Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?

[Shawn O'Shea]

Google results seem to suggest for Fedora that you have 2 options:
* Get the proprietary Broadcom firmware and use the fw-cutter tool to
extract the firmware and drop it in /lib/firmware
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#device_firmware_installation

* Use the open rewrite/replacement from the OpenFWWF project which is
allegedly as simple as a yum install b43-openfwwf
Project: http://www.ing.unibs.it/openfwwf/
Forum post where I read about it:
http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=228418

-Shawn

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce <sconce at in-spec-inc.com> wrote:

> I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a
> small New Hampshire town, with the subject
>
>    HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT!
>
> (I am not making this up.)  Such a plea caused me to do some
> perhaps-foolish things.  I called the library; I volunteered
> to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved.
>
> Turns out they had acquired a pair of Dell E5500 laptops (under
> a Gates Foundation grant, I believe), and of course the machines
> came with you-know-who's software.  And not just the operating
> system, but a selection of add-on cruft including DeepFreeze and
> "role management" apps, the combination of which proved to be a
> nightmare and impossible to get or keep working.  Eventually
> someone suggested to the library that the "Linux community"
> might be able to help; somehow my name came up, and I received
> the HELP SAVE US message.
>
> After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them
> to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off.
> All OK.
>
> But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless.  And
> of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter.  And of course
> it doesn't work.
>
> I've spent today so far researching. I searched my GNHLUG archives
> and found only one discussion, circa 2/22.(*)
>
> >From the Web it looks like "fwcutter", proprietary firmware
> copyrights, kernel modules...pretty ugly.  (And Latitudes use
> Nvidia, but it does seem that Fedora 13 has the Nvidia part
> working.)
>
> Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell
> Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work
> (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision
> to just not do this?
>
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Be_careful_what_you_volunteer_for'ly yrs,
>
> -Bill
>
>
> (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice,
>     "In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom".
>
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>
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