[SqNOS] Wiki link a SqueakSource

[Gerardo Richarte]

karl ramberg wrote:
> I'm not much help here even if I want too :-)
> But for the fun of it, what is needed for getting wireless network
> access working on XO?
>   
    Well...

    there are two completely different things to do, and then,
two completely different venues to achieve them, plus variations:

. We need TCP/IP and 802.11 working on SqueakNOS. We do have
a TCP/IP implementation (NetSqueak by Luciano Notarfrancesco),
and we know it's working up to some point. However, it has never
been fully integrated into Squeak (you can open TCP connections,
both incoming and outgoing, but the programing interface is not
the standard Squeak API, so we need to glue the two things
together). Then, even if TCP/IP is working, we need to have 802.11
support, but this, I think, is not too much.

. Then, we need hardware support. For this, we can either implement
everything in Squeak (as it should be!), or piggy back on top of what
OpenFirmware exposes. In the latter case, we could also piggy back,
somehow, on the TCP/IP implementation from OpenFirmware, or maybe
only on its 802.11 implementation, and put our TCP/IP on top of it.

Any of the options would get us WiFi working. We could start with the
simplest, and move to the more complete full-Squeak implementation.

Now. what specific things could somebody do to help? many!

Separated by resource and skills needs:

1. Make TCP/IP as it is today in SquealNOS work: Although it does work now,
we need to further test it in the real world, and, more important, glue it
to Squeak's TCP/IP API. How to do it?

Either get a computer with a Realtek 8139 or use VMWare with an emulated
LancePCI card, and get the WebBrowser and VNC clients/server in Squeak to
work... without any modifications to them, just modifying SqueakNOS' TCP/IP
implementation, and adding some glue code. To start this, no other knowledge
than Squeak is required, some TCP/IP may help (specially if things don't
work).
No special hardware is required if you are going to use VMWare. And this
step
is important not only to get WiFi, but also for many many purposes (having
TCP/IP working is very important, of course, but I'm thinking on remote
storage,
for example).

2. Start working on the WiFi low level driver. i.e. write the "device
driver".
Using the two ethernet drivers (Realtek8139 and LancePCI32), write a driver
for the WiFi card in the OLPC. I think this card is USB, and USB is not
really
working on SqueakNOS, so USB is needed first. In any case, before even
starting, we need to collect information on the API for the WiFi card, and
that won't be easy, although the Forth sources for OpenFirmware should
have all and every information needed (as well as the Linux sources for
the Linux in the OLPC... I guess). Just collecting and understanding the
needed information is a huge task, and something very valuable if anybody
wants to do it.

3. Work on using OpenFirmware's services (callout API) to access the WiFi
card (and maybe TCP/IP). I've been working on this API, and we already
have a start on this front, but some details have to be solved before it
can be really used (that's the thread titled "ColaNOS" on this same list).
After polishing this details, we'll have to learn to use this callout
API, and
that's also a space where somebody could start collecting information.

    Ok, gotta run now... but as you can see, I have a picture on
different things
that could be done, if anybody wants to jump in to help, I will help help :)

    richie