Re: How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Felix Friedlander]

> On 2 Apr 2015, at 9:12 am, Johannes Dieterich  wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Felix Friedlander  > wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:12:17 +0300
>>> Alexander Perechnev  wrote:
>>> 
 Hello everyone,
 
 I’ve installed FreeBSD 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012. Everything
 works pretty good, except wireless. It works with [ndis], but it
 doesn’t work with existing [bwi-firmware-kmod] and
 [bwn-firmware-kmod] facilities.
 
 I’ve looked into [bwn] port Makefile
 (https://github.com/aperechnev/freebsd-ports/blob/master/net/bwn-firmware-kmod/Makefile)
 and found that all it does is just to download necessary firmware
 (4.150.10.5 and 4.178.10.4), extracts it via [b43-fwcutter-015] and
 compiles it into kernel module.
 
 So the first problem is that 4th gen firmware does not support my
 BCM4331.
 
 Also i’ve found the [siba-bwn], which recognizes the broadcom
 devices:
 https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/siba/siba_bwn.c.
 
 So summary it seems that it is not so hard to support my BCM4331. I
 have to:
 
 - port [b43-fwcutter-018] to FreeBSD, because earlier versions
 doesn’t work with newest firmware
 - update existing [bwn-firmware-kmod] to point it to newest firmware
 - add my BCM4331 device to [siba-bwn]
 
 I expect that after this steps my BCM4331 should be working. But I am
 new in FreeBSD and I’m just asking you for any help like related
 information, existing problems, links, etc.
 
 I am not sure if I am right in my theory, but for me it seems that it
 should work. So if you know another problems, which I don’t, please
 let me know before I go through this steps.
 
 Thank you for excellent operating system, now it’s my favorite one!
 
 Best regards,
 Alexander Perechnev.
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>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> out of curiosity I reviewed the BCM status.
>>> 
>>> IMO you don't have to port the b43-fwcutter to BSD. It would be nice,
>>> but you can use any Linux to get the firmware (from /lib/firmware/). For
>>> example.
>>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-2/Oneiric#Wireless
>>> 
>>> As of the support, JFYI
>>> BCM4331 Linux driver is provided by Broadcom
>>> http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README_6.30.223.248.txt
>>> 
>>> ,there is no support in the Linux kernel atm
>>> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/brcm80211
>>> 
>>> and I'm not sure, where do the bwi/bwn drivers come from (to see how
>>> probable is the support of BCM4331).
>>> bwi -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
>>> bwn -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>>  -vlado
>> Just out of curiosity, is anyone working on this ATM? I’ve had the same 
>> problem, and it is (no offence to anyone intended) a bit ridiculous that the 
>> latest Broadcom chips we support are around 5 years old now. I don’t 
>> actually know enough to say this for sure, but judging by the first message 
>> it looks like this is a (relatively) simple fix  - simply add newer firmware 
>> and sell siba to detect the new cards. Is this the case, or am I misreading 
>> the whole situation?
> Well, looking at the commit history of both the siba source and the
> port containing the firmware binaries, I'd say the driver is in
> maintenance mode since March 2010. Which nicely lines up with the five
> year old chips, unfortunately. No idea if it is indeed as simple as
> adding a few PCI-IDs and the binaries but if you have such a device,
> maybe you could try it?
I’ll try, however my coding skills are truly woeful :-). I have access to 
devices with BCM4331 and BCM43224 (I’m a convert from the Mac world), as well 
as older ones to make sure I don’t break anything.
> 
>> Also, the Broadcom-provided linux STA driver you referenced above is not 
>> very widely used - b43 (the kernel driver) is much more common, and requires 
>> extracting the firmware just like the FreeBSD drivers. See 
>> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 
>> 
> The page also claims that the operation of b43 is limited to 11g? Is
> this correct?
Nope, it’s not. b43 can do 11n for sure, not sure about 11ac or others. b43 is 
a much more capable driver than the wl STA driver, and is also open (as opposed 
to the STA which is sort-of, kind-of open depending on who you ask).
> Johannes

--
Felix Friedlander 



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Re: How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Johannes Dieterich]

