bcm43xx_mac80211 (was Re: Announcing Fedora 7 Test 4 (6.93))

[alan]

On Tue, 1 May 2007, Miles Lane wrote:

> On 5/1/07, Jarod Wilson <jwilson at redhat.com> wrote:
>> Miles Lane wrote:
>> > On 5/1/07, Will Woods <wwoods at redhat.com> wrote:
>> >> On Tue, 2007-05-01 at 09:13 -0700, alan wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > The network config tools need some work.  (Especially for Wireless.) 
>> I
>> >> > have been trying to get my bcm4306 chipset wireless to work.  The
>> >> network
>> >> > tools don't see it.  (And I have the firmware that I used on FC6
>> >> with no
>> >> > problems.)  The list of wireless cards in the drop down list seems 
>> very
>> >> > old.  It needs to be updated to the currently supported list.  (As
>> >> much as
>> >> > wireless is at this point...)
>> >>
>> >> Yeah, you'll want to use NetworkManager to manage the device. First you
>> >> will need firmware:
>> >>
>> >> 1) Install bcm43xx-fwcutter
>> >> 2) Get a Broadcom-distributed driver to cut the firmware out of
>> >> # See the list in /usr/share/doc/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/README
>> >> # For the newer driver you'll need 4.x firmware. I recommend:
>> >> http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
>> >
>> > I'll try this, but I suspect it won't work, because I have a pretty
>> > old bcm4306 PCI card in my desktop machine.  Last time I checked, my
>> > card isn't supported by the 4.x firmware.   :-(
>> 
>> Works fine with the bcm4306 in my powerbook.
>
> It probably still won't work for my card.  The card revision matters.
>
> I found this statement online:
> "> There is a revision number which is the key for v4 suppport. You'll need
>> at least revision number 0x4 there for d80211 support. The older
>> revisions 0x2 and 0x3 have to use the softmac stack."
>
> My PCI card is a Linksys card with bcm4306 revision 3.
> Gak!

Gak is right.  The laptop chipset I am trying to get working is a rev 3 as 
well.

Is there going to be an option for people with the older hardware or are 
we just screwed?

-- 
"Invoking the supernatural can explain anything, and hence explains nothing."
                   - University of Utah bioengineering professor Gregory Clark