From 192.ejaj at netcmail.com  Fri Nov 10 13:24:43 2017
From: 192.ejaj at netcmail.com (192.ejaj at netcmail.com)
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 14:24:43 +0100 (CET)
Subject: [Assist] Objet
In-Reply-To: <ea-mime-59e93596-7f4a-3adf145@www-1.netcourrier.com>
Message-ID: <ea-mime-5a05a89b-14cb-7ca7b465@www-6.netcourrier.com>

Hello,

I have checked some wireless usb stick dongle device on the market around where I live, but it is impossible to check the used chipset on the outside of the package. Is there any mean to know which chipset is used by a product?

As suggested by bill-auger, I may also ask to the seller to test the product directly with a computer. In this case, I have a question: how can I check with my system (Parabola-Live from usb stick) which chipset is used by the plugged-wireless usb dongle?

Thank you for your contribution.

Freely yours,
Ejaj

---- Message d'origine ----
> De : 192.ejaj at netcmail.com
> ? : bill-auger <bill-auger at peers.community>;
>       assist at lists.parabola.nu
> Objet : Re: [Assist] Objet
> Date : 20/10/2017 01:30:30 CEST
> 
> > it seems that you are preferring the realtek-based devices because of
> > the license of the opensource driver in an attempt to reward that
> > company for choosing that license
> 
> Yes I am preferring the realtek-based devices because of the licence
> of the open-source in order to reward the company's work for the
> open-source community.
> 
> > - that is assuming that the
> > manufacturer is the one who wrote the opensource device driver but that
> > is often or usually not the case - many (or most) opensource drivers
> > exist for devices where the manufacture released only a closed-source
> > driver and some programmer who bought the device wrote a linux driver
> > (perhaps for their own use) and then opensourced it - so if this was
> > your thinking then you could as well be regarding the wrong company -
> 
> According to this page:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers
> the GPL source code was not written by hackers but by Realtek. Which is
> very good.
> 
> > it would be more reasonable to look at how many devices in the past
> > have been usable with an opensource driver - using that criteria i
> > think there are many more devices that work with the atheros drivers
> > than realtek drivers - that could must mean that atheros chips are more
> > popular though so this may not be good thinking either
> 
> From what I am analysing Qualcomm Atheros is an **opportunist** company:
>   - the latest versions of USB dongles were delivered with proprietary 
> source
> code. So a work of reverse-engineering was done to be able to use the
> device with ?free? code from the community
>   - in consequence Qualcomm Atheros only decided in May 2015 to
> ?liberate? theirs devices for the next products.
> In consequence I believe Qualcomm Atheros is the wrong company,
> because as you said, they released a closed-source driver and some
> programmer.s. wrote a linux driver and open-sourced it.
> 
> > On Thu 2017-10-19 12:32:22 AM - 192.ejaj at netcmail.com wrote:
> > > in the ISC licence there are "?" so we do not know if it is allowed
> > 
> > if what is allowed? commercial use? - the GPL and most opensource
> > licenses also allow commercial use
> 
> if it is allowed or not for private use. As indicated in the following page:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_lic
> enses#General_comparison
> we do not know about:
> - Patent grant
> - Private use
> - Sublicensing
> - TM grant
> 
> > the last thing to say is that you answered to the question of "safety"
> > with concerns of "freedom" - these concepts should not be confused -
> > "safety" and "freedom" are not at all the same thing - in fact they are
> > more appropriately viewed as opposite extremes on a spectrum
> 
> Yes, maybe. But for me, a ?safe? society is a free society and
> not a ?controlled? society as it is wrongly assumed nowadays. That is
> why when you asked me to explain myself about "safety" and in "which
> regards", I talked about freedom and "we should guarantee to the future
> generations that our work today will remain free and libre, available to
> the public domain and why not a commons".
> 
> So at this stage, the ?good? libre products are so far:
> - https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-g-usb-adapter
> - https://h-node.org/wifi/view/en/137/Realtek-RTL8187L--Realtek-Semiconductor
> -Corp--RTL8187-Wireless-Adapter-/1/1/Realtek-Semiconductor-Corp./undef/yes/un
> def/wifi-works/undef
> - https://h-node.org/wifi/view/en/166/-Realtek-Semiconductor-Corp--RTL8187B-W
> ireless-802-11g-54Mbps-Network-Adapter/1/1/Realtek-Semiconductor-Corp./undef/
> yes/undef/wifi-works/undef
> (be careful to not choose the TRENDnet TEW-424UB model)
> But at any case I will try to get a RTL8187[B|L] chipset model after looking 
> the products in the shops within my area.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ejaj
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Assist mailing list
> Assist at lists.parabola.nu
> https://lists.parabola.nu/mailman/listinfo/assist
> 



