Tertiary firmware and correct RIDs

[Pavel Roskin]

> > I'm sure there are other little details that need to be fixed.  I hope to
> > fix them soon, because I want to make a firmware based OpenAP, and
> > linux-wlan-ng is a bit too heavy for embedded systems.
> 
> I know of linux-wlan of
> Of course I' d prefer using HostAP for all the reasons you mentionned in your 
> other mail : 
> 	open source ;
> 	stable ;
> 	well written ;

Please let's stop this.  Things like "well written" are very subjective.  
"stable" depends on what you are doing (messing around with firmware is
one thing, heavy load with stable configuration is another).  As for "open
source", please check your facts.

I'm not going to discuss this topic any further.

> But it seems not possible for reasons I'm not able to understand right
> now :
> 
> are RIDs a virtual notion only exported by secondary and tertiary
> firmwares without real existence in the MAC processor ?

Since the firmware runs on the MAC processor, the question makes no sence.  
It the firmware exports them, then they are in the processor.

> why do we need absolutely a secondary or a tertiary firmware ?

Because something needs to run on the MAC processor.  Other chips of the
card are not available directly from the host.  Besides, it's much better
to have a dedicated processor to take care of 802.11 protocol, with all
those delays (SIFS, DIFS) than to interrupt the host processor every time
when a frame needs to be sent or received.

Management is one thing, implementation of the low level part of the
protocol is another.  You cannot do the later on the host.

> since the RAM downloading depends on primary firmware why can we
> redevelop all the funtionnalities in an external process like HostAP
> that is to say to make a whole replacement of the tertiary software by
> HostAP?

Sorry, I don't understand your idea.  HostAP runs on the host (i.e. its a
processor of your computer).  Firmware runs on the card (I believe it's an
ARM processor).  You cannot mix it.  Reimplementing the firmware would be
a separate project, and I don't think it's going to happen.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin