wifi, ndiswrapper and 2.6.17 kernels...

[David G. Miller]

Kim Lux <lux at diesel-research.com> wrote: 

>dmesg |grep bcm43
>
>bcm43xx driver
>bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4306, rev 0x3
>bcm43xx: Number of cores: 5
>bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x4, vendor 0x4243, enabled
>bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0x5, vendor 0x4243, disabled
>bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x80d, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, enabled
>bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x807, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, disabled
>bcm43xx: Core 4: ID 0x804, rev 0x9, vendor 0x4243, enabled
>bcm43xx: PHY connected
>bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 2, Type 2, Revision 2
>bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2)
>bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>bcm43xx: set security called
>bcm43xx:    .level = 0
>bcm43xx:    .enabled = 0
>bcm43xx:    .encrypt = 0
>bcm43xx: PHY connected
>bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load
>failed.
>
Yep.  You definitely don't have the firmware where bcm43xx wants it to 
be.  And:

>Next problem... I am running FC4.  It doesn't appear as though fwcutter
>is available in FC4, only FC5 and newer.  And if I try to install
>fwcutter on FC4, I get dependency errors: libc.so.6 is needed.
>
>So is there a way to install 2.6.17 and use wifi without upgrading to
>FC5 ?  Or do I have to upgrade ? 
>
>Thanks.
>
You can get fwcutter from the main bcm43xx development site: 
http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/ and build it locally.  It should build with 
no problems.  That will also get you the README I mentioned.  fwcutter 
is only used to extract the firmware; not at run-time.  You may also be 
able to find a pre-built RPM for FC4 at one of the non-Red Hat repos 
like dries, livna, freshrpms, etc.

I'm continuing to use FC4 and ndiswrapper on my laptop due to the WEP 
authentication problem I mentioned in my original response.  I'm 
planning on upgrading it to FC6 once 6 is stable.  Nothing against FC5 
but it will go to unsupported when FC7 test 2 is released which is 
sooner than I want to have to upgrade again.

Cheers,
Dave

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