Hi,
After updating today to kernel 2.6.23-0.135.rc3.git7.fc8, my BCM wireless card broke (again). The previous kernel (2.6.23-0.129.rc3.git4.fc8) worked well.
This time the problem was easy to find: in dmesg I got:
Aug 25 17:41:42 sixtyfour kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed. Aug 25 17:41:42 sixtyfour kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/bcm43xx#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 4).
Despite the helpful message, the problem was not getting a driver, but being able to cut the firmware: the bcm43xx-fwcutter tool doesn't work with this new b43 version.
Googling a bit I found that fwcutter changed: now 'b43-fwcutter' is needed.
It doesn't seems to be a b43-fwcutter in rawhide repositories:
# yum list '*b43*' Error: No matching Packages to list # yum list '*fwcutter*' Installed Packages bcm43xx-fwcutter.i386 006-3.fc8 installed #
Getting the tarball (If anybody else needs it, you can get it at http://prdownload.berlios.de/bcm43xx/b43-fwcutter-008.tar.bz2) worked, and now I'm using the latest-and-greatest kernel.
Maybe a nicer way to handle these changes would be delivering the needed package to the repositories, sending a heads-up to Fedora testers list, and then changing the kernel.
Dino.
On Sat, 2007-08-25 at 19:44 +0200, Dino Leonardo Sangoi wrote:
Maybe a nicer way to handle these changes would be delivering the needed package to the repositories, sending a heads-up to Fedora testers list, and then changing the kernel.
Yeah, John and I did discuss it briefly, and I think he was going to create a new b43-fwcutter package and submit it for review.
Rawhide is... well, rawhide. You get to keep both pieces when it breaks. But I agree that before we switch F-7 to the new driver (which we'd like to do, because it's better), we should have a slightly more coherent strategy in place.
If we could find a way to 'convert' the old-style extracted firmware to the new format, that would make it a lot easier -- it could be a %post script in b43-fwcutter then, and the new kernel could require b43-fwcutter (or conflict with bcm43xx-fwcutter, perhaps).
2007/8/25, David Woodhouse dwmw2@infradead.org:
On Sat, 2007-08-25 at 19:44 +0200, Dino Leonardo Sangoi wrote:
Maybe a nicer way to handle these changes would be delivering the needed package to the repositories, sending a heads-up to Fedora testers list, and then changing the kernel.
Yeah, John and I did discuss it briefly, and I think he was going to create a new b43-fwcutter package and submit it for review.
Rawhide is... well, rawhide. You get to keep both pieces when it breaks. But I agree that before we switch F-7 to the new driver (which we'd like to do, because it's better), we should have a slightly more coherent strategy in place.
Well the (b43) driver already hit Fedora7 repository because we can have modinfo b43 (with an alias bcm43xx-mac80211) using the last kernel... This module was blacklisted but somehow, the blacklist "fails". A user reported that his "ndis" driver showed him a b43 alternative...(and b43.ko was loaded preventing the "ndis" one to work)
This already happened that the blacklist fails. I don't remember if there is a tips for it...
It is possible to have the new extractor to be bundled within the old one ? (then the it will Provides: b43-fwcutter. And users get both versions of the firmware extracted by the same command ? That's just an idea...
If we could find a way to 'convert' the old-style extracted firmware to the new format, that would make it a lot easier -- it could be a %post script in b43-fwcutter then, and the new kernel could require b43-fwcutter (or conflict with bcm43xx-fwcutter, perhaps).
I think they can be parallel installable, i wonder if b43-fwcutter can have Provides: bcm43xx-fwcutter = (something > 006-3%{?dist}) without obsoleting bcm43xx-fxcutter so it will bring b43-fwcutter at "download time" before the users reboot on a new kernel that can potentially breaks his network (If using wireless to get yum updates)
Nicolas (kwizart)
-- dwmw2
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