broadcom wireless

[Flavio Costa]

Check those links:
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Tech/Wireless/Truemobile_ndiswrapper
http://www.divideandconquer.se/category/dell

I have a Dell Wireless 1390 aka BCM4310 and nothing seemed to make my card
to work (neither bcm43xx nor the new b43) and yes I had the /lib/firmware
populated with the correct files (b43-fwcutter instalation does this
automagically).

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 6:46 PM, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <
microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:

>  Have a look in the /lib/firmware directory and see if you see any files
> in there.  If not, then that's your problem.
>
> BTW, yep, it does work.  I've got it working on my Dell Latitude D600,
> which comes with that accursed Broadcom crap.  I've also got it working on
> my Latitude D610 that runs Slackware.  The driver itself has been included
> in Linux ever since v2.6.17.  However, you also need something called the
> firmware, which is loaded by the driver up into the wireless card's own
> little embedded memory.  A little explanation of what's really going on here
> is in order.
>
> See, these wireless NICs are their own little tiny computers, with their
> own little CPUs, DRAMs, and operating systems.  That little operating system
> is what tells the wireless NIC how to be a wireless NIC.  Think of it as the
> wireless NIC's own little BIOS.  Traditionally, that little embedded
> operating system was included on a PROM (and its successors EPROM and
> EEPROM) chip.  However, to save some pennies here and there, some
> manufacturers have decided to do away with the EEPROM and replace it with
> DRAM.
>
> But wait, you say!  DRAM gets wiped after every power cycle!  Well, you're
> right.  Since that's so, then how do we get that little embedded operating
> system back into the wireless NIC so that it can actually work?
>
> The answer is something called a "firmware image."  This is a file that
> contains the entirety of what used to be on that EEPROM.  When you install a
> device driver on, say, MS Windows, that device driver is more than just a
> device driver.  It also contains these "firmware images."  What it does is
> store them somewhere on your hard disk.  Then, at boot-time, the driver
> comes up, looks for the firmware image, and loads it up into the wireless
> NIC's DRAM.  Effectively, you've replaced the EEPROM with some space on your
> hard disk.
>
> It works the same way on GNU/Linux.  The problem isn't technical; it's
> legal.  Broadcom, for whatever asinine reason (Microsoft payments/threats,
> perhaps?), doesn't seem to want their firmware distributed with FOSS
> platforms.  So, we have to install them ourselves. usually from a Windows
> driver package.  We've got to extract the firmwares from the driver package
> and then put them in the right place.  That "right place" on GNU/Linux
> systems is /lib/firmware.
>
> The bc43xx-fwcutter package is what does this extraction.  After you
> extract the firmwares, then you've got to copy them all over to the
> /lib/firmware directory.  You will need to have root powers ("sudo -i", for
> example) to do that.  You also will need a Windows driver package from which
> to extract these firmwares.
>
> --TP
> _______________________________
> Do you GNU <http://www.gnu.org>?
> Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.cmosnetworks.com>--the ultimate
> antivirus protection!
>
>
> Curtis Vaughan wrote:
>
> I have been struggling 2 days now to get a broadcome wireless card to
> work on an HP DV6000 under Ubuntu 8.04. I've found tons of pages with
> people getting it to work. But everything I've tried doesn't work. The
> interesting thing is I went to the Ubuntu Help Wifi Docs and they say
> that the driver is included in 8.04 and that a manual config is not
> required. That it is all controlled through the nm-applet. But I have not
> been able to get the card up at all.
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Curtis
>
>
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Flávio Coutinho da Costa
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