[RFC] Inclusion of RT2860 driver

[Adam McDaniel]

On Tue, September 9, 2008 4:16 pm, Stefan Bader wrote:
> The most uncommon part probably is that the driver wants some configuration
> data (a file) in /etc/Wireless/...

That config directory is optional.

The driver merely looks for a file called
/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat which is only used for runtime
configuration. If the file is not found, the module assumes everything has
been supplied by ifconfig/iwconfig/etc, which is perfectly compatible with
hardy's NetworkManager.

> A dkms package would make the driver simpler to update without the need to
> release a new kernel package. The downside might be that smaller systems
> (available file system space and CPU power) might not want the compile
> overhead (I am not sure how well the EEEPC would fare there).
> What are the thoughts on this?

Most EeePC users on hardy are used to compiling modules separately. They have
to do it today if they want madwifi/ath_pci wireless and eeepc-acpi module
support. Doing so also requires several megs of build dependencies and kernel
headers which are a tight fit on an SSD of 2 or 4 gigs.

However, since Intrepid is already slated to include the ath5k and
eeepc-laptop modules (which replace ath_pci and eeepc-acpi), there is no
longer the need to compile required modules locally.

v1.7.0.0 of rt2860 has been stable since April 2008. Other than the special
WEP/WPA patch dated July 2008, there haven't been any updates or known issues.

-- 
Adam McDaniel