[ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Henry Ptasinski]

Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
   The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
improving the driver.

The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:

	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git

in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.

---
Henry Ptasinski
henryp@broadcom.com

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Sep 09, 2010 at 08:10:06AM -0700, Henry Ptasinski wrote:
> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
>   The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> improving the driver.
> 
> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> 
> 	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
> 
> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.

Obviously we are all thrilled to see Broadcom take this step, which
I know involved a lot of soul-searching within their organization. :-)

I hope we can use this as a base for productive cooperation between
Broadcom's wireless folks and the greater Linux community for along
time to come!

John

P.S.  I knew that January 2007 meeting in London was good for something... :-)
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville@tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Nick Kossifidis]

2010/9/9 Henry Ptasinski <henryp@broadcom.com>:
> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
>  The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> improving the driver.
>
> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
>
>
>  git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
>
> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
>

Congratulations to everyone involved, thanks a lot for this !!!



-- 
GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
Nick

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Yuhong Bao]

Henry Ptasinski <henryp@...> writes:

> 
> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
>    The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> improving the driver.
> 
> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> 
> 	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
> 
> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.

This is limited to newer chips. Can you at least authorize redistribution of
firmware blobs for older chips so that b43-fwcutter won't be needed anymore? I
have such a laptop myself with one of the older chips, and I remember the pains
of having to download it after booting from a LiveCD.

RE: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Yuhong Bao]

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git;a=tree;f=drivers/staging/brcm80211;hb=a9533e7ea3c410fed2f4cd8b3e1e213e48529b75

________________________________
> Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:03:53 +0800
> Subject: Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips
> From: machen@novell.com
> To: yuhongbao_386@hotmail.com
> CC: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
>
> Hi all,
> I don't see there is drivers/staging/brcm80211 in
> drivers/staging/brcm80211. Anyone found it yet ?
>
> 2010/9/10 Yuhong Bao
> Henry Ptasinski writes:
>
> >
> > Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> > Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets. The driver,
> > while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> > native mac80211 stack. It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> > BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> > additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
> > The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> > details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> > improving the driver.
> >
> > The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> >
> >
> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
> >
> > in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
>
> This is limited to newer chips. Can you at least authorize redistribution of
> firmware blobs for older chips so that b43-fwcutter won't be needed
> anymore? I
> have such a laptop myself with one of the older chips, and I remember
> the pains
> of having to download it after booting from a LiveCD.
>
>
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>
>
>
> --
> Matt Chen
> Engineer
> Novell Asia Pacific
> Tel : +886- 2- 27370946 ext 507
> Fax : +886- 2- 27370947
> Novell Making IT Work As One
 		 	   		  

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Mike Rapoport]

Hi Henry,

Henry Ptasinski wrote:
> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
>   The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> improving the driver.
> 
> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> 
>     git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git 
> 
> 
> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.

Are there any plans to support BCM4319 and BCM4329 SDIO chipsets?

> ---
> Henry Ptasinski
> henryp@broadcom.com
> 
> -- 
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
> linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html


-- 
Sincerely yours,
Mike.

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Greg KH]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 09:59:48AM +0200, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> Hi Henry,
> 
> Henry Ptasinski wrote:
> >Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> >Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> >while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> >native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> >BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> >additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
> >  The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> >details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> >improving the driver.
> >
> >The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> >
> >    git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
> >
> >
> >in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
> 
> Are there any plans to support BCM4319 and BCM4329 SDIO chipsets?

I think those are supported by the broadcom driver in the android kernel
trees, right?  If so, yes, there are plans for merging them into the
main kernel tree, and any help you can provide would be appreciated.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Qasim Javed]

Wow, very excited about Broadcom taking this step.

Thanks for the efforts of everyone involved in this.

