Anyone looking for a kernel hacker?

For reasons I won't bother getting into here (other than to throw some token insults at Congress -- but they only hastened it along), I've been notified that, as of tomorrow and until further notice, I've been cut back to four day work weeks.

So it's time I kick myself into active job hunting. Anyone looking for an experienced software engineer that's highly proficient in C and is quite comfortable slicing and dicing low-level kernel (Linux, RTOSes) and device driver (Wireless Network, Sound, Printer, etc) code?

I've done high-level systems design, low-level board bringups, database backends, Web UIs, data mining, test engineering, you name it. Python, Perl, C, Shell, and Java. Javascript, C++, and even C# in a pinch. What I don't know, I pick up as needed.

My current resume is available, naturally.

I'm based out of Melbourne, Florida, but for some time I've been wanting an excuse to move on.

It can't hurt to try, eh?

Syndicated 2013-03-08 00:47:11 from Solomon Peachy

Linux wifi driver hackery, yay

Since it's still a little too chilly outside for me to take apart my car to replace a defective seatbelt buckle, it's time for a writeup on what I've been up to with my wifi driver hacking.

First, the venerable . For some reason, I keep being surprised at the amount of major surgery between the releases. Since my last posting to linux-wireless, there's been a lot of work:

• Completely rewrote BSS join logic -- IBSS now works!
• Respect TKIP/CCMP group key rx sequence counter
• Improved 802.11g (ERP) coexistence
• Eliminated callback function pointer structures
• Detect CW1160/CW1260 chips (fw load is different though)
• Greatly simpified BSS loss detection
• Fixed deadlocks and/or OOPSen when hot-unplugging non-idle devices
• Pulled support for Sagrad SDIO modules into a separate module that provides the appropriate platform data
• Simplified Beacon filter configuration
• Many, many, many checkpatch-suggested cleanups

I'll probably prepare another upstream submission this weekend, seeing that the driver is now handling everything I'm throwing at it. Finishing CW1260 support needs to wait until I have hardware to test aginst.

Next, I've also spent time on the rt2800usb driver, adding the ability to write changes back to the eeprom and embedded eFuses

. This lets folks update the production data baked into the module at manufacture time, which is occasionally necessary when your module vendor sends you seven hundred modules with a single bit flipped that breaks a legacy product's driver. As an aside, Ralink's official drivers are... painful, to say the least. But kudos to Ralink for maintaining them!

Finally, I started adding support for my employer's STLC4560-based modules to the p54 driver. They come in both SPI and SDIO variants, and have an onboard EEPROM for storing the Production Data. The existing p54spi driver is hardwired to have the PDA loaded from userspace, and there's no support for SDIO devices at all. This is a lower-priority project, but it is nice to be working with the venerable NWN/Intersil/GSV/Conexant/ST 'ARM MAC' again.

Syndicated 2013-03-02 13:15:16 from Solomon Peachy

Gah, Another youtube posted in the recentlog, breaking it thanks to illegal HTML syntax. According to the w3c validator:

Error Line 15, Column 228: Self-closing syntax (/>) used on a non-void HTML element. Ignoring the slash and treating as a start tag.


<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DR_wX0EwOMM" width="420"/>

Domain registrar recommendations?

In a couple of months, one of my domains is up for renewal. I've been using Dotster for years now, ever since I ran screaming from Verisign nee Network Solutions back in the day, but my eye is wandering.

Mainly because Dotster does not, nor does it have any plans to, support DNSSEC and IPv6 glue records.

If this goes well, then I'll be moving the rest over as they eventually expire.

Syndicated 2013-02-14 03:27:43 from Solomon Peachy

Sunday Hackery

Faced with no getting-my-hands-dirty offline projects today, I decided to spend some time on various F/OSS projects that I've neglected as of late.

The morning started with a flurry CW1200 driver hacking; this time focusing on simplifying its interrupt handling. In the process I eliminated two more compile options and three bus-level virtual functions. As nice as it is to write code, it's even nicer when you delete it without any loss of functionality!

After that, I put my money where my mough was and wrote a systemd unit file for Photo Organizer's background workers. For years I've been using screen and a sudo-driven cmdline to fire them off, because I could never come up with a reliable (and portable) init script to do the trick. No longer. As an aside, systemd is brilliantly put together and worlds beyond anything that's come before. It JustWorks(tm).

Then I pulled out my notes and turned my attention to Gutenprint. The Kodak 1400's unexpected complications derailed my plans a bit, but there were still three related printers whose spool formats I'd decoded -- The Kodak 8500, the Mitsubishi CP3020D/DU/DE, and the Mitsubishi CP3020DA/DAE. They are now all supported by Gutenprint, and awaiting testing. The latter two are the ones I'm most concerned with, as I took a few liberties with the spool format.

Basically, the Mitsubishi-branded printers don't spool the data linearly into the printer; they basically write the color-interleaved data in backward chunks. Consequently, the printer can't start printing until all the data is received. To simplify things, I'm sending the data linearly in one big chunk. Hopefully it will work. We'll find out.

On that note, if there's someone out there with one or more of these printers, care to help out? Either by doing some test prints for me, or better yet, sending me the printers? :)

... and the day is far from over.

Syndicated 2013-01-27 21:06:45 from Solomon Peachy