Arne Chr. Jorgensen wrote: > Possible to explain what the 11N is ? It is shorthand for 802.11n, which is the latest, and not yet finalized, standard for wireless communications. > > I am a bit confused, don't really know how these pieces play together. > Broadcom's > stuff, is that a separate module like a PCMCIA card or something ? Or > are we talking > about a single silicon-chip ? Why reverse engineer ?
The Broadcom wireless chips require a complicated interaction between the host CPU and the chip's processor. The specifications for this interaction have not been published by Broadcom. The existance of a native Linux driver has depended on the collaborative effort of two groups. The first of them (the reverse engineers) has taken the binary drivers supplied by Broadcom for various operating systems, decompiled them, and written a set of specifications for the chip. The second group has taken those specifications and written a Linux driver. > > Meaning: - I understand that Linux need a driver, but are Broadcom, HP, > and others, > reluctant in supplying needed information ? ( have been in contact with > HP, nVidia, but > not Broadcom yet ) Broadcom has not supplied any information to any of us. > My spesific situation is that I'll return the damn thing to Compac/HP > and will go > to some other supplier. I am in search for hardware that will run Linux, > but they > will not give me any clear answer. They don't seem willing to suggest > any product that > will meet this criteria either. So ? A great many HP/Compaq laptops run Linux very well. For example, I have had an HP dv2125nr for about 6 months, and I am using openSUSE 10.2 on it. Every piece of hardware works on it using a native Linux driver except for the modem and the xD card reader. > Someone mentioned a "Ndiswrapper" - is that the same thing ? Ndiswrapper is a Linux driver that encloses the Windows driver for your network device. It works, but has two main disadvantages. The first is that you run unchecked Windows binary in the inner-most ring of your OS and you have the potential to encounter the same kinds of bugs that cause "Blue Screens of Death" in Windows. The second problem is that no Linux developer will even look at any Linux kernel crashes because of the first problem. > Above, I did ask if the Broadcom thing was a seperate module. If so, > can't the whole > module be replaced with something else ? Something that does run under > Linux ? > Other options for wireless ? The wireless is likely to be a mini-PCIe card. You could swap it for a BCM4311 card. You can always get a USB module that has a chip supported by a native Linux driver. > Any good tip as to what is the best notebook/laptop to shop for, in > order to run Linux ? Besides the wireless problem, the second area of difficulty is with disk controllers, which I think is the reason for the crashes you noted in your first post. Since laptops switched to SATA controllers, the changes have been very rapid. My suggestions for a laptop purchase are as follows: If you really want to be certain, buy a laptop with Linux preinstalled. At the moment, Dell is the only mass producer that fits this category. For the units that come with Windows: (1) Stay away from the "just-introduced, latest and greatest" models. The model that came out 3 months ago is more likely to be supported. (2) If possible, take the installation DVD for F7, F8 (in trial) , openSUSE 10.3 (out in beta), or some other recent distro with you to the shop and tell them you won't buy the model unless the computer can boot that CD and report the details of the DVD ROM and hard drives. The kernel in that DVD should be no earlier than 2.6.21 - the later the better. For test purposes, you can try an i386 DVD on an x86_64 processor; however, for final installation you should use only the x86_64 version if your system supports it. I'll never go back. (3) For Broadcom wireless, look for BCM4311 or BCM4312 cards. Stay away from pre-N stuff. Good luck, Larry _______________________________________________ Bcm43xx-dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev
