broadcom-wl (Broadcom STA)

[beranger]

Is there any chance for SalixOS to get a broadcom-wl (Broadcom STA) driver?

In so many regards SalixOS is unlike Slackware -- i.e. it automagically works, no configuration or compiling required --, except for wireless.

[JRD]

Do you have a link to the driver ?
Is it free of use and distribution ?

I can eventually make a package of it, but I cannot test it (no hardware that match).

[beranger]

Oh boy. You're very kind, but if you're not familiar with the so-called "hybrid" Broadcom STA driver http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php we should better wait for someone who actually has such a wireless chip and is familiar with all the details.

Ubuntu has such a driver available in "restricted" I guess.

For s discussion on akmod vs. kmod:
http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/bro ... sta-driver

I am not very familiar with kernel modules, so I'd better say pass.

[thenktor]

Why is this driver not in the kernel?

[beranger]

When this driver is called "hybrid", this means that part of the code is not code, it's a binary blob.

[hc.e]

I once had a Broadcom wireless chip on a notebook with Absolute-Linux.
I had to use a firmware cutter on the windows drivers to get it working under linux.
Is it still that complicated?

[beranger]

The Broadcom STA drivers are (1) officially written by Broadcom for Linux and (2) working way better than anything else. Using Windows drivers on Linux is just mental debility, I hate ndiswrapper with all my body cells, and I NEVER EVER use wireless in Linux UNLESS there are NATIVE drivers available!

In short, yes, it's too difficult and unacceptable in the 21st century to make all kind of workarounds just to get wireless working.

For once, I don't even know where to get the original Windows drivers for BCM 4311, nor do I care. I also don't care about all kind of licensing and patents issue for any devices. I need my laptop to just work with an OS. What would life be if I had to manually use a firmware cutter to get the mouse working, and so on?

[jbs1136]

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble. I have an older laptop (5 years) Gateway with a Broadcom B4315 driver. When I used a debian based system I had to use the fmcutter tool. When I switched to Slackware based (Zenwalk, Slackware 13_64, and now Salix) that problem has gone away. I dual boot so have the Windows drive mounted via fstab, then I run ndiswrapper, select the driver (.inf file) and then reboot and everything works.

I agree that this shouldn't be necessary but some companies just won't opensource their products. MS has too money and power and nobody wants to make them mad. Until Broadcom decides to opensource we are going to be doing this. From reading on the broadcom page it says that the sta driver is peculiar to the kernal being used. If you update your kernal you have to start over. Sounds like a lot more troube than using ndiswrapper.

You might want to check out this page: http://slackbuilds.com/repository/13.0/ ... adcom-sta/ This would let you build a slackware package for what you are looking for.

Just my opinion,

john

[beranger]

From reading on the broadcom page it says that the sta driver is peculiar to the kernal being used. If you update your kernal you have to start over. Sounds like a lot more troube than using ndiswrapper.

You might want to check out this page: http://slackbuilds.com/repository/13.0/ ... adcom-sta/

Thanks for the slackbuild link!

Apparently, an akmod, unlike a kmod, automagically takes care of that, see: http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/bro ... sta-driver

This is exactly what I do not need: to rebuild a module/driver with each and every kernel update (here, I am sorry to say, Linux is 1000x dumber than Windows).

But again: isn't anybody skilled with akmodules?

[JRD]

This is simply not possible to have a module automagically adapt to any kernel version because the kernel API is not fix. It changes everytime. This is why a kernel driver should be included in the kernel main tree by being licence under GPL, or else, on every kernel API change, this driver will simply not compile and will need a new version from the company or some patches from the community (if it's at least opensource).
If the driver is GPL, it could be included in the main kernel tree, and will be modified by the kernel team each time the kernel API change.
This is really well known but some companies still don't understand this or don't own all the code in the driver and are stuck.