lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

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Oh man, Greg, you're bottom posting AGAIN! (just kidding). 

Anywho, I was smart enough to look in /lib/firmware (as well as elsewhere and can't find the correct files). I will point out there is /lib/firmware/brcm which includes:
bcm43xx-0.fw  bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw  brcmfmac43236b.bin 
all of which report wrong or unsupported via b43-fwcutter -i <file>.

As I understand it BCM4306 is legacy if < rev 03 and I have 02 so it looks like b43 not legacy for me. Not sure that helps any, but…

Further to the aforementioned discussion, Linux Wireless (the guys that develop b43-fwcutter) points out that while b43-fwcutter is open source, the device driver from which the firmware is extracted is proprietary, meaning the firmware is, too [1]. This is why we don't find it.

Lastly, it points out that Broadcom was nice enough to release a full-on open source driver, but it only covers a select number of chips [2], none of which appear to be the ones we're dealing with when it comes to these darned Apples.

I've been wondering about the mystery behind all this for some time and now it's all quite clear. And to think it was in front of my face the whole time.

wxl

[1] http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Device_firmware_installation
[2] http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Open-source_driver_from_Broadcom_.28brcm80211.29

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:48:18 -0600
Greg Faith <gregfaith@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>  FYI the machine I'm next to now has a BCM4306.
> >
> > wxl
> >
> 
> I you want to do a little experiment I have a idea ..
> 
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1974013&highlight=nm_geo
> 
> If that computer next to you has b43 legacy firmware,, in the /lib/firmware ..
> 
> You can get it on your powerpc box and give it a whirl.. I could also
> attach the
> b43 legacy firmware right here if you like.  That link shows what I do
> when iso testing
> on my dell D620 so I can use wifi and not drag ethernet cable
> everywhere. I use the
> b43 firmware but sometime in the past I also got the legacy for some reason..
> 
> Greg nm_geo