On Saturday 18 November 2006 18:08, James Oakley wrote:
On Friday 17 November 2006 5:13 pm, John Andersen wrote:
The bcm43xx driver was included in the mainline kernel in 2.6.18, which will be shipped in 10.2.
But it does not include the firmware which of course makes it useless. The firmware can be downloaded from Ubuntu ( but it still has issues ). Will this issue ( the firmware ) be cleared up when 10.2 goes GM?
Can one yank the firmware off the windows driver disks in the meantime?
Yes, using bcm43xx-fwcutter, which is also included in 10.2.
I'm surprised that Ubuntu distributes it, since it's not really legal unless they have explicit permission.
I'm not so sure. a) You purchased the device. b) They provide free drivers on their web site. All bcm43xx-fwcutter does is put a and b together. Quote:----- This package contains the 'bcm43xx-fwcutter' tool which is used to extract firmware for the Broadcom network devices, from the official Windows, MacOS or Linux drivers. ------ It rips the firmware out of their published drivers and allows it to be used externally. I got the firmware for my Broadcom wifi when I purchased the machine. Just because I discarded the wrapper doesn't make me guilty. How is this different than selling scissors to cut recipes out of books or magazines to paste in your recipe book?
That's why SUSE, and the driver maintainers are not distributing it.
-- James Oakley jfunk@funktronics.ca
-- _____________________________________ John Andersen