BCM4306 Questions

BCM4306 Questions

[Randy Cushman]

Recently I retrofitted my older HP laptop with a "Broadcom 802.11b/g 
WLAN" miniPCI adapter.  The adapter works well with Windows XP.  Now I 
would like to be able to use the adapter with Linux.

Question:  Is there any hope of using this adapter with a native driver, 
or should I use ndiswrapper?  Requirement:  I want to be able to connect 
to networks using WPA-PSK.

Complication:  Neither bcm43xx-fwcutter nor b43-fwcutter recognizes the 
latest driver I found at HP.  I figure it would be best for me to use 
this firmware because this is the only driver that I have found to be 
stable.

Question:  Could someone instruct a mere applications software engineer 
on how to determine the values to insert into fwcutter_list.h to support 
this driver (or provide documentation to this effect)?

Details:
- BCM-4306 -based adapter.  Vendor 14E4, Device 4320, Subsys 12F8103C, 
Rev 03
- HP driver SP36684.EXE, v4.150.29.0 (7/11/2007) (BCMWL5.SYS)
- unstable driver tried: v4.100.15.5
- openSUSE 10.3 installed bcm43xx-fwcutter and loaded modules bcm43xx 
and ieee80211_softmac

Randy Cushman

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Michael Buesch]

On Wednesday 12 December 2007 01:39:09 Randy Cushman wrote:
> Recently I retrofitted my older HP laptop with a "Broadcom 802.11b/g 
> WLAN" miniPCI adapter.  The adapter works well with Windows XP.  Now I 
> would like to be able to use the adapter with Linux.
> 
> Question:  Is there any hope of using this adapter with a native driver,

Yes.
 
> Complication:  Neither bcm43xx-fwcutter nor b43-fwcutter recognizes the 
> latest driver I found at HP.  I figure it would be best for me to use 
> this firmware because this is the only driver that I have found to be 
> stable.

The driver stability is not related to the firmware.
You have to use this firmware:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

> Question:  Could someone instruct a mere applications software engineer 
> on how to determine the values to insert into fwcutter_list.h to support 
> this driver (or provide documentation to this effect)?

No. Use the officially supported firmware.

-- 
Greetings Michael.

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Michael Buesch]

On Wednesday 12 December 2007 12:51:34 Randy Cushman wrote:
> I'm not sure I follow.  Are you telling me that driver version 
> 4.150.29.0 does not contain firmware "officially supported" by the Linux 
> Wireless project because no one more knowledgeable than I has gotten 
> around to adding its signature to bcm43xx-fwcutter?

The linux driver does only support the officially supported version.
Any other version might not work at all.

> Are you telling me that I need to temporarily install an older driver in 
> Windows so bcm43xx-fwcutter can have access to an older version of 
> BCMWL5.SYS to work with?  (By my reading of the source code, 
> b43-fwcutter does not recognize /any/ version of BCMWL5.SYS.)

Not at all.
You have to read the webpage. Here's the link again:
http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
Everything is described there.

-- 
Greetings Michael.

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Randy Cushman]

Michael Buesch wrote:
> Not at all.
> You have to read the webpage. Here's the link again:
> http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
> Everything is described there.
>
>   
Thank you for being patient with me.

When I read that web page for the fourth time, I finally realized that 
what I needed to do was forget about using the correct driver for my 
adapter, and instead download an ancient driver for an unidentified 
adapter from a website of unknown authenticity, and use the firmware 
from that driver instead.  Should have been obvious, I guess.

Then all I had to do was try every combination of settings in the 
"Connect to Wireless Network" dialog.  Once I clicked the "show 
credentials" box, I was up and running.

Now I realize that my offer to add the signature for the latest driver 
for my adapter to bcm43xx-fwcutter would be pointless, as bcm43xx 
apparently does not support v4.x firmware.

Perhaps when I have some free time I can build the b43 driver and give 
it a test drive. 

Thanks again.

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello!

