[Community] Thinfirm WLAN firmware

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 05.02.2013 um 16:51 schrieb Nick:

> Hi there,
> 
> So I figured I should finally get around to getting a GTA04 board,
> and plan to put my name down for the preorder shortly. Too long has
> my GTA02 sat unloved in a drawer.
> 
> Reading through the documentation, I was wondering whether anybody
> had tried using the Thinfirm firmware for the WLAN device? It's

I do not remember that anyone tried, but maybe another reader does.

> mentioned on the FAQ as something that might work[1], and the linked
> to webpage from the OLPC project[2] implies that the firmware is stable
> and working well, at least for them.
> 
> I'd be interested to hear if anyone has, or if there are likely
> difficulties or things which would need to be done to get it to
> work. As it's the only piece of nonfree software that's needed for
> operation (arguably it's rather more important for most people than
> the 3D driver), it'd be great if the free one could be made to work.

I tried to follow the links you provided to find sources (i.e. a free&open
firmware) but did find binary blobs only.

So I think it is just another binary blob from Marvell that can be loaded
by a different (free & open) kernel driver into the 8686 chip.

I.e. the current libertas works with the binaries found on Debian
non-free - so there appears to be no reason to switch.

Or am I wrong?

> 
> Thanks for any hints,
> 
> Nick
> 
> 
> 1. http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/page/FAQ/#wikititle_10
> 2. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Thinfirm_1.5

BR,
Nikolaus