Re: laptop wifi and graphic chips with fully functional GPL drivers and firmware (was Re: Debian installer support of ipw2200-based wifi-based installation)
On Wed, Apr 19, 2006 at 12:44:15AM +1200, Dominik Margraf wrote:
> Thanks for your information, but I am now frustrated to learn that Intel
> actually did NOT open source its firmware alongside with the driver.
>
> I just want to know at present, are there any existing laptop wifi chips
> and/or graphics chips which their drivers and firmware and any other
> non-hardware that make them operational in Linux, are completely GPLed and
> therefore be able to be included by the Debian installer so that the
> installer / distribution can FULLY UTILIZE these chips (i.e. can display
> real 3D in 3D graphics chips etc.) on-the-fly without further user
> intervention or reliance on any external non-free stuffs?
For wifi, i think right now, the most promising solution is ralink, which does
have GPLed drivers themself (altough with non-free firmware i think), but also
kind of work together with the guys from the rt2400/2500 sourceforge project
for fully GPLed drivers.
As for graphics, i think ATI is the best choice for cards upto Radeon 9250,
and the reverse engineered drivers for more recent chips is now pretty
advanced and in part included in Xorg 7.0. The other companies, i am not sure
in each individual detail (i hear XGI will open their driver soon for
example), but nvidia is definitively not the way to go for that.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
Reply to: