I haven’t updated this blog in quite a while. I ended up reinstalling Damn Small Linux on my quirky desktop computer to see what had changed after reading a fairly negative review and also because I wasn’t able to sort out the issues with ACPI and my floppy in FreeBSD.
In the meantime, there have been more changes both in my Linux and my BSD worlds
I installed OpenBSD 4.2 on my laptop using the new ISO containing the install sets. One of the reasons was to test the malo driver for Marvell Libertas cards. A friend was so impressed with the function of malo that he asked if he could buy my 3Com card and get me to install OpenBSD for him (wuss, RTFM). I got him to throw in a few more things to sweeten the deal and I was out my favorite card.
I had a DLink USB adapter and a Broadcom 4306-based card left. I loaned (I’m beginning to think permanently) the USB adapter to a friend whose vacation is long since over. I decided to install DSL on the laptop and see how well the Broadcom-based card would work. I had only used the Broadcom card in Windows. I’d used the Prism2-based DLink adapter successfully with FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and (of course) Windows.
Here’s a summary of what happened next:
I was very unhappy with the limited support for my card with the existing kernel, ndiswrapper version, etc., in DSL. I couldn’t scan at all. I couldn’t connect to hidden SSIDs. I had WEP but no WPA. So I ended up compiling kernels and updating wireless extensions, wireless tools, and ndiswrapper in the process. The problem is there are so many limitations with that in the 2.4 kernel and with gcc — roadblocks with wireless extension (max version 18), ndiswrapper (required new toolchain and gcc), etc. It was a big hassle and I was increasingly sure the results would only be marginal.
By the time I realized I was hitting the wall with what was possible with 2.4, I’d already installed some Linux 2.6-based distros to see if support was much better. It was.
I ended up installing VectorLinux 5.9 on the laptop. I was able to get my card working flawlessly the way I want it to: connect to a hidden SSID, use WPA, and have the ability to scan. Those were things I was unable to do to some degree with DSL before or after my attempt to update wifi support for it.
The silver lining of my frustrating experience is DSL is about to go to kernel 2.6. I’m not at liberty to say much else beyond that. But new hardware support will be much better soon.
Over the last few days, I’ve been looking again at re-installing a BSD as my primary OS on desktop and laptop. I thought I would never get support for my Broadcom card in OpenBSD because of the crap from the Linux/bcm43xx community during the bcw controversy and the decision by Theo to exclude any ndis tool that would require blobs to function.
(The reason I side with OpenBSD over the bcm43xx developers is because the way it was handled: there was no attempt to see if the inclusion of their code in a CVS submission was accidental, as it was. Instead, the accusations were made that it was a deliberate violation and attempt to relicense their code — which it wasn’t. Anyone who’s looked at OpenBSD can sense that they pride themselves on their code. Including OpenSSH, which the Linux distros have been using, often without contributions of code or resources to assist development. As to ndis and the refusal to include a tool to kludge a binary driver, I appreciate and can understand Theo’s decision to draw that line.)
What I’ve recently found has made me happy. DragonFlyBSD now has a module for Broadcom chips. This apparently is like bcm43xx-fwcutter since it requires firmware to be installed — not exactly a native driver, but it’s progress. So I got to looking around to see if this is included with any other BSD. It is. Maybe. According to this man page, bwi will be in OpenBSD 4.3.
I need to do a little more investigating. The DragonFlyBSD man page mentions WPA but the OpenBSD man page only mentions WEP. I also want to see if this is available — or will be — in FreeBSD and NetBSD.
I was hoping to have more time to play with all this today, but I just had a change in plans while writing this. I might get around to it tomorrow. Or Monday evening.
