Message: 27 Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:31:53 +0100 From: Ned Slider ned@unixmail.co.uk Subject: Re: [CentOS] Problems with Broadcom 4312 wireless To: CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org Message-ID: 4A6E38E9.1010709@unixmail.co.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Milos Blazevic wrote:
Hello David,
In brief, I've solved this problem on my Dell Inspiron 1525 (with Broadcom 4312 wireless card), so I figured letting You know would be nice, 'cause it didn't seem like the issue is resolved.
Visit this link: http://jomcode.com/fadhil/?p=59
and in addition check out the comment on the same page by Andre Kiepe to have the modules load on boot.
Best Regards, Milos.
I'm not overly familiar with broadcom wireless (always tried to avoid it), but we can probably package wl.ko as a kABI-tracking kmod for el5 over at ELRepo.org if you're interested? This would remove the need to recompile the driver from source for every kernel update, not to mention provide a user friendly RPM package for yum.
Also, does this driver require firmware, and if so where does one obtain that?
Sure I'm insterested in compiling the driver to RPM and making it available to others. I've tested the driver today (by connecting to the available access point) briefly and it didn't display any problems in functioning. Now, according to the news clipping from computerworld.com, by installing this, one would still use the proprietary Broadcom firmware, which, I suppose, comes along with the driver released by Broadcom at:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
Also, according to the Broadcom's README, all other "firmware kernel modules" have to be removed (or blacklisted) from kernel before installing this.
I'm also willing of doing this, though, I am going to need some guidance in order for this not to take too long, since I've never done driver packaging before.
A few questions for start:
Ok, to build an rpm I need a spec file - this comes as a condition for packaging anything as RPM, right? Now, the only way to do everything else (i.e. blacklisting unwanted firmware files, importing kernel module, assigning modules to the devices ...) that I can think of, is via Bash script, or not?
Milos Blazevic wrote:
Message: 27 Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:31:53 +0100 From: Ned Slider ned@unixmail.co.uk Subject: Re: [CentOS] Problems with Broadcom 4312 wireless To: CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org Message-ID: 4A6E38E9.1010709@unixmail.co.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Milos Blazevic wrote:
Hello David,
In brief, I've solved this problem on my Dell Inspiron 1525 (with Broadcom 4312 wireless card), so I figured letting You know would be nice, 'cause it didn't seem like the issue is resolved.
Visit this link: http://jomcode.com/fadhil/?p=59
and in addition check out the comment on the same page by Andre Kiepe to have the modules load on boot.
Best Regards, Milos.
I'm not overly familiar with broadcom wireless (always tried to avoid it), but we can probably package wl.ko as a kABI-tracking kmod for el5 over at ELRepo.org if you're interested? This would remove the need to recompile the driver from source for every kernel update, not to mention provide a user friendly RPM package for yum.
Also, does this driver require firmware, and if so where does one obtain that?
Sure I'm insterested in compiling the driver to RPM and making it available to others.
I was suggesting that I could package it and make it available to the community through elrepo.org (a third party repo that specialises in backporting drivers for improved hardware support in RHEL/CentOS 5).
I've tested the driver today (by connecting to the available access point) briefly and it didn't display any problems in functioning. Now, according to the news clipping from computerworld.com, by installing this, one would still use the proprietary Broadcom firmware, which, I suppose, comes along with the driver released by Broadcom at:
I don't see the firmware or know where to get it from, hence why I asked. Once I know where to get the required firmware for this driver, we can package that too and make it a dependency of the driver package.
Also, according to the Broadcom's README, all other "firmware kernel modules" have to be removed (or blacklisted) from kernel before installing this.
The blacklisting is probably best done from within the driver package and simple enough to do.
The main issue I have with this atm is that I've just read the Broadcom license for the binary blob of this driver and I don't much like the sound of 2.3(b) below:
2.3. Restriction on Distribution. Licensee shall only distribute the Software (a) under the terms of this Agreement and a copy of this Agreement accompanies such distribution, and (b) agrees to defend and indemnify Broadcom and its licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities, settlement amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred in connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any third party that arises or results from the use or distribution of any and all Software by the Licensee except as contemplated herein.
Anyone care to comment on that?
On Wed, 2009-07-29 at 01:09 +0100, Ned Slider wrote:
Milos Blazevic wrote:
Message: 27 Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:31:53 +0100 From: Ned Slider ned@unixmail.co.uk Subject: Re: [CentOS] Problems with Broadcom 4312 wireless To: CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org Message-ID: 4A6E38E9.1010709@unixmail.co.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Milos Blazevic wrote:
Hello David,
In brief, I've solved this problem on my Dell Inspiron 1525 (with Broadcom 4312 wireless card), so I figured letting You know would be nice, 'cause it didn't seem like the issue is resolved.
Visit this link: http://jomcode.com/fadhil/?p=59
and in addition check out the comment on the same page by Andre Kiepe to have the modules load on boot.
Best Regards, Milos.
I'm not overly familiar with broadcom wireless (always tried to avoid it), but we can probably package wl.ko as a kABI-tracking kmod for el5 over at ELRepo.org if you're interested? This would remove the need to recompile the driver from source for every kernel update, not to mention provide a user friendly RPM package for yum.
Also, does this driver require firmware, and if so where does one obtain that?
Sure I'm insterested in compiling the driver to RPM and making it available to others.
I was suggesting that I could package it and make it available to the community through elrepo.org (a third party repo that specialises in backporting drivers for improved hardware support in RHEL/CentOS 5).
I've tested the driver today (by connecting to the available access point) briefly and it didn't display any problems in functioning. Now, according to the news clipping from computerworld.com, by installing this, one would still use the proprietary Broadcom firmware, which, I suppose, comes along with the driver released by Broadcom at:
I don't see the firmware or know where to get it from, hence why I asked. Once I know where to get the required firmware for this driver, we can package that too and make it a dependency of the driver package.
Also, according to the Broadcom's README, all other "firmware kernel modules" have to be removed (or blacklisted) from kernel before installing this.
The blacklisting is probably best done from within the driver package and simple enough to do.
The main issue I have with this atm is that I've just read the Broadcom license for the binary blob of this driver and I don't much like the sound of 2.3(b) below:
2.3. Restriction on Distribution. Licensee shall only distribute the Software (a) under the terms of this Agreement and a copy of this Agreement accompanies such distribution, and (b) agrees to defend and indemnify Broadcom and its licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities, settlement amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred in connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any third party that arises or results from the use or distribution of any and all Software by the Licensee except as contemplated herein.
Anyone care to comment on that? _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I should have cleaned this old question up. I solved it by using the Broadcom hybrid driver and building the module as Milos recommended. I did not however add the tkip module: modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip. I get excellent WAP, but no WPA or WPA2. Maybe I should finish the install and test again. :(
Dave M
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David McGuffey -
Milos Blazevic -
Ned Slider