Going from Broadcom's sources to wireless card to WPA network
Suresh Govindachar
sgovindachar at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 26 15:10:24 UTC 2011
Alan Cox replied as follows:
>On Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:27:44 -0800
>"Suresh Govindachar" wrote:
>>
>> In my attempts at replacing Windows on my Dell M6400 laptop
>> with [Fedora was missing in OP]-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso,
>> I have gotten as far as being able to create a live usb
>> stick. My next step is to get on the internet via the Dell
>> Wireless 1510 Wireless-N WLAN Mini-Card and my "WPA"
>> network.
>>
>> Broadcom offers sources and a library at:
>> http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc_x86_64-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz
>> (via http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php ).
>>
>> I did make on a machine with Linux 2.6.28-18-generic
>> #60-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 12 04:26:47 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux:
>>
>> ~/tmp/broadcom$ make
>> KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd`
>> make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28-18-generic'
>> LD /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/built-in.o
>> CC [M] /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/src/shared/linux_osl.o
>> CC [M] /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o
>> CC [M] /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.o
>> LD [M] /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/wl.o
>> Building modules, stage 2.
>> MODPOST 1 modules
>> WARNING: modpost: missing MODULE_LICENSE() in /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/wl.o
>> see include/linux/module.h for more information
>> CC /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/wl.mod.o
>> LD [M] /h/sgovinda/tmp/broadcom/wl.ko
>> make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28-18-generic'
>> ~/tmp/broadcom$
>>
>> The action for "make install" is:
>>
>> install -D -m 755 wl.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wl.ko
>>
>> which, I _guess_, is just copying wl.ko and doing
>> a "chmod 755 /<path>/wl.ko".
>>
>> Key requirement: The wireless card works with Win XP and I
>> do _not_ want any firmware changes to
>> happen to it!
>>
>> Questions:
>>
>> 1) Will copying wl.ko to the corresponding directory on
>> the [Fedora 14] Live USB be OK (since the build
>> happened on Ubuntu 2.6.28-18-generic rather than
>> on Fedora-14)?
>>
>> 2) If copying is OK and if copying and use with or without
>> rebooting will _not_ make any changes to the wireless
>> card's firmware, what do I do next to get on the WPA
>> network and then to the internet?
>
> My Dell Mini 10 works with 2.6.37 kernels quite happily - just
> need to use fwcutter.
Found info on fwcutter at http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
I think fwcutter is, essentially, a linux tool that extracts
firmware from Windows driver.
But why such an indirect approach when Broadcom supports Linux
on: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php (such
support has existed since October 2008.)
"lspci -nn" shows BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n 14e4:4326 (rev01).
So, as per the FAQ
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/FAQ#Q:_Is_my_XXX_model_device_supported.3F
I googled "14e4 4326" site:cateee.net/lkddb/ and got no hit.
> The firmware on all the broadcom cards I have seen is loaded
> each time you boot (each OS loading whatever it comes with).
Thanks for the info.
> For the Ubuntu questions you'd need to ask an Ubuntu list.
Sorry if the original post was not clear, but my questions
are about wireless access from Live USB of _Fedora_14_.
--Suresh
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