ath9k_htc WiFi Update
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A follow up to:
https://www.fsf.org/news/ryf-certification-thinkpenguin-usb-with-atheros-chip
Just to let you know that the kernel for Trisquel 6 now includes the ability to load the firmware needed for these devices so you no longer need to install a different kernel. Both Trisquel version 3.2 and 3.5 kernels have this support.
You may need to go and apply a kernel update via your package manager to get this, and if you're using a mirror it may be a day or two before the mirrors have copies of the updated kernel so you may not see an updated package just yet.
(So if you're using my kernel please feel free to move back to the Trisquel kernel if you want.)
The firmware itself is still needed and I have pre-compiled .fw files available for download at http://jxself.org/ath9k-htc/ (drop them into /lib/firmware) but eventually that won't be necessary either once it gets packaged and included in the Trisquel repositories.
I bought one NETGEAR WNA 1100 with this chipset. The only way to work was install the your PPA with Linux-libre 3.4 LTS (it's works fine in Macbook with NVIDIA graphics) or the new 3.9 (but it's crash here with nouveau).
Good to know the updated default kernel in Trisquel works :-)
Does it also work with kernels in Parabola and/or gNewSense?
Parabola, yes[0][1].
I don't know about gNewSense.
[0] https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb-0
[1] http://h-node.org/wifi/view/en/586/NetGear-Inc-/1/1/undef/undef/yes/USB/undef/undef
I learnt from looking at the link at h-node that Parabola also has a long term release kernel so I switched to that. The LTS kernel should be the default in my view.
I have put it in /lib/firmware but the driver can't find it
T.T
Is there an effort to submit this firmware to the Ubuntu repos to replace the prior Atheros ones for Ubuntu 12.04 and above? The 12.04.2 CD comes with the Quantal kernel (3.5) installed by default and the upcoming 12.04.3 release will have the Raring kernel (3.8) installed by default which will make use of the firmware.
Of course versions of Ubuntu greater than 12.04 will have support for this firmware and if this gets pushed to Debian unstable, that will guarantee a future release uses it by default.
P.S. In the past, Jason brought over the 3.5 kernel to Trisquel 6 from the lts-quantal package, but are there plans as well to bring over the 3.8 kernel from the lts-raring package?
I'm pretty confident Ubuntu will pick up on it as the GPL fimware is replacing the non-free one. All future development will be based on this free'd firmware.
It is actually debian that we need to make away of an issue with. There including the free carl9170 firmware in a non-free package with other non-free firmware. This should be separated and carl9170 and ath9k_htc_open firmware should be packaged and included in main as well as the base.
Are you in contact with Canoncial or the maintainer on Launchpad of the firmware to make the firmware switch? To make it easy, they can just copy over the 1.3.2 version of Jason's firmwares or do you recommend they recompile from source?
I agre that Debian should have their atheros-firmware packages in the main be free software only and a seperate atheros-firmware-nonfree in their non-free repositories. Simple enough ey? :-P
I have communicated with a number of different Canonical employees over the years although we have never done anything with them.
Canonical is not as strict as Debian is. I think one of the issues preventing carl9170 from getting into the main repository is it isn't using a standard procedure/toolset/etc and Debian requires everything in main to be built from sources.
I don't believe Canonical has any such requirements and they just package up the firmware (non-free firmware at least) and stick it in the base distribution. There isn't much out there in the way of free firmware so it's hard to say what they would do. They do seem to be on top of the firmware situation and things have been kept up to date. This may in part be due to a large community reporting bugs and the significant number of developers the company has working on Ubuntu.
I personally don't expect anyone working on Ubuntu or Canonical to
package the free firmware. They already have the non-free one
packaged. Since freedom isn't their priority, I don't expect them to
undertake the work to package the free one (especially with the
non-standard build system you refer to) in order to get the same
functionality that they already have with the non-free one, again
since freedom isn't their priority anyway. It's like "My WiFi already
works, so nothing is wrong."
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