[conspire] ubuntu and b43 problems

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ehud Kaldor (ehud.kaldor at gmail.com):

> after sending, ran into the comment in here:
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
> stating the LP-PHY cards need to install the proprietary Broadcom driver. is
> that so? is there no way to use the open drivers?

I've not commented because I have no recent knowledge of compatibility
of the b43 driver with the most recent Broadcom chipsets.  However, I
just wanted to point out that what you call the 'internal Broadcom
BCM4312 LP-PHY rev1' appears to be on a miniPCI card.

Which means that one obvious way around any driver problems would be to
(1) yank the damned thing out and sell it, (2) put in a
more-open-source-friendly miniPCI wireless card, and (3) profit.

Going all the way back to the winmodem misadventure, I can't help
noticing that a lot of Linux users misdefine the necessary and logical 
question as 'How do I make Linux support all the components currently in
my machine?', when a better question is 'What's the best tradeoff of
time versus money that makes me able to get desired functionality?'  

Disclaimer:  I have no idea what special driver issues the LP-PHY rev1
variant may or may not pose.  I'm merely speaking to the general
principle involved, that, if extremely recently released hardware
chipsets (/revisions) are giving you apparent driver problems, maybe the
most fruitful approach is to see the hardware as the problem, and
replace it.