stlc45xx (the fully GPLv2 WLAN driver for N800/N810) was included to the staging tree in Linux 2.6.30. Now it’s possible to use linux-omap kernels with an in-tree WLAN driver. (Unfortunately N800/N810 support is broken in linux-omap tree currently, but that’s another story.) This means that the stlc45xx gitorious repository will be phased out and all development should happen in the staging tree instead. I just need to port the remaining patches from gitorious to the staging tree.
Also it was concluded that stlc45xx has so much in common with p54 driver that stlc45xx code should be merged with p54. Christian Lamparter and Max Filippov have merging code from stlc45xx and created a new driver called p54spi. As soon as p54spi is found to be good enough stlc45xx will be removed from the staging tree and p54spi should be used instead. I don’t know yet when this will happen.
So WLAN support is now better in mainline kernels and the next challenge is to get N800/N810 support to mainline kernels.
July 8, 2009 at 19:25 |
Sweet!
July 9, 2009 at 11:14 |
Great news. I can’t wait for the day I can install a vanilla debian on my n810 as easily as I can on my desktop :)
July 10, 2009 at 07:12 |
I would like to see the same, but I’m not sure if that’s going to ever happen. There is quite a lot of work to do.
July 9, 2009 at 17:07 |
Thanks for your work! Really great news!
July 9, 2009 at 20:32 |
Great new thanks!
July 10, 2009 at 01:47 |
Very good. Great job. But there are some questions
i) will this driver support wlan cards of future Nxx?
ii) when we will be able to run Nxx as a completely open source system?
July 10, 2009 at 07:18 |
i) it will if future products use stlc4550 and stlc4560 chipsets, but I cannot comment on future products. But I have been also working with TI wl12xx driver which was included to 2.6.30 release.
ii) My guess is that never. Most probably we need to still use some closed source components with N800/N810.
September 11, 2009 at 00:03 |
http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/staging-status-09-2009.html
Says the driver will be pushed out of staging soon since its no longer being worked on.
August 3, 2010 at 10:02 |
stlc45xx is now integrated to p54spi. There might be problems with power save mode, though. It needs more testing.