Re: linux-firmware-nonfree: Add prism54 softmac firmware

Re: linux-firmware-nonfree: Add prism54 softmac firmware

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:17 PM, Chase Douglas
<chase.douglas@canonical.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-02-23 at 12:02 -0800, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Chase Douglas
>> <chase.douglas@canonical.com> wrote:
>> > I have uploaded a new version of the linux-firmware-nonfree package to:
>> >
>> > http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~cndougla/linux-firmware-nonfree/
>> >
>> > The new package includes the firmware for prism54 softmac cards. The firmware
>> > was removed from linux-firmware due to it missing a proper license statement. I
>> > did not copy over the old prism54 (non-softmac) firmware because it has been
>> > superseded by the softmac firmware and is no longer useful in the Lucid kernel
>> > version.
>>
>> Hey is PRISM54 no longer compiled in a module any more? I had set it
>> for removal on the feature removal schedule but  I wanted to give you
>> the heads up we've received a few reports of users unable to use
>> prism54 over p54pci. It was theorized this would happen but we didn't
>> have any confirmation, which is why we just didn't remove it.
>>
>> How would you guys deal with having both enabled.
>
> Thanks for looking into this. I was going off of [1], which stated that
> the debian kernel does not include the prism54 module anymore.

Fun, passing this as a memo to lkml/Debian -- p54pci doesn't seem to
work well for *all* Prism54 FullMAC cards. They technically are the
same and the SoftMAC functionality was possible through a smaller
firmware. But it seems some cards have issues still with p54pci so I
would still enable prism54 as a module but not sure what to recommend
about dealing with two modules on the system for the same device.

> I checked
> the lucid kernel and we do have prism54 built as a module still. So, are
> we going to leave the prism54 module in, in which case we need to
> restore the prism54 firmware?

Yes I'd restore the prism54 firmware until the coast is clear with
p54pci for all. Its not the case so far as per reports.

> Or are we going to remove it, in which
> case the firmware package I uploaded was fine? I'm assuming at this
> point we'll be leaving it in though.

I'd say keep it for now.

> Andy, do you have any thoughts here?
>
> [1] http://wiki.debian.org/prism54

  Luis

Re: linux-firmware-nonfree: Add prism54 softmac firmware

[Chase Douglas]

> > I checked
> > the lucid kernel and we do have prism54 built as a module still. So, are
> > we going to leave the prism54 module in, in which case we need to
> > restore the prism54 firmware?
> 
> Yes I'd restore the prism54 firmware until the coast is clear with
> p54pci for all. Its not the case so far as per reports.
> 
> > Or are we going to remove it, in which
> > case the firmware package I uploaded was fine? I'm assuming at this
> > point we'll be leaving it in though.
> 
> I'd say keep it for now.

We've decided to keep things as is from Karmic to Lucid in an effort to
not screw things up for people who already have their wireless working.
This means we'll be shipping both prism54 and p54* drivers.

I have uploaded a new linux-firmware-nonfree package that contains all
the prism54 firmware for all the drivers:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~cndougla/linux-firmware-nonfree/

Thanks,
Chase