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Felix Friedlander  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:12:17 +0300
>> Alexander Perechnev  wrote:
>>
>>> Hello everyone,
>>>
>>> I’ve installed FreeBSD 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012. Everything
>>> works pretty good, except wireless. It works with [ndis], but it
>>> doesn’t work with existing [bwi-firmware-kmod] and
>>> [bwn-firmware-kmod] facilities.
>>>
>>> I’ve looked into [bwn] port Makefile
>>> (https://github.com/aperechnev/freebsd-ports/blob/master/net/bwn-firmware-kmod/Makefile)
>>> and found that all it does is just to download necessary firmware
>>> (4.150.10.5 and 4.178.10.4), extracts it via [b43-fwcutter-015] and
>>> compiles it into kernel module.
>>>
>>> So the first problem is that 4th gen firmware does not support my
>>> BCM4331.
>>>
>>> Also i’ve found the [siba-bwn], which recognizes the broadcom
>>> devices:
>>> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/siba/siba_bwn.c.
>>>
>>> So summary it seems that it is not so hard to support my BCM4331. I
>>> have to:
>>>
>>> - port [b43-fwcutter-018] to FreeBSD, because earlier versions
>>> doesn’t work with newest firmware
>>> - update existing [bwn-firmware-kmod] to point it to newest firmware
>>> - add my BCM4331 device to [siba-bwn]
>>>
>>> I expect that after this steps my BCM4331 should be working. But I am
>>> new in FreeBSD and I’m just asking you for any help like related
>>> information, existing problems, links, etc.
>>>
>>> I am not sure if I am right in my theory, but for me it seems that it
>>> should work. So if you know another problems, which I don’t, please
>>> let me know before I go through this steps.
>>>
>>> Thank you for excellent operating system, now it’s my favorite one!
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Alexander Perechnev.
>>> ___
>>> freebsd-wireless at freebsd.org mailing list
>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-wireless
>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
>>> "freebsd-wireless-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> out of curiosity I reviewed the BCM status.
>>
>> IMO you don't have to port the b43-fwcutter to BSD. It would be nice,
>> but you can use any Linux to get the firmware (from /lib/firmware/). For
>> example.
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-2/Oneiric#Wireless
>>
>> As of the support, JFYI
>> BCM4331 Linux driver is provided by Broadcom
>> http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README_6.30.223.248.txt
>>
>> ,there is no support in the Linux kernel atm
>> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/brcm80211
>>
>> and I'm not sure, where do the bwi/bwn drivers come from (to see how
>> probable is the support of BCM4331).
>> bwi -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
>> bwn -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>   -vlado
> Just out of curiosity, is anyone working on this ATM? I’ve had the same 
> problem, and it is (no offence to anyone intended) a bit ridiculous that the 
> latest Broadcom chips we support are around 5 years old now. I don’t actually 
> know enough to say this for sure, but judging by the first message it looks 
> like this is a (relatively) simple fix  - simply add newer firmware and sell 
> siba to detect the new cards. Is this the case, or am I misreading the whole 
> situation?
Well, looking at the commit history of both the siba source and the
port containing the firmware binaries, I'd say the driver is in
maintenance mode since March 2010. Which nicely lines up with the five
year old chips, unfortunately. No idea if it is indeed as simple as
adding a few PCI-IDs and the binaries but if you have such a device,
maybe you could try it?


> Also, the Broadcom-provided linux STA driver you referenced above is not very 
> widely used - b43 (the kernel driver) is much more common, and requires 
> extracting the firmware just like the FreeBSD drivers. See 
> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
The page also claims that the operation of b43 is limited to 11g? Is
this correct?

Johannes
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Re: How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Adrian Chadd]

Hi,

Someone just needs to own this and make it work. :)

I already took part ownership of chasing down and fixing iwn(4) as
well as all the stuff needing to happen to ath(4) and the intel 7260
driver. I don't have the bandwidth to make the broadcom stuff happen.

The TL;DR is this - no, noone but you can do it. ;)



-adrian
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Re: How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Felix Friedlander]

> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:12:17 +0300
> Alexander Perechnev  wrote:
> 
>> Hello everyone,
>> 
>> I’ve installed FreeBSD 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012. Everything
>> works pretty good, except wireless. It works with [ndis], but it
>> doesn’t work with existing [bwi-firmware-kmod] and
>> [bwn-firmware-kmod] facilities.
>> 
>> I’ve looked into [bwn] port Makefile
>> (https://github.com/aperechnev/freebsd-ports/blob/master/net/bwn-firmware-kmod/Makefile)
>> and found that all it does is just to download necessary firmware
>> (4.150.10.5 and 4.178.10.4), extracts it via [b43-fwcutter-015] and
>> compiles it into kernel module.
>> 
>> So the first problem is that 4th gen firmware does not support my
>> BCM4331.
>> 
>> Also i’ve found the [siba-bwn], which recognizes the broadcom
>> devices:
>> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/siba/siba_bwn.c.
>> 
>> So summary it seems that it is not so hard to support my BCM4331. I
>> have to:
>> 
>> - port [b43-fwcutter-018] to FreeBSD, because earlier versions
>> doesn’t work with newest firmware
>> - update existing [bwn-firmware-kmod] to point it to newest firmware
>> - add my BCM4331 device to [siba-bwn]
>> 
>> I expect that after this steps my BCM4331 should be working. But I am
>> new in FreeBSD and I’m just asking you for any help like related
>> information, existing problems, links, etc.
>> 
>> I am not sure if I am right in my theory, but for me it seems that it
>> should work. So if you know another problems, which I don’t, please
>> let me know before I go through this steps.
>> 
>> Thank you for excellent operating system, now it’s my favorite one!
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Alexander Perechnev.
>> ___
>> freebsd-wireless at freebsd.org mailing list
>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-wireless
>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
>> "freebsd-wireless-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> 
> Hi,
> 
> out of curiosity I reviewed the BCM status.
> 
> IMO you don't have to port the b43-fwcutter to BSD. It would be nice,
> but you can use any Linux to get the firmware (from /lib/firmware/). For
> example.
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-2/Oneiric#Wireless
> 
> As of the support, JFYI
> BCM4331 Linux driver is provided by Broadcom
> http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README_6.30.223.248.txt
> 
> ,there is no support in the Linux kernel atm
> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/brcm80211
> 
> and I'm not sure, where do the bwi/bwn drivers come from (to see how
> probable is the support of BCM4331).
> bwi -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
> bwn -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
>   -vlado
Just out of curiosity, is anyone working on this ATM? I’ve had the same 
problem, and it is (no offence to anyone intended) a bit ridiculous that the 
latest Broadcom chips we support are around 5 years old now. I don’t actually 
know enough to say this for sure, but judging by the first message it looks 
like this is a (relatively) simple fix  - simply add newer firmware and sell 
siba to detect the new cards. Is this the case, or am I misreading the whole 
situation?