From bill-auger at peers.community  Fri Nov 10 13:44:48 2017
From: bill-auger at peers.community (bill-auger)
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 08:44:48 -0500
Subject: [Assist] Objet
In-Reply-To: <ea-mime-5a05a89b-14cb-7ca7b465@www-6.netcourrier.com>
References: <ea-mime-5a05a89b-14cb-7ca7b465@www-6.netcourrier.com>
Message-ID: <08beacb6-2c38-7c41-074b-f2c8460518e6@peers.community>


it is probably quite possible to read the used chipset on the outside of
the package - it may not be large print on the front but it is probably
in small print on the back of the package or inside the box

in many cases you do not need to know the chipset model - you can search
the h-node database using the model name on the package face such as
"netgear" or  "N150"

  https://h-node.org/wifi/catalogue/en

but you can get the chipset model if you need it with the `lsusb`
command like:

  sudo lsusb -v

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From 192.ejaj at netcmail.com  Fri Nov 10 14:15:22 2017
From: 192.ejaj at netcmail.com (192.ejaj at netcmail.com)
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 15:15:22 +0100 (CET)
Subject: [Assist] Objet
In-Reply-To: <08beacb6-2c38-7c41-074b-f2c8460518e6@peers.community>
Message-ID: <ea-mime-5a05b47a-27c2-2696d5ce@www-6.netcourrier.com>

De : bill-auger <bill-auger at peers.community>
> it is probably quite possible to read the used chipset on the outside of
> the package - it may not be large print on the front but it is probably
> in small print on the back of the package or inside the box

I have looked all outside of different packages and nothing was written
(only the model).

> in many cases you do not need to know the chipset model - you can search
> the h-node database using the model name on the package face such as
> "netgear" or  "N150"
> 
>   https://h-node.org/wifi/catalogue/en

Unfortunately, there are a lot of models than I have found on the market
that are now listed within this website.

> but you can get the chipset model if you need it with the `lsusb`
> command like:
> 
>   sudo lsusb -v

Ok. I will look on this command. Thank you.



From somenxavier at posteo.net  Sun Nov 12 10:15:14 2017
From: somenxavier at posteo.net (Xavier B.)
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 11:15:14 +0100
Subject: [Assist] Olimex and Cubieboard
Message-ID: <20171112111514.6d46f3ce096aa4135f778c1c@posteo.net>

I know that RaspberryPi has a necessary blob for booting so I supose you don't support it. But what about A20-olinuxino-micro and Cubieboard? 

[1] https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers
[2] http://cubieboard.org/model/cb1/
[3] https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO/open-source-hardware

Thanks in advance,

From bill-auger at peers.community  Sun Nov 12 10:27:29 2017
From: bill-auger at peers.community (bill-auger)
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 05:27:29 -0500
Subject: [Assist] Olimex and Cubieboard
In-Reply-To: <20171112111514.6d46f3ce096aa4135f778c1c@posteo.net>
References: <20171112111514.6d46f3ce096aa4135f778c1c@posteo.net>
Message-ID: <405c578b-3f2c-8909-4501-bc43aa800f23@peers.community>

it maybe a good idea to have a page on the parabola wiki listing devices
that are known to be compatible but no such list exists yet - i assume
generally though that it is far more likely that any random ARM board to
be compatible rather than not

one resource you could refer to for now would be the list of devices
that are compatible with freedombox[1] - that list indicates whether or
not non-free drivers are required to run freedombox on those devices -
it is probably safe to assume that there is a one-to-one correspondence
there with devices that do not require non-free drivers that would also
be compatible with parabola - and the devices that do require non-free
drivers to run freedombox would probably not be compatible with parabola

[1]:
https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual#FreedomBox.2FHardware.Supported_Hardware

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From isacdaavid at isacdaavid.info  Sun Nov 12 18:40:33 2017
From: isacdaavid at isacdaavid.info (Isaac David)
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 12:40:33 -0600
Subject: [Assist] Olimex and Cubieboard
In-Reply-To: <20171112111514.6d46f3ce096aa4135f778c1c@posteo.net>
References: <20171112111514.6d46f3ce096aa4135f778c1c@posteo.net>
Message-ID: <1510512033.1256.0@plebeian.isacdaavid.info>

Xavier B. wrote :
> I know that RaspberryPi has a necessary blob for booting
> 
> [1] https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers

actually it's possible to avoid it nowadays, with certain caveats:

https://github.com/christinaa/rpi-open-firmware

> But what about A20-olinuxino-micro and Cubieboard?

can't speak from experience, but what is said there about Allwinner
chips should hold true for Parabola. as Bill Auger said, you could
glean a very good picture of what may work and what shouldn't from
pages like those.

we don't quite target specific devices yet. for instance,
device-specific kernels are absent (with the exception of some
integrated Beaglebone patches); although a number of free bootloaders
are shipped for the devices you mentioned and others, aimed at
supporting the existing -libre kernels.[^1]

rather, a common denominator is offered that different devices could
benefit from to different extents.[^2] the community is more than
welcome to contribute more detailed installation guides, keeping in
mind that proprietary software is off-the-table.[^3]

[^1]: https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=&q=uboot
[^2]: 
https://git.parabola.nu/abslibre.git/tree/libre/pacman/PKGBUILD#n99
[^3]: 
https://wiki.parabola.nu/ARM_Installation_Guide#Device-specific_instructions

-- 
Isaac David
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Ring: c8ba5620e080bef9470efb314c257304ff9480f5
Tox: 
0C730E0156E96E6193A1445D413557FF5F277BA969A4EA20AC9352889D3B390E77651E816F0C
<https://isacdaavid.info/donate>