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-
- BCM43xx Linux Driver Project
- ============================
-
-Introduction
-------------
-
-Many of the wireless devices found in modern notebook computers are
-based on the wireless chips produced by Broadcom. These devices have
-been a problem for Linux users as there is no open-source driver
-available. In addition, Broadcom has not released specifications
-for the device, and driver availability has been limited to the
-binary-only form used in the GPL versions of AP hardware such as the
-Linksys WRT54G, and the Windows and OS X drivers. Before this project
-began, the only way to use these devices were to use the Windows or
-OS X drivers with either the Linuxant or ndiswrapper modules. There
-is a strong penalty if this method is used as loading the binary-only
-module "taints" the kernel, and no kernel developer will help diagnose
-any kernel problems.
-
-Development
------------
-
-This driver has been developed using
-a clean-room technique that is described at
-http://bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net/ReverseEngineeringProcess. For legal
-reasons, none of the clean-room crew works on the on the Linux driver,
-and none of the Linux developers sees anything but the specifications,
-which are the ultimate product of the reverse-engineering group.
-
-Software
---------
-
-Since the release of the 2.6.17 kernel, the bcm43xx driver has been
-distributed with the kernel source, and is prebuilt in most, if not
-all, distributions. There is, however, additional software that is
-required. The firmware used by the chip is the intellectual property
-of Broadcom and they have not given the bcm43xx team redistribution
-rights to this firmware. Since we cannot legally redistribute
-the firmware we cannot include it with the driver. Furthermore, it
-cannot be placed in the downloadable archives of any distributing
-organization; therefore, the user is responsible for obtaining the
-firmware and placing it in the appropriate location so that the driver
-can find it when initializing.
-
-To help with this process, the bcm43xx developers provide a separate
-program named bcm43xx-fwcutter to "cut" the firmware out of a
-Windows or OS X driver and write the extracted files to the proper
-location. This program is usually provided with the distribution;
-however, it may be downloaded from
-
-http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4547
-
-The firmware is available in two versions. V3 firmware is used with
-the in-kernel bcm43xx driver that uses a software MAC layer called
-SoftMAC, and will have a microcode revision of 0x127 or smaller. The
-V4 firmware is used by an out-of-kernel driver employing a variation of
-the Devicescape MAC layer known as d80211. Once bcm43xx-d80211 reaches
-a satisfactory level of development, it will replace bcm43xx-softmac
-in the kernel as it is much more flexible and powerful.
-
-A source for the latest V3 firmware is
-
-http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
-
-Once this file is downloaded, the command
-'bcm43xx-fwcutter -w <dir> <filename>'
-will extract the microcode and write it to directory
-<dir>. The correct directory will depend on your distribution;
-however, most use '/lib/firmware'. Once this step is completed,
-the bcm3xx driver should load when the system is booted. To see
-any messages relating to the driver, issue the command 'dmesg |
-grep bcm43xx' from a terminal window. If there are any problems,
-please send that output to Bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de.
-
-Although the driver has been in-kernel since 2.6.17, the earliest
-version is quite limited in its capability. Patches that include
-all features of later versions are available for the stable kernel
-versions from 2.6.18. These will be needed if you use a BCM4318,
-or a PCI Express version (BCM4311 and BCM4312). In addition, if you
-have an early BCM4306 and more than 1 GB RAM, your kernel will need
-to be patched. These patches, which are being updated regularly,
-are available at ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches. Look for
-combined_2.6.YY.patch. Of course you will need kernel source downloaded
-from kernel.org, or the source from your distribution.
-
-If you build your own kernel, please enable CONFIG_BCM43XX_DEBUG
-and CONFIG_IEEE80211_SOFTMAC_DEBUG. The log information provided is
-essential for solving any problems.
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