pciproxy code

[Mattias Nissler]

On 20.07.2005, at 03:41, Dan Potter wrote:

> On Jul 19, 2005, at 2:50 PM, Mattias Nissler wrote:
>
>
>> (the original intention was to get the AirPort Extreme cards  
>> running since there is no Linux driver; I only tested that device  
>> yet).
>>
>
> This may be a very naive comment on my part :) but wouldn't it be  
> simpler and more powerful to write something like for the Win32  
> wireless drivers in x86 Linux? e.g. thunk the necessary pieces to  
> load a Darwin kernel module for Airport Extreme directly into a  
> Linux kernel (or a userspace driver that passes packets over tun/ 
> tap). Then there's no need to run a copy of OSX or anything.

Well, actually I also thought about that. Here is why I didn't try:  
Apple's kernel driver interface (IOKit) is really big. One would have  
to do an IOKit port to Linux. Ok, it is open source, so that would be  
possible. But I estimated doing that pciproxy hack would be simpler  
and faster to do than porting the whole IOKit. I guess the Win32  
driver interface is not so big and you don't have access to each and  
everything from your driver as it is the case with OS X aka. Darwin.

However, if there are some other guys willing to tackle that IOKit  
porting idea, I'll be happy to join ;-)

>
> The PCI proxying looks like a great hack though :)

thanks :-)

Mattias