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1 | |||
2 | BCM43xx Linux Driver Project | ||
3 | ============================ | ||
4 | |||
5 | Introduction | ||
6 | ------------ | ||
7 | |||
8 | Many of the wireless devices found in modern notebook computers are | ||
9 | based on the wireless chips produced by Broadcom. These devices have | ||
10 | been a problem for Linux users as there is no open-source driver | ||
11 | available. In addition, Broadcom has not released specifications | ||
12 | for the device, and driver availability has been limited to the | ||
13 | binary-only form used in the GPL versions of AP hardware such as the | ||
14 | Linksys WRT54G, and the Windows and OS X drivers. Before this project | ||
15 | began, the only way to use these devices were to use the Windows or | ||
16 | OS X drivers with either the Linuxant or ndiswrapper modules. There | ||
17 | is a strong penalty if this method is used as loading the binary-only | ||
18 | module "taints" the kernel, and no kernel developer will help diagnose | ||
19 | any kernel problems. | ||
20 | |||
21 | Development | ||
22 | ----------- | ||
23 | |||
24 | This driver has been developed using | ||
25 | a clean-room technique that is described at | ||
26 | http://bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net/ReverseEngineeringProcess. For legal | ||
27 | reasons, none of the clean-room crew works on the on the Linux driver, | ||
28 | and none of the Linux developers sees anything but the specifications, | ||
29 | which are the ultimate product of the reverse-engineering group. | ||
30 | |||
31 | Software | ||
32 | -------- | ||
33 | |||
34 | Since the release of the 2.6.17 kernel, the bcm43xx driver has been | ||
35 | distributed with the kernel source, and is prebuilt in most, if not | ||
36 | all, distributions. There is, however, additional software that is | ||
37 | required. The firmware used by the chip is the intellectual property | ||
38 | of Broadcom and they have not given the bcm43xx team redistribution | ||
39 | rights to this firmware. Since we cannot legally redistribute | ||
40 | the firmware we cannot include it with the driver. Furthermore, it | ||
41 | cannot be placed in the downloadable archives of any distributing | ||
42 | organization; therefore, the user is responsible for obtaining the | ||
43 | firmware and placing it in the appropriate location so that the driver | ||
44 | can find it when initializing. | ||
45 | |||
46 | To help with this process, the bcm43xx developers provide a separate | ||
47 | program named bcm43xx-fwcutter to "cut" the firmware out of a | ||
48 | Windows or OS X driver and write the extracted files to the proper | ||
49 | location. This program is usually provided with the distribution; | ||
50 | however, it may be downloaded from | ||
51 | |||
52 | http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4547 | ||
53 | |||
54 | The firmware is available in two versions. V3 firmware is used with | ||
55 | the in-kernel bcm43xx driver that uses a software MAC layer called | ||
56 | SoftMAC, and will have a microcode revision of 0x127 or smaller. The | ||
57 | V4 firmware is used by an out-of-kernel driver employing a variation of | ||
58 | the Devicescape MAC layer known as d80211. Once bcm43xx-d80211 reaches | ||
59 | a satisfactory level of development, it will replace bcm43xx-softmac | ||
60 | in the kernel as it is much more flexible and powerful. | ||
61 | |||
62 | A source for the latest V3 firmware is | ||
63 | |||
64 | http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o | ||
65 | |||
66 | Once this file is downloaded, the command | ||
67 | 'bcm43xx-fwcutter -w <dir> <filename>' | ||
68 | will extract the microcode and write it to directory | ||
69 | <dir>. The correct directory will depend on your distribution; | ||
70 | however, most use '/lib/firmware'. Once this step is completed, | ||
71 | the bcm3xx driver should load when the system is booted. To see | ||
72 | any messages relating to the driver, issue the command 'dmesg | | ||
73 | grep bcm43xx' from a terminal window. If there are any problems, | ||
74 | please send that output to Bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de. | ||
75 | |||
76 | Although the driver has been in-kernel since 2.6.17, the earliest | ||
77 | version is quite limited in its capability. Patches that include | ||
78 | all features of later versions are available for the stable kernel | ||
79 | versions from 2.6.18. These will be needed if you use a BCM4318, | ||
80 | or a PCI Express version (BCM4311 and BCM4312). In addition, if you | ||
81 | have an early BCM4306 and more than 1 GB RAM, your kernel will need | ||
82 | to be patched. These patches, which are being updated regularly, | ||
83 | are available at ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches. Look for | ||
84 | combined_2.6.YY.patch. Of course you will need kernel source downloaded | ||
85 | from kernel.org, or the source from your distribution. | ||
86 | |||
87 | If you build your own kernel, please enable CONFIG_BCM43XX_DEBUG | ||
88 | and CONFIG_IEEE80211_SOFTMAC_DEBUG. The log information provided is | ||
89 | essential for solving any problems. | ||