Exciting news: The new USB N adapters are here! (sort of)
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I'm still waiting to hear back on the status of the source code for the AR9271 firmware. However it is just a matter of time now as everything has been signed off and the code is being cleaned up.
What is new is that we now have the actual adapters (and not just the samples).
My plan of action at the moment is to hold off making these available in our catalog until the source for the firmware is officially available under the GNU GPL license from Atheros.
I'll also try and get in touch with Rubén about adding the firmware once the GPL version is released. Hopefully there will be no need to wait until Trisquel 6.5 for these adapters to get supported. I know the last time it was a bit more work than anticipated although he did get it added to two releases shortly after one of the STS versions.
I'm ridiculously excited about this! Thanks, Chris.
I'm really excited about this too. I have been testing out the test adapter that Chris sent me and tried it on various computers in different rooms.
Heck, I was so confident in my testing I have it in my mother's computer at her house and haven't gotten any calls yet. No problems connecting to the router after restart, no drops in connection, and overall a very solid experience.
In his suggested testing environment, Chris wanted me to use a specific kernel that had some firmware and that worked fine. What also worked well was the generic 3.5 kernel from Ubuntu 12.10 and the backported 3.5 kernel from http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/linux-generic-lts-quantal for Ubuntu 12.04.
Once Chris and his team get a fully libre firmware stable and ready, I sure hope that he can get it pushed to the main Linux kernel for a future release. I know that Trisquel and other libre distros will include this in their custom firmware packages, but having Chris' hard work to liberate this firmware in the main kernel would be tits. Could be used in CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Slackware, and of course Ubuntu in addition to Trisquel and be further maintained in the kernel.org GIT repository.
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I can't really take much credit, at least, only part of it. There are a number of people working on making this happen. The original author of AR9170 driver for instance, and a few outside developers. We are doing some testing and "pushing it" a bit. I did more of the work on the business end of it (ie sourcing manufacturing, finding funding for the investment, coordinating a few things, etc).
Anyway. The kernel itself has the driver already so that is done. It's JUST the firmware that does not have the code released. This is why Ubuntu already supports the adapter out of the box and Trisquel (amongst other free software friendly distributions do not).
Without the code for the firmware there would be no USB N adapter for us to offer in the near future and quite possibly no USB G adapters either. Both of the older chipsets are discontinued and retooling the factories for manufacturing that stuff comes at a huge cost.
On 13-01-22 10:40 PM, name at domain wrote:
> I can't really take much credit, at least, only part of it. There are
> a number of people working on making this happen. The original author
> of AR9170 driver for instance, and a few outside developers. We are
> doing some testing and "pushing it" a bit. I did more of the work on
> the business end of it (ie sourcing manufacturing, finding funding for
> the investment, coordinating a few things, etc).
[...]
Don't understimate the "last mile" efforts.
Thanks for your work, Chris.
This should also inspire other people to take on one-person projects
even when the odds (and everyone around you) will tell you it's
pointless/useless/radical/etc.
Cheers,
F.
--
Fabián Rodríguez
http://trisquel.magicfab.ca
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:)
I have to say I like my job. I'm still baffled as to why. I think I'd prefer to be working on Trisquel. However I'd never be able to do both simultaneously. Every few months I find a weekend to do development-type stuff. And then this job gets in the way. I've been working on a project since 2003. It has gone through a dozen iterations. I just never find the time to finish it sufficiently that it can be released. Though I've used every iteration of it :) but I guess when you have to get the bugs out and they aren't critical to your personal use... the work gets delayed indefinitely.
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So I checked with the linux-libre maintainer and he said the current machinery is preventing the loading of the firmware. So I believe a new kernel would be required. That does make it a little more difficult. I'll have to talk to Rubén about it.
Will there be a version with antenna?
Like this: https://dx.com/p/comfast-cf-wu150n-802-11b-g-n-usb-wireless-receiving-network-adapter-169303.
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That's awesome! To read about it is not the same as to finally see a totally free product such as this! Congratulations to you and those who helped to bring this good news!
Best Regards
Are there any estimates for when the source code will be released (even if vague). For example, 1-3 months, 6 months?
I *could* be considering buying one, perhaps.
There's been no communication from Qualcomm Atheros about this. It
could happen tomorrow. It could happen eight months from now.
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Still no idea on the time frame.
I can confirm the outside developers who have signed NDAs have access to the code though. This is the current hold up. The one developer has not had the time to look at it yet. He has had access for about two months now.
I'm sending some emails to see if anybody else has had a chance to work on it. There are a few outside developers with access to the code. The problem is Qualcomm Atheros won't release it under the GPL until the clean up is done.
Obviously the libre fever is in the air. Just after the Trisquel 6.0 release, the source code for the Qualcomm Atheros AR7010 and AR9271 USB 802.11n NICs has been released!
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