Dell Wireless 1390, BCM4311 and BCM4312 wireless chips will not workon openSUSE 10.2 or earlier

The code base used for the kernel in openSUSE 10.2 is 2.6.18.2. That version does not recognize any
PCI-E versions of the bcm43xx wireless chips, which includes BCM4311, BCM4312, and the Dell Wireless
1390, which has a 4311 in it.

A fix for this problem was submitted to Novell, but they refuse to incorporate the patches, even
though all the code in them has been accepted into the mainline kernel version 2.6.20. For those of
you that wish to use such an interface, check the material at
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=234533, which lists the URL for the patches.

Larry

Larry,

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Larry Finger wrote:
> The code base used for the kernel in openSUSE 10.2 is 2.6.18.2. That version does not recognize any
> PCI-E versions of the bcm43xx wireless chips, which includes BCM4311, BCM4312, and the Dell Wireless
> 1390, which has a 4311 in it.
>
> A fix for this problem was submitted to Novell, but they refuse to incorporate the patches, even
> though all the code in them has been accepted into the mainline kernel version 2.6.20. For those of
> you that wish to use such an interface, check the material at
> https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=234533, which lists the URL for the patches.
>

I would imagine that the patches ARE accepted and will be present in 10.3.
It's also possible that it would go into a Service Pack for SLES/SLED.

Who told you that they have refused the patches for a future version of SUSE?

Chris Cox wrote:
> Larry Finger wrote:
>> The code base used for the kernel in openSUSE 10.2 is 2.6.18.2. That version does not recognize any
>> PCI-E versions of the bcm43xx wireless chips, which includes BCM4311, BCM4312, and the Dell Wireless
>> 1390, which has a 4311 in it.
>>
>> A fix for this problem was submitted to Novell, but they refuse to incorporate the patches, even
>> though all the code in them has been accepted into the mainline kernel version 2.6.20. For those of
>> you that wish to use such an interface, check the material at
>> https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=234533, which lists the URL for the patches.
>>
>
> I would imagine that the patches ARE accepted and will be present in 10.3.
> It's also possible that it would go into a Service Pack for SLES/SLED.
>
> Who told you that they have refused the patches for a future version of SUSE?

The message came from Lars Marowsky-Bree. It wasn't refused for a future version of openSUSE - it
just won't be put into the 2.6.18 kernel in 10.2. If 10.3 is released with a 2.6.20 or later kernel,
the fix will be there because Linus's code will have the fix by then. If 10.3 comes out with a
2.6.19 kernel, the fix won't be there until 10.4!

Larry

Larry Finger wrote:
> Chris Cox wrote:
>>Larry Finger wrote:
....
>>Who told you that they have refused the patches for a future version of SUSE?
>
> The message came from Lars Marowsky-Bree. It wasn't refused for a future version of openSUSE - it
> just won't be put into the 2.6.18 kernel in 10.2. If 10.3 is released with a 2.6.20 or later kernel,
> the fix will be there because Linus's code will have the fix by then. If 10.3 comes out with a
> 2.6.19 kernel, the fix won't be there until 10.4!

Ok... so... you now understand how SUSE(openSUSE) and Red Hat(Fedora) work.
(and others too)