The work to open WLAN-chipsets - OpenBSD's ath
  • Supports some 802.11a/b/g chipsets by Atheros ("ar5xxx")
  • Started as the "ar5k"-project for Linux in 2002
  • Implemented a free driver for the AR5000
    • First available IEEE 802.11a chipset
  • Atheros wasn't really happy about it,
    • hired a developer who wrote the ath-driver with a binary-only HAL
    • which has been imported by FreeBSD and NetBSD
    • ported to Linux calling it the "madwifi"-driver
    • and never ever got imported into OpenBSD
  • It has been re-written for OpenBSD ath(4)
  • The driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.7 (2005-05-19)
"Proactive Wireless Networks With OpenBSD", BSDCan 2006, Ottawa, Canada, 2006-05-13
Reyk Floeter (reyk@vantronix.net)
.vantronix | secure systems GmbH (http://www.vantronix.net/)