On Wed, 2007-12-12 at 19:46 -0500, Randy Cushman wrote:
> Michael Buesch wrote:
> > Not at all.
> > You have to read the webpage. Here's the link again:
> > http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
> > Everything is described there.
> >
> >   
> Thank you for being patient with me.
> 
> When I read that web page for the fourth time, I finally realized that 
> what I needed to do was forget about using the correct driver for my 
> adapter, and instead download an ancient driver for an unidentified 
> adapter from a website of unknown authenticity, and use the firmware 
> from that driver instead.  Should have been obvious, I guess.

I have looked at that page, and I don't see anything confusing there.  I
wish I could improve it, but I don't see how.

The firmware checksum is verified, so either you are getting the right
firmware, or you are not getting any.

There is no talk of choosing "the correct driver".  Instead, the page
suggests downloading both firmwares rather than guessing:

"If you are unsure and don't know what we are talking about here, always
build both b43 and b43legacy (and get firmware for both too). The kernel
autoloader will automatically do the right thing and load the correct
driver for your device."

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Randy Cushman]

Pavel Roskin wrote:
> Hello!
>
>   
>> Thank you for being patient with me.
>>
>> When I read that web page for the fourth time, I finally realized that 
>> what I needed to do was forget about using the correct driver for my 
>> adapter, and instead download an ancient driver for an unidentified 
>> adapter from a website of unknown authenticity, and use the firmware 
>> from that driver instead.  Should have been obvious, I guess.
>>     
>
> I have looked at that page, and I don't see anything confusing there.  I
> wish I could improve it, but I don't see how.
>
> The firmware checksum is verified, so either you are getting the right
> firmware, or you are not getting any.
>
> There is no talk of choosing "the correct driver".  Instead, the page
> suggests downloading both firmwares rather than guessing:
>
>   
Considered by itself the web page makes sense.

However considering how I process information, along with additional 
factors, the process caused difficulty for me:
1) The bcm43xx-fwcutter man page and its -l option contradict the web 
page, indicating that firmware can be extracted from recent versions of 
bcmwl5.sys (include many versions 4.x) for use with bcm43xx.
2) Personal experience:  The driver Windows XP found for this HP adapter 
was unstable.  This led me to treat as suspect any driver not obtained 
from HP.
3) I had no way of knowing that firmware from any random driver would 
work with my adapter.
4) I preferred using a driver/firmware from a trusted website over one 
from an unknown website.

The above information led me to believe that I already had an 
appropriate driver, so when reading the web page I repeatedly skipped 
over the section discussing driver downloads.

I don't think any changes to the web page are needed.  At the first sign 
of trouble I should have read the instructions more carefully and 
considered the possibility that there was a reason I was being 
instructed to download a particular driver.

Re: BCM4306 Questions

[Pavel Roskin]

Quoting Randy Cushman <rcushman_linux@roadrunner.com>:

> However considering how I process information, along with additional
> factors, the process caused difficulty for me:
> 1) The bcm43xx-fwcutter man page and its -l option contradict the web
> page, indicating that firmware can be extracted from recent versions of
> bcmwl5.sys (include many versions 4.x) for use with bcm43xx.

OK, this part could probably be "deemphasized" or preceded with the  
comment that the latest firmware in not necessarily the best, at least  
for the purpose of the reverse engineered driver.

In the same time, support for extracting the firmware from the new  
drivers could be added, just to provide such option for whatever  
reasons.

> 2) Personal experience:  The driver Windows XP found for this HP
> adapter was unstable.  This led me to treat as suspect any driver not
> obtained from HP.

The firmware in "soft-MAC" devices has little effect on stability.   
It's the driver that does most of the work and communicates with the  
OS.  The driver is not being extracted, only the firmware.

> 3) I had no way of knowing that firmware from any random driver would
> work with my adapter.
> 4) I preferred using a driver/firmware from a trusted website over one
> from an unknown website.

OK, that's just healthy skepticism :)

Thanks for your detailed answers.  It may help create a better  
experience for the future users.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin