How to make working new Broadcom chips like BCM4331?

[Vladimir Botka]

Hi,

On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:12:17 +0300
Alexander Perechnev <herfleisch at me.com> 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
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