[CentOS] Broadcom BCM4360

[Gregory P. Ennis]

On Mon, December 4, 2017 1:40 am, Alice Wonder wrote:
> On 12/03/2017 11:10 PM, Phil Perry wrote:
> > On 04/12/17 00:38, John R Pierce wrote:
> > > On 12/3/2017 4:22 PM, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
> > > > I have not been able to get it to work Centos 7.4 machine. 
> > > > Some of
> > > > the
> > > >    centos user posts had indicated the nux repsitory had a
> > > > Centos 7
> > > > kmod-
> > > > wl, but it is not present when I tried to search or or install
> > > > it at
> > > > this time.
> > > 
> > > this looks potentionally helpful
> > > 
> > > http://elrepo.org/tiki/wl-kmod
> > > 
> > > it appears those are closed source drivers with funky licenses,
> > > so
> > > they can't just be redistributed without assumption of liability.
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > Correct, elrepo isn't able to freely redistribute the drivers due
> > Broadcom's licensing, but does provide instructions and a SRPM
> > (minus
> > tarball) for you to build yourself.

Every time I encounter big enough trouble about some chipset to have to
learn a bit about its internals, I usually learn about its engineering
flaw. BCM43xx has the following one: the chip internally is 32 bit,
though it sits on 64 bit bus. (Take that with a grain of salt, it's
been long time since I looked into that crap).

Once I discover the flaw, I add particular hardware in my black list
and do my best to not buy anything containing it. Broadcom as a whole
is not in my black list, they have great hardware, but their BCM43XX
is, even if they corrected their design flaws since.

I would replace that if possible (Intel would be great candidate), or
use USB adapters others suggest.

Just my $0.02

Valeri

> 
> That's what I have to do, and it can sometimes be a PITA because a
> kernel update can break it and you have to build it again.
> 
> With major updates (like 7.3 to 7.4) you sometimes have to download a
> new nosrc rpm.
> 
> > 
> > Alternatively, for $8 you can purchase an adaptor that is natively
> > supported and will work out of the box:
> > 
> > https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/
> > dp/B003MTTJOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512370979&sr=8-
> > 1&keywords=edimax+n150
> > 
> > 
> > https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091&cm
> > _re=edimax_n150-_-33-315-091-_-Product
> > 
> > 
> > The above adaptor is based on the Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset and
> > uses
> > the rtl8192cu kernel driver.
> 
> At some point I will be replacing mine, but with a low-profile PCI-E
> card. I've had bad luck with USB wifi adapters, sometimes for example
> they lose connection when a microwave is turned on and when I was
> visiting my parents, had one that lost connection whenever the AC
> unit
> kicked on.
> 
> My best wifi experience in Linux has been with my T series thinkpad,
> it
> uses some kind of Intel wireless chipset that is in the kernel.
> 
> I'm going to be looking for a low profile Intel PCI-E card, but for
> now
> my broadcom PCI-E actually works quite well - with the exception of
> needing to rebuild every now and then (last time was 7.3 to 7.4
> update)
> 
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> 


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
_______________________________________________


Hey ... Thanks for your help everyone.

Looks like I will need to try my hand at the compiling process or
purchase an intel based chip board.

Greg Ennis