ADSL/USB networking

[Vassilis Pandis]

--- Daniel Koæ <kocio at linuxnews.pl> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Just a few days ago Ricardo Pérez López was interested if thera are 
> "eagle-usb-* packages inside the Dapper installation & live CDs?". I'd 
> like to add up my voice. In Poland (as in Spain) ADSL-on-USB modems like 
> Eagle USB or Alcatel Speedtouch are very common, since our biggest 
> telcom is using them in a low cost connection offer. Both are hard to 
> configure by GUI users.

I know. I have been thinking about this too. At least in dapper the kernel comes
with the modules compiled. I have an Accessrunner and AFAIK it's got the same problems
with the Speedtouch modems. Accessrunners don't show up in network-admin and
are not handled appropriately during hibernation ( #36353).

> 
> Is there any Ubuntu project or developers interested in making this kind 
> of configuration as easy as possible? I would like to help with my 
> understanding what is needed to make them work and also with testing.

No project that I'm aware of. I'm not an Ubuntu developer but I can do some C/GTK+
and I'm very interested in this. We probably have to write a spec first and think about
implementation details.

The main problem is the licensing. AFAIK Conexant does not permit redistribution of the firmware.
So we can't include the firmware in Ubuntu (unless someone has the time/skill to start
an project on free accessrunner firmware which is rather unlikely)...The only thing that can be
done is making it show up in network-admin and somehow making the procedure of downloading the
firmware extractor, finding the firmware on the cd and putting it in the correct location
painless. I'm not sure this is legal though.

Thanks,
Vassilis Pandis

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com