-Qasim

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Henry Ptasinski <henryp@broadcom.com> wrote:
> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
>  The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> improving the driver.
>
> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
>
>
>  git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
>
> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
>
> ---
> Henry Ptasinski
> henryp@broadcom.com
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Jason]

Greg,

Greg KH wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 09:59:48AM +0200, Mike Rapoport wrote:
>> Hi Henry,
>> 
>> Henry Ptasinski wrote:
>>> Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a
>>> fully-open Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n
>>> chipsets.  The driver, while still a work in progress, is
>>> released as full source and uses the native mac80211 stack.   It
>>> supports multiple current chips (BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225) as
>>> well as providing a framework for supporting additional chips in
>>> the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips. The README
>>> and TODO files included with the sources provide more details
>>> about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for 
>>> improving the driver.
>>> 
>>> The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree,
>>> available at:
>>> 
>>> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
>> Are there any plans to support BCM4319 and BCM4329 SDIO chipsets?
> 
> I think those are supported by the broadcom driver in the android
> kernel trees, right?

I know the BCM4329 is, it's in the Nexus One.  

> If so, yes, there are plans for merging them into the main kernel
> tree, and any help you can provide would be appreciated.
> 

I'm currently working through the checkpatch issues for staging/brcm80211/*, so far, I've done:

ERROR: "foo * bar" should be "foo *bar"
ERROR: open brace '{' following function dec...
ERROR: return is not a function, paren...
ERROR: do not use assignment in if condition
ERROR: trailing statements should be on next line
ERROR: that open brace { ... prev line
ERROR: while should follow close brace '}'
ERROR: do not initialise globals to 0 or NULL
ERROR: do not initialise statics to 0 or NULL
ERROR: Macros w/ complex values ... parenthesis
ERROR: Macros w/ mult. statements ... do - while loop

The only remaining errors are whitespace, then I'll move on to warnings.  

Since this is my first large (arguably trivial ;-) ) patchset, do you want them one by one as I finish them, or the whole thing in one shot?

btw, each "ERROR: ..." line above is one commit.

thx,

Jason.

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Greg KH]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 02:58:18PM -0400, Jason wrote:
> I'm currently working through the checkpatch issues for
> staging/brcm80211/*, so far, I've done:
>
> ERROR: "foo * bar" should be "foo *bar"
> ERROR: open brace '{' following function dec...
> ERROR: return is not a function, paren...
> ERROR: do not use assignment in if condition
> ERROR: trailing statements should be on next line
> ERROR: that open brace { ... prev line
> ERROR: while should follow close brace '}'
> ERROR: do not initialise globals to 0 or NULL
> ERROR: do not initialise statics to 0 or NULL
> ERROR: Macros w/ complex values ... parenthesis
> ERROR: Macros w/ mult. statements ... do - while loop
>
> The only remaining errors are whitespace, then I'll move on to warnings.  
> Since this is my first large (arguably trivial ;-) ) patchset, do you
> want them one by one as I finish them, or the whole thing in one shot?

One thing per commit please.

> btw, each "ERROR: ..." line above is one commit.

Great, so you should be all set.  Send them on, I'll queue them up :)

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [ANN] Full-source Broadcom wireless driver for 11n chips

[Dan Williams]

On Mon, 2010-09-13 at 08:42 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 09:59:48AM +0200, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> > Hi Henry,
> > 
> > Henry Ptasinski wrote:
> > >Broadcom would like to announce the initial release of a fully-open
> > >Linux driver for it's latest generation of 11n chipsets.  The driver,
> > >while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the
> > >native mac80211 stack.   It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313,
> > >BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting
> > >additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
> > >  The README and TODO files included with the sources provide more
> > >details about the current feature set, known issues, and plans for
> > >improving the driver.
> > >
> > >The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:
> > >
> > >    git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git
> > >
> > >
> > >in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory.
> > 
> > Are there any plans to support BCM4319 and BCM4329 SDIO chipsets?
> 
> I think those are supported by the broadcom driver in the android kernel
> trees, right?  If so, yes, there are plans for merging them into the
> main kernel tree, and any help you can provide would be appreciated.

That driver is convoluted; it's going to be a lot of work.  There are
simply too  many abstraction layers for one; I had to touch about 5
functions in 4 files just to get the driver to pass its 'struct device'
from the SDIO probe functions to where it called alloc_etherdev() so
that it called SET_NETDEV_DEV() so that its sysfs 'driver' link was
correctly set up.  I hope somebody is getting paid to do the cleanup :)

Dan