Also, the Broadcom-provided linux STA driver you referenced above is not very 
widely used - b43 (the kernel driver) is much more common, and requires 
extracting the firmware just like the FreeBSD drivers. See 
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
--
Felix Friedlander 



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Re: How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Vladimir Botka]

Hi,

On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:12:17 +0300
Alexander Perechnev  wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> I’ve installed FreeBSD 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012. Everything
> works pretty good, except wireless. It works with [ndis], but it
> doesn’t work with existing [bwi-firmware-kmod] and
> [bwn-firmware-kmod] facilities.
> 
> I’ve looked into [bwn] port Makefile
> (https://github.com/aperechnev/freebsd-ports/blob/master/net/bwn-firmware-kmod/Makefile)
> and found that all it does is just to download necessary firmware
> (4.150.10.5 and 4.178.10.4), extracts it via [b43-fwcutter-015] and
> compiles it into kernel module.
> 
> So the first problem is that 4th gen firmware does not support my
> BCM4331.
> 
> Also i’ve found the [siba-bwn], which recognizes the broadcom
> devices:
> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/siba/siba_bwn.c.
> 
> So summary it seems that it is not so hard to support my BCM4331. I
> have to:
> 
> - port [b43-fwcutter-018] to FreeBSD, because earlier versions
> doesn’t work with newest firmware
> - update existing [bwn-firmware-kmod] to point it to newest firmware
> - add my BCM4331 device to [siba-bwn]
> 
> I expect that after this steps my BCM4331 should be working. But I am
> new in FreeBSD and I’m just asking you for any help like related
> information, existing problems, links, etc.
> 
> I am not sure if I am right in my theory, but for me it seems that it
> should work. So if you know another problems, which I don’t, please
> let me know before I go through this steps.
> 
> Thank you for excellent operating system, now it’s my favorite one!
> 
> Best regards,
> Alexander Perechnev.
> ___
> freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-wireless
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
> "freebsd-wireless-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Hi,

out of curiosity I reviewed the BCM status.

IMO you don't have to port the b43-fwcutter to BSD. It would be nice,
but you can use any Linux to get the firmware (from /lib/firmware/). For
example.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-2/Oneiric#Wireless

As of the support, JFYI
BCM4331 Linux driver is provided by Broadcom
http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README_6.30.223.248.txt

,there is no support in the Linux kernel atm
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/brcm80211

and I'm not sure, where do the bwi/bwn drivers come from (to see how
probable is the support of BCM4331).
bwi -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
bwn -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver


Cheers,

-vlado


pgpmnoETYTw9l.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Alexander Perechnev]

Hello everyone,

I’ve installed FreeBSD 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012. Everything works 
pretty good, except wireless. It works with [ndis], but it doesn’t work with 
existing [bwi-firmware-kmod] and [bwn-firmware-kmod] facilities.

I’ve looked into [bwn] port Makefile 
(https://github.com/aperechnev/freebsd-ports/blob/master/net/bwn-firmware-kmod/Makefile)
 and found that all it does is just to download necessary firmware (4.150.10.5 
and 4.178.10.4), extracts it via [b43-fwcutter-015] and compiles it into kernel 
module.

So the first problem is that 4th gen firmware does not support my BCM4331.

Also i’ve found the [siba-bwn], which recognizes the broadcom devices: 
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/siba/siba_bwn.c.

So summary it seems that it is not so hard to support my BCM4331. I have to:

- port [b43-fwcutter-018] to FreeBSD, because earlier versions doesn’t work 
with newest firmware
- update existing [bwn-firmware-kmod] to point it to newest firmware
- add my BCM4331 device to [siba-bwn]

I expect that after this steps my BCM4331 should be working. But I am new in 
FreeBSD and I’m just asking you for any help like related information, existing 
problems, links, etc.

I am not sure if I am right in my theory, but for me it seems that it should 
work. So if you know another problems, which I don’t, please let me know before 
I go through this steps.

Thank you for excellent operating system, now it’s my favorite one!

Best regards,
Alexander Perechnev.
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