Bug 1772

Summary:	dkms-broadcom-wl does not load or lacks firmware, I had to use ucode11.fw for BCM4311
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Radu Cristian Fotescu <beranger5ca>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	José Jorge <lists.jjorge>
Status:	RESOLVED OLD	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	dmorganec, lists.jjorge, nextwavecs
Version:	1
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	i586
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	dkms-broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-3.mga1.i586	CVE:
Status comment:

Description Radu Cristian Fotescu 2011-06-12 21:55:27 CEST

Description of problem:

In other distros, broadcom-wl (Broadcom STA), which includes a binary blob, allows BCM4311 to work right away.

With Mageia, dkms-broadcom-wl was useless, the network configuration wizard still asking me to provide a binary file. 

I eventually had to extract ucode11.fw.

Why can't Mageia provide one of the following?
(i) a broadcom-wl package that would automagically work?
(ii) the open-source firmware b43-openfwwf used by Fedora 15.

Also note that dkms-broadcom-wl is _not_ on the LiveCDs, so BCM4311 users are left w/o network if they lack a wired Ethernet, even when using/installing from the CD.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
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D Morgan 2011-06-15 00:19:06 CEST

CC: (none) => dmorganec
Assignee: bugsquad => tmb

Comment 1 Radu Cristian Fotescu 2011-06-15 00:32:32 CEST

I should probably add that b43-openfwwf (used by default by F15) is less stellar. In Fedora, I had to remove it and use the hybrid broadcom-wl (from RPMFusion), which is rock-solid (I've used it in Ubuntu too).

Comment 2 Radu Cristian Fotescu 2011-07-12 14:28:16 CEST

I forgot to mention what are the requirements for using the upstream hybrid Broadcom STA driver. I dunno how Ubuntu does it, but here's the rpmfusion approach for Fedora:

Packages needed:

1. broadcom-wl (with the upstream/STA hybrid/binary blob)
2. buildsys-build-rpmfusion (meta-package to get all current kernel-devel packages into the buildroot)
3. kmodtool (tools and list of recent kernels that get used when building kmod-packages)
4. wl-kmod (Kernel module for broadcom wireless devices)

I suppose this means a new kernel module is rebuilt after each and every kernel update...

Comment 3 Scott Fulford 2011-10-16 08:29:48 CEST

I have a BCM4311 in my HP F565CA laptop computer. 
In order for me to get this card working I followed the steps here.\

http://www.mageialinux-online.org/forum/topic-11184.php#m113590

Hope this helps! Worked great for me!

CC: (none) => nextwavecs

Comment 4 José Jorge 2011-11-08 13:29:38 CET

In fact it is not the wl driver that asks for a firmware, but the free one.
Can you please install dkms-broadcom-wl and report if it works?

Thanks

Status: NEW => ASSIGNED
CC: (none) => lists.jjorge

José Jorge 2011-11-08 13:29:48 CET

Assignee: tmb => lists.jjorge

Comment 5 José Jorge 2011-12-05 22:40:15 CET

No answer for a month, closing. Please reopen if you are willing to do the asked test.

Status: ASSIGNED => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => OLD