Hi, please note that I speak as a happy SUSE user and not for anyone else. s.schmidt@avm.de schrieb:
SUSE/Novell has announced that non-GPL kernel modules will no longer be part of future Novell products. Since SUSE Linux 6.3, AVM has been providing pre-compiled drivers for SUSE Linux. Since the release of SUSE 8.1 in September 2002, AVM drivers have been integrated into SUSE Linux distributions. Each time a new SUSE Linux Version beta cycle starts, AVM provides the latest drivers and Karsten Keil does an excellent job integrating those drivers. Therefore, a new SUSE Linux release goes hand in hand with the latest AVM driver development. At present, nearly the entire AVM product portfolio comes up with SUSE pre-compiled modules for ISDN and DSL devices and as such is part of the SUSE distribution:
AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card Classic AVM ISDN-Controller A1 AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PnP AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PCI / PCI v2.x AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PCMCIA AVM ISDN-Controller A1 PCMCIA AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card USB AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card USB v2.x AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0 AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB v2.0 AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB analog AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL SL AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL SL USB AVM ISDN-Controller B1 v1.4/v2.0/v3.0 (ISA) AVM ISDN-Controller B1 PCI / B1 PCI v4.0 AVM ISDN-Controller B1 PCMCIA AVM ISDN-Controller C2 AVM ISDN-Controller C4 AVM ISDN-Controller T1 AVM ISDN-Controller T1-B AVM FRITZ!X USB/ v2.0/ v3.0 AVM FRITZ!X ISDN AVM FRITZ!Box (AVM WLAN-Controller FRITZ!WLAN USB Stick)
And all the following drivers are GPL and are still included: ISDN4Linux: PCMCIA client driver for AVM A1/Fritz!PCMCIA cards AVM Fritz!PCI/PnP ISDN driver CAPI4Linux: PCMCIA client driver for AVM B1/M1/M2 CAPI4Linux: Common support for active AVM cards CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM C2/C4 cards CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM PCMCIA cards CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM T1 HEMA ISA card CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM T1 PCI card CAPI4Linux: DMA support for active AVM cards CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM B1 ISA card CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM B1 PCI card (the strings above are the module descriptions) The following drivers have a proprietary license and are gone: CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card Classic CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0 CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL USB CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB v2.0 CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB analog CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCI CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCMCIA CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PnP CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card USB v2 CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card USB CAPI4Linux: Driver for OEM FRITZ!X USB CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!X USB/FRITZ!X ISDN Of the proprietary drivers, all USB drivers could be migrated to userspace with libusb as Greg Kroah-Hartman suggested. This would allow to keep them proprietary yet keep them out of the kernel. Problem solved for them. This leaves the following drivers with a problem: CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card Classic CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0 CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCI CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCMCIA CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PnP What exactly was the reason to keep the drivers proprietary? * telecom regulations? * patents? * proprietary code from a third party? * technical reasons? Besides the code for fax/modem emulation, is there anything that requires proprietary code? If not, then users could at least have basic functionality with a GPL driver, enough to download the proprietary driver with all the features. Regards, Carl-Daniel