Open Source HAL for Atheros WLAN Chipsets
Developer Sam Leffler has released the HAL code of the WiFi drivers for Atheros chipsets as open source.
The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) was until recently the only proprietary, exclusively binary component of the Madwifi driver for WLAN cards with Atheros chips. The drivers themselves are dually licensed under BSD and GPLv2.
Leffler has now published the code under the Open Source ISC license, while simultaneously ending his agreement with Atheros, who supplied the developer with hardware information. In future, his realization of HAL will serve as a reference implementation.
The code is available in the Subversion Archive of the the freeBSD Project. It can be applied to both Linux ATH5K and ATH9K. Interested developers can gain more information on the ath5k-devel and ath9K-devel mailing lists.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.