From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Larry Finger Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:26:43 -0600 Subject: b43-fwcutter: add helper script for getting firmware In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54E4CB53.5050804@lwfinger.net> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: b43-dev@lists.infradead.org On 02/18/2015 04:03 AM, Rafa? Mi?ecki wrote: > On 1 August 2014 at 19:41, Rafa? Mi?ecki 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? That looks good. For what it is worth, the openSUSE script would be a good starting point for network installations. It only uses standard utilities, and the only assumption it makes is that b43-fwcutter is available. The off-line firmware installation is more important. File http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/no_net_install_bcm43xx_firmware.tar.bz2 handles the problem, but only for a single version of the firmware. I think you are ready to contact the distros. Larry