] David S. Miller also said:
]
] Don't expect specs or opensource drivers for any of
] these pieces of hardware until these vendors figure out a
] way to hide the frequency programming interface.
]
] Ie. these cards can be programmed to transmit at any
] frequency, and various government agencies don't like it
] when f.e. users can transmit on military frequencies and
] stuff like that.
]
] The only halfway plausible idea I've seen is to not
] document the frequency programming registers, and users
] get a "region" key file that has opaque register values
] to program into the appropriate registers. The file is
] per-region (one for US, Germany, etc.)and the wireless
] kernel driver reads in this file to do the frequency
] programming.
]
] So don't blame the vendors on this one, several of
] them would love to publish drivers public for their
] cards, but simply cannot with upsetting federal
] regulators.

The 802.11g card in my Powerbook is one of these chipsets. Its the only reason I have not done a Linux install on it yet. I need the wireless to use the net.

/me thinks about forcing Abaddon at gunpoint to code him a driver..

I'm sure I don't have to go into too much detail why this is interesting.. In short, it may be possible to code software using these cards that could be used by several systems to roughly triangulate the position of a specific cell phone, police car(s), etc.. Among other things..

Kernel Traffic #216 For 20 May | Some WLAN Chip Specs Secret To Protect Military Communications