[quote]Broadcom, the world's largest manufacturer of Wi-Fi transceivers, open sources its Linux device drivers. This is a big win for Linux users, as there are a lot of users that face Wi-Fi problems when they use Linux on their laptops. With these device drivers now open source, distributions can ship them out-of-the-box, and that means no Linux Wi-Fi problems for new devices and upcoming distributions at all.[/quote]
[url=http://www.osnews.com/story/23786/BREAKING_BROADCOM_OPEN_SOURCES_WIRELESS_DRIVERS]Source[/url]
Didn't really think this news would be welcomed in the News Sub-Forum.
Hopefully this will remove all the hassle of installing ubuntu on my desktop and having to share internet from my netbook while running some odd terminal commands to make my wmp54gs work.
Doesn't mean much, the b43 drivers always have worked for me.
Although it is always nice to see manufacturers embracing open-source, as did Buffalo with DDWRT.
They've had their source code out for a long time now.
yeah but the drivers still suck for all their cards.
[QUOTE=Sonicfan574;24812648]They've had their source code out for a long time now.[/QUOTE]
Yes but without them being open source its illegal for them to provide them with the os for anyone who doesn't own the required device. So currently you have to connect to the internet and call a couple of commands which love to not work to get wireless drivers working. Hopefully this will fix that.
Before you say MAKING WIRELESS WORK IS EASY, seriously just look;
[url]http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185174[/url]
Are they going to be merged upstream now? I've always had to install them from the AUR.
[QUOTE=ButtsexV2;24814226]yeah but the drivers still suck for all their cards.[/QUOTE]
Well now you can write your own. :haw:
[editline]12:35AM[/editline]
Hopefully Canonical will start shipping Ubuntu ISOs with open-source Broadcom drivers... here's to hoping. :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Pixel Heart;24817923]Hopefully Canonical will start shipping Ubuntu ISOs with open-source Broadcom drivers... here's to hoping. :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
They did before
[QUOTE=Sonicfan574;24821205]They did before[/QUOTE]
Of course they're going to do it again. Many people have shitloads of trouble with broadcom stuff, so it's a not an option not to do it.
[QUOTE=RoBaDoB;24817772]Yes but without them being open source its illegal for them to provide them with the os for anyone who doesn't own the required device. So currently you have to connect to the internet and call a couple of commands which love to not work to get wireless drivers working. Hopefully this will fix that.[/QUOTE]
Completely missed my point.
Awesome, now I won't have to disable and re-enable wifi to connect to a regular network after disconnecting from an ad-hoc (Android wireless tether), and endure the occasional (it's happened just once so far) kernel panic where everything just locks up as I try and disable wifi.
Now meaning sometime in the late future when some awesome driver programmers fix all the issues.
[QUOTE=Sonicfan574;24832482]Completely missed my point.[/QUOTE]
They may have had it, but they couldn't legally use it to include the drivers for anyone without the hardware from what i understood.
[QUOTE=Sonicfan574;24821205]They did before[/QUOTE]
The b43 driver has always needed the non free firmware blob from Broadcom. That's what b43-fwcutter was all about. So no, the driver was never totally open source.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;24852228]The b43 driver has always needed the non free firmware blob from Broadcom. That's what b43-fwcutter was all about. So no, the driver was never totally open source.[/QUOTE]
Thats what I mean... I have to use my Nintendo Wireless USB stick to get online, so I can install the b43 firmware cutter + firmware to get my internal wireless working, when I'd like it to come in the ISO in the first place...
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