> > The One Laptop per Child project is developing a free driver + firmware > > for the Marvell chip that will be used in the $100 Laptop. Maybe that > > code could be reused here. > > How free? NDA and a GPL'ed driver afterwards? > > Have you got a link for me about this?
Quotes selected from: http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/286/ "The Linux driver for the Marvell 88W8388 is already complete and licensed under the GNU General Public License, but the driver only interfaces with an ARM processor that in turn makes the wireless radio devices work. That processor requires its own tiny operating system in order to function, and this operating system is the firmware in question. Without the firmware, the processor is brain dead, and the device driver -- and by association, the device itself -- is useless." "The problem is, this Marvell wireless chip requires proprietary firmware, and as the license agreement in the preceding link shows, it is not free-as-in-rights to use, distribute, modify, or study." "There is an ongoing effort to negotiate with Marvell for the right to freely redistribute this proprietary [firmware] code, while at the same time some OLPC-contracted developers have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to access Marvell's hardware documentation in order to create a free software replacement for it." Cheers, Richard _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community