Hi there. Ubuntu 10.10 has native installation of the STA drivers if I check third-party software during installation and gives me wireless functionality right out of the box so to speak. Will or does 11.4 accomplish the same?
For offline installation in openSUSE, once I have the packages from the packman repository, say broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop, how do I run them altogether and resolve any dependencies issues? I used to know the appropriate command to run both together but that was something I figured out from searching internet forums and never cared to verify like now. I need installation to be offline. Thanks a lot!
By the way if I could dare recommending anything. Please make these drivers installation native as Ubuntu has done.
On 02/01/2011 11:36 AM, o770 wrote:
>
> Hi there. Ubuntu 10.10 has native installation of the STA drivers if I
> check third-party software during installation and gives me wireless
> functionality right out of the box so to speak. Will or does 11.4
> accomplish the same?
>
> For offline installation in openSUSE, once I have the packages from the
> packman repository, say -broadcom-wl- and -broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-, how
> do I run them altogether and resolve any dependencies issues? I used to
> know the appropriate command to run both together but that was something
> I figured out from searching internet forums and never cared to verify
> like now. I need installation to be offline. Thanks a lot!
>
> By the way if I could dare recommending anything. Please make these
> drivers installation native as Ubuntu has done.
As the wl driver is closed-source, openSUSE cannot build it into the
distribution. You would need to convince Broadcom to release their stuff under
GPL and publish the source code. Until that happens, it cannot happen.
The open-source community is working on getting b43 and brcm80211 to support all
the chips that are currently handled by wl, but it goes slowly as those 802.11n
chips are very complicated. Note that b43 is built-in and only the firmware
(also Broadcom closed-source) must be installed separately from the distro, but
that is easily done without Internet access with Linux.
In short, Broadcom is the bad guy here. Their practices are at odds with the
open-source community.
On Tuesday 01 Feb 2011 20:04, Larry Finger scribbled:
> On 02/01/2011 11:36 AM, o770 wrote:
>>
>> Hi there. Ubuntu 10.10 has native installation of the STA drivers if I
>> check third-party software during installation and gives me wireless
>> functionality right out of the box so to speak. Will or does 11.4
>> accomplish the same?
>>
>> For offline installation in openSUSE, once I have the packages from the
>> packman repository, say -broadcom-wl- and -broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-, how
>> do I run them altogether and resolve any dependencies issues? I used to
>> know the appropriate command to run both together but that was something
>> I figured out from searching internet forums and never cared to verify
>> like now. I need installation to be offline. Thanks a lot!
>>
>> By the way if I could dare recommending anything. Please make these
>> drivers installation native as Ubuntu has done.
>
> As the wl driver is closed-source, openSUSE cannot build it into the
> distribution. You would need to convince Broadcom to release their stuff
> under GPL and publish the source code. Until that happens, it cannot
> happen.
>
> The open-source community is working on getting b43 and brcm80211 to
> support all the chips that are currently handled by wl, but it goes slowly
> as those 802.11n chips are very complicated. Note that b43 is built-in and
> only the firmware (also Broadcom closed-source) must be installed
> separately from the distro, but that is easily done without Internet
> access with Linux.
>
> In short, Broadcom is the bad guy here. Their practices are at odds with
> the open-source community.
So how do I run and install those packages - from terminal perhaps? IIRC broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop should run first because the other depends on it, or vice-versa?
There was a command I knew to execute both altogether and that would resolve any dependency issues.
Should I start another thread in Wireless for this?
By the way maybe a guide for the offline installation would be much welcome.
As for the drivers being closed-source etc, well can’t the user decide to install or not? Isn’t what Ubuntu is doing?
So how do I run and install those packages - from terminal perhaps? IIRC broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop should run first because the other depends on it, or vice-versa?
There was a command I knew to execute both altogether and that would resolve any dependency issues.
Should I start another thread in Wireless for this?
By the way maybe a guide for the offline installation would be much welcome as there might be others not able to get online and install wireless.
As for the drivers being closed-source etc, well can’t the user decide to install or not? Isn’t what Ubuntu is doing?
On 02/01/2011 05:36 PM, o770 wrote:
>
> So how do I run and install those packages - from terminal perhaps? IIRC
> -broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop- should run first because the other depends on
> it, or vice-versa?
> There was a command I knew to execute both altogether and that would
> resolve any dependency issues.
> Should I start another thread in Wireless for this?
> By the way maybe a guide for the offline installation would be much
> welcome as there might be others not able to get online and install
> wireless.
>
> As for the drivers being closed-source etc, well can’t the user decide
> to install or not? Isn’t what Ubuntu is doing?
If you examine the basis for openSUSE, you will see what the “open” part means.
Yes, the user can decide whether to install them, but openSUSE will never put
them on their distribution media, thus you need a network connection.
On 02/01/2011 03:55 PM, Graham P Davis wrote:
> On Tuesday 01 Feb 2011 20:04, Larry Finger scribbled:
>
>> On 02/01/2011 11:36 AM, o770 wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi there. Ubuntu 10.10 has native installation of the STA drivers if I
>>> check third-party software during installation and gives me wireless
>>> functionality right out of the box so to speak. Will or does 11.4
>>> accomplish the same?
>>>
>>> For offline installation in openSUSE, once I have the packages from the
>>> packman repository, say -broadcom-wl- and -broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-, how
>>> do I run them altogether and resolve any dependencies issues? I used to
>>> know the appropriate command to run both together but that was something
>>> I figured out from searching internet forums and never cared to verify
>>> like now. I need installation to be offline. Thanks a lot!
>>>
>>> By the way if I could dare recommending anything. Please make these
>>> drivers installation native as Ubuntu has done.
>>
>> As the wl driver is closed-source, openSUSE cannot build it into the
>> distribution. You would need to convince Broadcom to release their stuff
>> under GPL and publish the source code. Until that happens, it cannot
>> happen.
>>
>> The open-source community is working on getting b43 and brcm80211 to
>> support all the chips that are currently handled by wl, but it goes slowly
>> as those 802.11n chips are very complicated. Note that b43 is built-in and
>> only the firmware (also Broadcom closed-source) must be installed
>> separately from the distro, but that is easily done without Internet
>> access with Linux.
>>
>> In short, Broadcom is the bad guy here. Their practices are at odds with
>> the open-source community.
>
>
> Seems like they are moving in the right direction, though?
> http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2486458776.html
> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/broadcom-yes-broadcom-joins-the-linux-
> foundation/8040
Yes, that is a step in the right direction; however, they still will not allow
the redistribution of the firmware for the older devices. If they took that
step, 80% of their devices would work out of the box, and our team is close for
the other 20%.
So, what do we do then? I was going to get the broadcom-wl from packman and put it on a USB to install offline. 11.4 has even managed to break my Ethernet! HP Mini 311-