[sf-lug] Problem with (you guessed it!) Broadcom. Using DD-WRT.

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Thu, 2018-04-19 at 02:11 +0000, aaronco36 wrote:
> *  Broadcom has not released any FOSS drivers. Broadcom doesn't
> support 
> open-source much at all.

IIRC, they did release the brcmfmac and brcmsmac drivers, which are now
part of the kernel, but those support only newer chipsets, and they
still require firmware blobs.

> * DD-WRT has a license agreement and NDA in place with Broadcom that
> allow 
> usage of better, proprietary, closed source wireless drivers (binary 
> blobs) which they are not allowed to redistribute freely.
> 
> * LEDE / OpenWrt use only FOSS drivers. Fully open-source support for 
> Broadcom wifi chips is very limited.

LEDE/OpenWrt does package binary-only Broadcom wl drivers received under
NDA, but they have not been updated in ages and won't be. At one point,
they also packaged binary-only Broadcom ADSL drivers without a clear
license, but they were not maintainable and were removed.

LEDE/OpenWrt also supports the Raspberry Pi series, which are entirely
Broadcom devices that require binary blobs out the wazoo.