---
Dru Devore
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
rev 02
From: Larry Finger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, August 13, 2007 8:17 pm
To: Dru Devore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [email protected]
Dru Devore wrote:
> I think the firmware was actually from another download site. It came
> from the apt-get and I have all the available site enabled.
>
> I also tried the bcm43xx-fwcutter on the drivers which "worked" with the
> ndiswrapper that I downloaded from dell. I have not tried the ones that
> came with the computer because they are vista drivers. Would it do any
> good to try the vista drivers?
>
> If the bcm43xx drivers won't work what has to be done get this thing
> working and is there someone who has the time to get me up to speed on
> the driver development so I can do it. Before answering this remember I
> have no driver or Linux development experience. I am an enterprise
> application developer who works in Java.
>
> I will be willing to join the development of this project if I can get
> some help getting started and if it will get my wireless working correctly.
As far as firmware is concerned, it usually doesn't matter whether the driver is for XP or Vista,
only what version it is. That part of the driver is thrown away and replaced by the Linux driver. In
fact, the firmware that I'm using came from the MIPS drivers used in OpenWRT. I like them because
they are small, unlike those humongous Windows drivers, made even worse because you usually have to
download all sorts of support software.
At the moment, we do not have any specifications on how to drive devices with your revision level.
That is what the reverse engineers do. They take Broadcom drivers apart, deduce how they work and
write the specifications. See http://bcm-v4.sipsolutions.net/Specification for examples. The bcm43xx
developers take those web pages and turn them into code. We do not ever see the details of
Broadcom's drivers. If we did, we would be open to lawsuits over theft of intellectual property.
Similarly, the RE's don't touch the Linux-driver code.
If you would like to help with the RE activity, our RE's read this mailing list and will be
contacting you.
Larry
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