[conspire] Fedora 12 wireless hell

[Tony Godshall]

Procedural approach:

1. Driver doesn't work- read dmesg or kern.log (in Debian/Ubuntu)
since devices are a kernel thang
2. It says "can't find firmware".  Note that it's b43 that's complaining.
4. Read kernel docs for b43

Best Regards.



On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 23:54, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:
> I tried and read so many things that I can't remember if I tried this
> on or not. If you have a link to a procedural page for this approach I
> will give it another try. I DO WANT to run the open drivers.
> By the way, same for Compiz, that would not run without the Nvidia prop driver.
>
>
>
> On 4/26/10, Tony Godshall <tony at of.net> wrote:
>> So modprobe b43 doesn't work with the .fw file in /lib/firmware?  I
>> didn't know you'd tried that.
>>
>> Best Regards.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 23:00, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> for good measure, i thought it was clear that the script would do that.
>>> and to your point - i will, honestly i wanted too, but it did not work for
>>> me. compromising as i am, i need my wireless to function.
>>>
>>> Ehud
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Tony Godshall <tony at of.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Gah! That installs their whole driver.
>>>>
>>>> When I did it I just extracted the .fw file and put it in the place
>>>> the good open source kernel driver (b43) could find it (/lib/firmware)
>>>>
>>>> What you just did blocked the open source kernel driver and said use
>>>> the proprietary driver.
>>>>
>>>> It's bad enough to use a proprietary blob for the firmware- I'd avoid
>>>> using a proprietary blob driver since it will break future kernels.
>>>>
>>>> Best Regards.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 21:17, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > thanks.
>>>> > as i mentioned, i found the driver buried in the Broadcom, in the
>>>> > basement
>>>> > of the planning office, where both the lights and stairs had been
>>>> > removed,
>>>> > in an old
>>>> > filing cabinet locked in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door
>>>> > saying
>>>> > “Beware of the Leopard.” here:
>>>> > http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
>>>> > the readme includes detailed instructions on how to install, which i
>>>> > summarized in the following script:
>>>> >
>>>> > #broadcom wireless driver
>>>> > yum install -y gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers wget #needed to build
>>>> > mkdir broadcom
>>>> > cd broadcom
>>>> > wget
>>>> >
>>>> > http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5.60.48.36.tar.gz
>>>> > tar xvf hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5.60.48.36.tar.gz
>>>> > make clean
>>>> > make
>>>> > rmmod b43
>>>> > rmmod ssb
>>>> > rmmod wl
>>>> > echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
>>>> > echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
>>>> > modprobe lib80211
>>>> > modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
>>>> > insmod wl.ko
>>>> > cp wl.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
>>>> > depmod -a
>>>> > echo modeprobe wl >> /etc/rc.local
>>>> > cd ..
>>>> > rm -rf broadcom
>>>> > rm -f hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5.60.48.36.tar.gz
>>>> >
>>>> > worked for me (unfortunately, more than once). half my kingdom for
>>>> > whoever
>>>> > writes a default package that includes low-level driver for the major
>>>> > arch's
>>>> > of wireless out there.
>>>> >
>>>> > Ehud
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 5:53 PM, Tony Godshall <tony at of.net> wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> ...
>>>> >> [Rick wrote]
>>>> >> > And, you know what?  I'm betting that your sole problem is not
>>>> >> > having
>>>> >> > that firmware image, so you may now be in luck.
>>>> >> ...
>>>> >>
>>>> >> [my 2c]
>>>> >> If the system identifies the right driver but there's no firmware for
>>>> >> it, dmesg should show you a message to that effect.  It did when I had
>>>> >> to configure "the dreaded b43".
>>>> >> # dmesg|egrep -i 'firmware|b43'
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Tony
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Sent from my mobile device
>