
Linux Wireless compatibility package
=====================================

This is a Linux wireless compatibility package which provides the latest
Linux wireless subsystem enhancements for kernels 2.6.25 and above.
It is technically possible to support kernels < 2.6.25 but more
work is required for that.

If you'd like to keep the wireless-testing git repository local as well,
please read out git-guide which explains how to achieve this:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/git-guide

With a local git repository you can update the compatibility package yourself. 
For more information on how to do this please refer the Developers section below.

Documentation
------------

This package is also documented online and has more-up-to date
information online than on this README file. You should read the wiki page
and not rely on this README:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

Subscribe to the wiki page to get updates on the documentation.

Where to get the latest
-----------------------

This package lets you build your own 'latest', all you need is a local git repository
checkout of wireless-testing.git. However since not many users are expected to keep
a local git repository of wireless-testing we provide daily snapshots of this
package + the wireless subsystem code. You can find the latest snapshot at:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

Selecting your driver
---------------------

If you know the driver you want you can select it with our
helper script:

./scripts/driver-select

Run that script to see more information.

Building, and installing
------------------------

Build: build the latest linux wireless subsystem

	make

Install:

We use the updates/ directory so your distribution's drivers are left intact.

	sudo make install

Uninstall:

This nukes our changes to updates/ so you can go back to using your
distribution's supported drivers.

	sudo make uninstall

Load:

Reboot unless you know what you are doing.

Drivers
-------

This is the list of drivers this package provides. It adds
all new drivers or drivers which keep being updated which you might
be interested in.

Driver
adm8211
ath5k
ath9h
ar9170
b43
b43legacy
iwl3945
iwlagn
ipw2100
ipw2200
libertas_cs (Libertas)
ub8xxx      (Libertas)
p54pci
p54usb
rt2400pci (rt2x00)
rt2500pci (rt2x00)
rt2500usb (rt2x00)
rt61pci	  (rt2x00)
rt73usb	  (rt2x00)
rtl8180	(Realtek)
rtl8187	(Realtek)
zd1211rw

This package also provides more drivers which may be documented here

For a complete list see:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

Non-wireless drivers
--------------------

To support b43 ssb is also provided, and since ssb is also provided
we provide b44 (the ethernet driverl).

The new rfkill drivers also provided and backported.

Firmware:
---------

If your driver needs firmware please be sure to check the driver page
for that driver here:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers

Why?
----

For users or developers stuck on older kernels that want to help test or 
patch wireless work. Additionally if you're on a recent kernel this lets
you get the latest and greatest wireless-testing git work without much effort.
This may mean new drivers for some users. Last but not least we hope this
will encourage vendors and developers to post patches upstream first
rather than forking or maintaining their own mac80211 releases with
their own patches for their own drivers.

Building for external kernels
----------------------------------

If you have a kernel you do not have installed but yet want to build the
compat-wireless-2.6 drivers for it you can use this syntax:

make KLIB=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9 KLIB_BUILD=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.23.9

Bugs
-----

If you've found a bug please report it to our linux-wireless mailing list:

linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org

Report the bug because you are working with the latest and greatest.
If your bug is compatibility-related then we should still try to fix
it within the compat.[ch] work.

ChangeLog
---------

Here you see the list of changes to all wireless drivers, the wireless core and mac80211.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git;a=log;

This views all the changes on the 'everything' branch of wireless-testing.git.

License
-------

This work is a subset of the Linux kernel as such we keep the kernel's
Copyright practice. Some files have their own copyright and in those
cases the license is mentioned in the file. All additional work made
to building this package is licensed under the GPLv2.

Developers
----------

Compatibility work goes into compat/compat.[ch]. If using those files do 
not suffice additional actual code changes can go into compat/compat.diff.

If you have your own wireless-testing git tree, before running admin-update.sh
be sure to set your GIT_TREE variable. For example:

export GIT_TREE=/home/mcgrof/wireless-testing/

scripts/admin-clean.sh		- Cleans the compat-wireless-2.6 tree
scripts/admin-update.sh		- Updates compat-wireless-2.6 with your git tree
scripts/admin-refresh.sh	- Does the above two

TODO
----

* Compatibilty work for 2.6.18 --> 2.6.21

Patches for compatibility work
------------------------------

Please send patches against:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/compat-wireless-2.6.git

To: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@winlab.rutgers.edu>
CC: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] compat-2.6: backport foo

Patches for drivers
-------------------

If you'd like to send patches for a driver though you can send it using our 
Submitting Patches guideline:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/SubmittingPatches

