Bug 4273

Summary:	Firmware for b43 wifi cards is missing
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Herbert Poetzl <herbert>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	Normal	CC:	lists.jjorge, palm_pre_stl, tmb
Version:	Cauldron
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	kernel-firmware-nonfree-20111229-1.mga2.nonfree.src.rpm	CVE:
Status comment:

Description Herbert Poetzl 2012-01-25 06:51:51 CET

Description of problem:
Due to missing firmware for the wifi driver (Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN) syslog floods with messages like the ones below.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel-firmware-nonfree-20111229-1.mga2.nonfree.noarch

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. install Mageia Cauldron on a system with a card using the b43 driver
2. 
3.

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Comment 1 Manuel Hiebel 2012-01-25 18:01:30 CET

Thomas, José, is this firmware really in the kernel one ?

CC: (none) => lists.jjorge, tmb

Comment 2 José Jorge 2012-01-25 18:28:12 CET

No, and it is not redistributable, this is why no distrib ships it.

Comment 3 Herbert Poetzl 2012-01-25 18:37:52 CET

maybe the 'distribute firmware' approach is the wrong one for this wifi card, see:

http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

the card in question is 14e4:432b.

Comment 4 José Jorge 2012-01-26 13:07:15 CET

(In reply to comment #3)
> maybe the 'distribute firmware' approach is the wrong one for this wifi card,

I don't understand : maybe you have missed we already provide broadcom-wl package in non-free?

Comment 5 Herbert Poetzl 2012-01-26 17:20:14 CET

so, where does that one get the firmware from? or does that driver work without uploading a firmware?

Comment 6 José Jorge 2012-01-28 20:46:53 CET

(In reply to comment #5)
> so, where does that one get the firmware from? or does that driver work without
> uploading a firmware?

This driver brings the firmware in the closed-source binary, as it does for the other OSes.

Comment 7 Herbert Poetzl 2012-01-28 20:57:32 CET

so the firmware is already distributed by mageia, no?

Comment 8 José Jorge 2012-01-29 10:39:02 CET

(In reply to comment #7)
> so the firmware is already distributed by mageia, no?

Not as the needed separated file. I don't know any tool to extract the firmware from the WL driver. But a tool exists to extract it from the Windows Driver, this is the extracted file that we cannot distribute.

Comment 9 Marja Van Waes 2012-02-01 11:21:05 CET

*** Bug 3808 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

CC: (none) => palm_pre_stl

Comment 10 José Jorge 2012-03-05 09:15:52 CET

Closing as no activity happened for one month.. please reopen if you still cannot use your hardware.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED