working directly with the Linux wireless developers,
> and know how to get code into the tree if they want to.  I'm not too
> worried about them.  But if they want our help, I'm sure we could do so.
> Have you asked them?

Actually, no.
I just happened to fight with a wireless USB thingy lately which used 
their prism2_usb driver (it supports over 40 wireless USB Adapters, not 
bad - different manufacturers, probably almost identical inside).
I searched their list a bit (which is not very active), as I remember, 
there were some posts asking the developers about mainline inclusion, 
unfortunately, without any reply.

Later, I've read some article about the Linux Driver Project and it made 
me wonder: why there are so many free drivers, often with specs and 
proper documentation, but outside of the mainline kernel. And hence my 
post to this list :)


>> 2. driver for crypto engine cards
>>
>> For Linux 2.2 and 2.4 only:
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/hifn7951/
>> http://soekris.com/vpn1401.htm
> 
> Nice, but I think we need further crypto core work in order to be able
> to properly integrate this to Linux, right?

In their current state (2.2, 2.4 kernel patch), most probably, yes.
I wonder how much does it remind (or at least, some selected 
functionality) hardware crypto devices in current kernel's drivers/crypto/.
Note that currently Linux doesn't support any hardware crypto cards, 
what a loss ;)


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://blog.wpkg.org