b43-fwcutter: add helper script for getting firmware

Rafał Miłecki
2015-02-18T10:03:03Z

On 1 August 2014 at 19:41, Rafa? Mi?ecki <zajec5@gmail.com> wrote:
> Installing a firmware was always kind of challenge for end users.
> There were many tries of solving this:
> 1) Distribution wiki pages with descriptions
> 2) b43 wiki page trying to handle the most common distros
> 3) Extra non-free packages
> 4) Scripts like install_bcm43xx_firmware in openSUSE
> 5) Scripts like postinst in Debian
> Way too many of them. Way too complex.
>
> My idea is to add a helper script to the b43-tools / fwcutter and put
> it during install in $(PREFIX)/bin/. This way we will know that every
> user who installed b43-fwcutter also owns our script. Then we just
> tell our users "hey, fire your b43_install_firmware" (or whatever).
>
> Of course distros still we be able to make it automatic. For example
> Debian's postinst could simply call this script and simplify its
> postinst. Same for RPMs.
>
> [The second part]
>
> Now, if you like my idea above, there is one more thing worth
> considering. Offline firmware installation. It's not that common, but
> there still appear ppl who can't use Ethernet cable and don't have
> another Linux machine to extract firmware using it. For them our
> script would be useless.
>
> So my another idea is to make our script accept passing path to the
> driver as a command line argument. So one can download
> broadcom-wl-6.30.163.46.tar.bz2, put it on a USB flash and call
> b43_install_firmware /mnt/usb/broadcom-wl-6.30.163.46.tar.bz2
> We should also remember to allows passing other archives as an
> argument (wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o at least!).
>
>
> Do you like this idea? Could someone handle this?

I'd like to resurrect this idea. So far I've prepared wiki page
describing the problem and our plan, see:
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/b43/firmware

Is there anything else you would like to add? Before I start
contacting distribution maintainers?

--
Rafa?