News Archive

July 14, 2008

Linux 2.6.26 is released. With almost 600 changesets related to wireless, this release brings you lots more wireless goodies:

  • mac80211 now supports draft mesh networking (802.11s; thanks to the open80211s project)

  • zd1211rw supports mesh networking (b43 will follow in 2.6.27, hopefully more drivers later)

  • mac80211 now supports more optional HT (802.11n) features
  • mac80211's monitor interfaces can now be configured more precisely, "cooked" monitors were added
  • mac80211's IBSS implementation now supports IBSS merging and received various bugfixes

  • mac80211 now has an in-kernel documentation book, help welcome!

  • b43 now has support for PCMCIA devices and QoS/WME

Also, lots of removals this time:

  • the bcm43xx driver
  • the old ieee80211softmac code

Access point mode has received a lot of attention in the stack and drivers, but is not ready yet.

Finally, lots of internal API updates and fixes.

April 17, 2008

Linux 2.6.25 is released. There are a number of important changes:

  • mac80211 now supports HT (802.11n) operation

  • a new rate control algorithm for mac80211 (using a PID controller) was added

In drivers, there were a number of changes as well:

  • New drivers added: ath5k, rndis_wlan and rtl8180

  • rt2x00 drivers now support software antenna diversity
  • zd1211rw is now a mac80211 driver
  • b43 supports new devices (BCM94311MCG rev 02)

As always, of course, lots of code improvements (notably libertas), bugfixes and device IDs for new (or just found to be working) devices.

March 10th, 2008

On February 14, 2008 John Linville announced a new git tree, the wireless-testing.git tree, "created to replace the usage of the former 'everything' branch". As it stands, there is no more #everything branch in wireless-2.6.git tree. Users and developers should rely on wireless-testing.git for the bleeding edge Linux wireless developments. The wireless-testing.git tree should be used as the primary development target. New git URL: 

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git

To learn how check this tree out, and a general overview of git please see our Linux wireless git-guide. To see the latest changes made on this tree check out the wireless-testing.git ChangeLog

February 4th, 2008

Linux 2.6.24 was released on January 28th. It includes a horde of new wireless drivers:

  • Intel Wireless Link (iwlwifi) drivers for iwl3945 and iwl4965

  • SDIO driver for Marvell's Libertas 8385 and 8686 hardware

  • Ralink drivers for RT2400/RT2500/RT61 (PCI/PCMCIA), RT2500/RT73 (USB)

  • b43 and b43legacy Broadcom drivers which replace the older bcm43xx driver. bcm43xx is now deprecated and will be removed in future kernel releases.

Various other drivers received bug fixes and increased hardware support.

mac80211 received a huge amount of internal rework and fixes, some resulting in optimisations and better IEEE 802.11 spec compliance. Additionally, it now supports the SIOCGIWTXPOWER ioctl ("iwconfig dev power ..."), reports better link statistics, no longer sends invalid QoS frames, better supports dynamic WEP and has improved radiotap injection.

For users looking to help test the bleeding edge but stuck on older kernels we now have available a wireless compatibility package. This lets you get the latest drivers and bug fixes on kernels >= 2.6.22, this includes the new Atheros ath5k driver, which is scheduled for inclusion for 2.6.25.

October 10, 2007

Linux 2.6.23 was released today. On the wireless front, a variety of fixes and improvements were contributed all over the place. The biggest news items are the inclusion of the rtl8187 driver, which supports USB devices based on the RTL8187 chipset, and zd1211rw enhancements to support devices based on the Atheros AR5007UG USB chipset.

September 27, 2007

The Software Freedom Law Center has published a new statement which as per MadWifi's press release:

  • "... this should once and for all clear up any doubts about licensing practices we have used and details of provenance of code since the project's start all the way down to our current ath5k driver code.".

Additionally, the press release states that

  • "The audit confirms that fixes and improvements to work derived from OpenBSD's ar5k - specifically what is in the wireless-legacy repository now - can safely be contributed back."

As per the advice from SFLC new guidelines have been posted about about sending patches for Linux-wireless. To help keep track of changes under permissive licenses a new ''Changes-licensed-under'' tag is being introduced. Additionally we would like to request developers to subscribe to the guidelines page for submitting patches to receive diffs of changes to this guide so we're all on the same page.

July 31, 2007

The Software Freedom Law Center has published a statement clearing legal uncertainty of the reverse-engineered OpenHAL code used to drive Atheros PCI hardware. This is a significant step in the journey to support Atheros PCI wireless hardware in mainline Linux. Read the full statement here.

July 8, 2007

Linux 2.6.22, released today, features the initial inclusion of mac80211, the upcoming unified Linux wireless stack which will be shared between a number of drivers. No drivers in this kernel release use mac80211, but existing drivers will be ported and new drivers will be added later.

Alongside the usual rounds of driver updates and fixes, the Marvell Libertas 8388 USB-wireless driver was added, which drives the hardware in the OLPC laptop.

July 6, 2007

The Software Freedom Law Center has released a white paper detailing the implications of the FCC's new Software Defined Radio (SDR) classification on free/open source wireless drivers. This is certainly a step in the right direction, although the FCC's position regarding free/open code remains "more conservative than is necessary". Read the full white paper.

April 17, 2007

We're featured on enterprise networking planet: http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/nethub/article.php/3672491.

February 9, 2007

Intel launches a new site dedicated to their Linux wireless projects – intellinuxwireless.org. From their site, "Here you can learn about and download the latest development versions of the Linux-based wireless drivers for Intel adapters."