absurd: network connection required to obtain a network driver

[Przemysław Kulczycki]

Martin Pitt pisze:
> Przemysław Kulczycki [2008-07-03 20:14 +0200]:
>> Owners of Broadcom 43xx cards are in a very unpleasant situation when  
>> they want to install Ubuntu on their laptops/PCs because Ubuntu requires  
>> a network connection to fetch the firmware for the b43/bcm43xx driver.
>>
>> If you don't have another network interface then you're stuck and have  
>> to use another computer or another operating system.
> 
> b43-fwcutter also allows you to extract it from a MacOS CD or a
> windows driver (I only tested this on an old Mac OS 10.1 CD ages ago,
> though).

But it doesn't offer it thru the GUI.
When I tried to do it thru the command line I got a message that the 
file bcmwl5.sys (from my HP laptop driver) is not recognized (wrong 
md5sum). I'll try it later with the --unsupported switch.

>> The b43-fwcutter downloads 2 files from openwrt.org:
>> http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
>> and http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
>> Maybe the guys from openwrt.org could be asked if redistribution of  
>> these files is possible? 
> 
> The problem is that these files are not really legally
> redistributable. openwrt cannot give us permission to redistribute
> something they don't own.

So how did they get their permission?

The guys from the b43 driver are trying to make an open firmware, but it 
will take them few months I guess.

Also the same problem is for ndiswrapper - it's not on the cd even 
though it's open source. I think it should be offered as an alternative 
when an open driver doesn't work or doesn't exist. Something like 
ndisgtk could be integrated into jockey and then jockey would blacklist 
conflicting drivers, if any.
Suprisingly, ndiswrapper is more stable for me than bcm43xx. It also 
allows my card to work on higher distance from the router.(Bug 205114)

Besides, both drivers require me to use the windows drivers, so what's 
the difference on their freedom? Bcm43xx/B43 requires windows drivers 
for firmware extraction. I've used ndiswrapper since breezy, even though 
bcm43xx was available from dapper to gutsy. I guess I'll still use it in 
hardy after all.
-- 
## Przemysław Kulczycki <<>> Azrael Nightwalker ##
# jabber: azrael[na]jabster.pl | tlen: azrael29a #
### www: http://reksio.ftj.agh.edu.pl/~azrael/ ###

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