Broadcom BCM43XX Nightmarte on F11

[Bill Davidsen]

Fernando Cassia wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Christopher A.
> Williams<chriswfedora at cawllc.com> wrote:
>> I have a couple of laptops I've been working on that I have not been
>> able to get WiFi to come up on at all.
>>
>> Both of them have the Broadcom BC43XX series adapters. One of them is a
>> Gateway MX6030 laptop equipped with a Broadcom BCM4318 adapter and the
>> other is a Dell Inspiron e1705 with a BCM4311 adapter.
> 
> Broadcom has a history of being outright hostile toward the FOSS
> software developers...  Check this out...
> 
> http://blogs.computerworld.com/new_linux_broadcom_wi_fi_drivers_arrive
> 
Ubuntu 8 is about to be released... wait, that means the article is years old.

To provide the full story, the adapters in question are capable of being 
operated outside the FCC allowed parameters, and Broadcom has expressed some 
doubts about the wisdom of allowing fully open source. You may think their 
lawyers are jerks, but they are paid to do CYA, and by keeping the firmware 
closed they protect themselves.

You can agree or disagree with their legal position, but given the support they 
do provide, I think "outright hostile toward the FOSS software developers" is 
pretty strong. I call it overly cautious, and having nothing in my religion 
which forbids using kmod-wl I'm happy.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot