On Wed, Nov 05, 2003 at 09:50:52PM +0100, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> Perry Metzger wrote:
> > >>
> > > possibly i'm not well informed but network support in NetBSD is excellent
> > > and very little hardware is unsupported now,
> >
> > That's not really true. I can name a half dozen devices I'd like to
> > run but cannot, including USB 802.11 interfaces.
> 
> that's true. is it because there's no hardware documentation available or
> just no one wrote them?

No one wrote them. There is a USB front-end to wi(4) in OpenBSD
already.  IIRC, I saw Linux sources for the Atmel 802.11 USB parts.
Apologies for my ignorance, but what else is there?

I am not especially interested in the USB 802.11 parts. However,
I have summarized the relevant docs and made some small design
suggestions to no fewer than two NetBSD developers who were interested
in wi at usb.  I am certain that one of those developers was Perry.
I do not hold Perry responsible for writing wi at usb (this *is*
a volunteer project), but I will be a little surprised if his desire
to run Windows drivers arises from NetBSD's lack of wi at usb.
Compared to an NDIS compatibility layer, wi at usb is near at hand! :)

> if first - looks like manufacturers are not interested in NetBSD users...

They are not interested, *yet*. You have to be persuasive and gently
persistent. ADMtek did not *need* for there to be NetBSD drivers
for their product, but they sent me documentation in response to
a polite request which emphasized their bottom line (potentially
zillions of units sold for NetBSD embedded applications) and my
competence and experience (that is, no hand-holding necessary). A
second chipmaker has responded well to a similar request. Both the
requests were fulfilled with unpublished docs or sample source for
more than one maker's chips. I have been pleasantly surprised by
the interest manufacturers have taken.

Dave