From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:36551 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755172AbbBTTFY (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:05:24 -0500 Message-ID: <1424459121.20313.27.camel@redhat.com> (sfid-20150220_200527_696384_8ED6E35B) Subject: Re: General question about Broadcom b43 driver and its source. From: Dan Williams To: Tom Cipollone Cc: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 13:05:21 -0600 In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, 2015-02-20 at 09:36 -0800, Tom Cipollone wrote: > Hello. I am new to this forum but have been designing hardware for 33 > years. I am new, however, to wireless software. I have designed > modem/residential gateway boards with BCM63138 and others but not the > software so please forgive what may seem like simpleton questions. > > My question concerns the b43 driver. The documentation claims that it > was reverse engineered from the BCM4306 component. I expect that the > 4306 documentation is very proprietary because I was not able to find > it even though I have customer access to Broadcom customer support. > > 1) I have a RT-N16 router, with a BCM4718 WiFi. I expect that the > BCM4718 is backwards compatible with the BCM4306? I wouldn't necessarily expect so; the 4306 is a really old 802.11g part from 2003, while the 4718 is a newer 802.11n dual-band part from 2009. There are a ton of different parts, and 6 years is a *lot* of time. Don't expect they'll be compatible in any way; any compatibility they do have is a gift. But there's already b43 (and brcmsmac) support for the 4718 (via the 4716 of which it's based) in the upstream kernel, AFAICT. > 2) Where can I find the reverse engineered source code for the b43 > driver? I have OpenWrt loaded and have compiled it before loading the > .trx file onto my RT-N16. I have been looking on liinux-wireless but > was referred to kernel-backports. In the Linux kernel: (4718) https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/wireless/b43 (4306) https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy Dan