Re: Broadcom hybrid_wl driver
On Sun, 2008-10-26 at 22:21 +0000, Chris Nolan wrote:
Jarod Wilson wrote:
>
> Heh, sorry 'bout that... Although to be honest, I dunno that I'd suggest
> a kmod as a first package for *anyone*, since they consist of so much
> black magic... :)
>
> However, I'd be perfectly happy if you wanted to take this on as its
> primary maintainer, with me as a co-maintainer.
>
>
Fair point about a kmod not being an ideal place to start! I've tried to
read a fair bit about kmodtool and packaging kmods but clearly my
understanding is still rather limited. However I felt it was important
to start with a package that I actually use on a day-to-day basis so
that I'm in a good position to follow the development and
find/apply/create new patches.
I'd be delighted to have you as a co-maintainer - it would be great to
have someone to learn from and help answer any questions or problems I
come across!
Works for me! :)
> Okay, so back to the Linux side and the hybrid_wl driver... I
get no
> better than ~350KB/s. I presume the driver isn't handling the
> single-antenna very well or something, but a buddy of mine who also got
> a Dell w/the same card said hybrid_wl performed pretty badly for him too
> (the Dell has two antenna internally), but was having stability issues
> with ndiswrapper. I've used ndiswrapper w/the BCM432<something> chip in
> my AppleTV with excellent results though, so I'm off to try that next...
Used what I believe were the same bits I used on the AppleTV, and the
performance was even worse than w/hybrid_wl, and ultimately, the
connection completely died. Need to try with another (newer) driver (the
one Dell actually published for the card).
Hmmm... I have read very varied reports on this driver - some say it
is
fast and others report poor performance - I am guessing that it could be
dependent on the specific chipset but I'm not sure.
I'd lean that way too. Dunno if kernel version could be pertinent
(latest rawhide here).
I'll try to collect
some info and see whether there are any patches in the wild that improve
performance. I am not in a position to really test the speeds since I
only use my wireless for broadband so the speed isn't really an issue.
For me the best thing about this driver is that it works flawlessly with
NetworkManager whereas the ndiswrapper/windows driver combo was badly
broken when used with WPA/WPA2 encryption and NetworkManager even though
it was fine when using wpa_supplicant scripts alone to connect
Huh. ndiswrapper worked just fine with WPA2 and NetworkManager for me,
both on the AppleTV and on the Mini ('tis how I connected before the
connection went belly-up).
(FWIW I've got a 4328 chipset on x86_64).
No you don't. :)
lspci lies, someone screwed up the name for device id 4328. The 4321 and
4322 typically sit behind a bridge that has device id 4328, or something
like that, there isn't actually a BCM4328. I believe the bridge is
what's driven by the ssb driver.
--
Jarod Wilson
jarod(a)wilsonet.com