Help me get rid of the last proprietary component of my OS, the b43 driver

26 respostas [Última entrada]
a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Greetings Ladies and gentlemen, I use Dabian as my primary OS and I'm sick of the Brodcom wifi card, It is a painful limitation.

I was trying to make experiments and tryed to change the debian kernel and every time I switch the core, I have to reinstall and load the b43 f** driver again and again. It caused me a lot of problems not only in Debian but in every distribution I tried. I had enough, no more please.

I was also removing propietary components one by one and replacing them for the Libre alternatives and now b43 is the only user subjugating software that I have. It is a pain in the ass.

I know the solution, buying and usb wifi adapter from thinkpenguin... and here comes the question:

Which one I buy? There are some models and sadly I don't apreciate the difference between them.

Would you mind to help me select the best option for me?

I'm using a laptop.

Thank you.

sebelius
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Joined: 08/22/2013

I use this one, and it works perfectly.

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

THank you.

Will it work like the integrated cards?

oysterboy

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Joined: 02/01/2011

I replaced my laptop's Intel Wireless card (which requires non-free firmware) with the following card, purchased on eBay for 10 bucks:

Atheros AR5B95 AR9285 802.11B/G/N Half Mini PCI-E Card

Works like a charm with Trisquel 6.

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

I didn't consider that option because I thought you could not change the hardware components iof a laptop.

I'm a complete newbie in hardware manipulation so:
Could you provide me with a link or recommend me a book that would help me teaching myself to assemble and desassemble laptops?

Thank you.

I will compare prices and performance of the options you gave me before making a choice.

Thank you again.

Mampir
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Joined: 12/16/2009

On many laptops you can change the WiFi card. On some you can't because of digital restrictions or because the original WiFi is non-typical. What I would do is try and see if it works.

I've changed the WiFi of 4 different laptops and it worked for all of them. I buy WiFi cards from computer repair shops, because they always have second hand WiFi cards. For two of the laptops, I went with them to the repair shop. I disassembled the laptop there and tried their second hand WiFi cards before buying. I also gave them the original WiFi, so they sold me the new WiFi very cheap for around $3.

About the disassembling. You don't need a book, if there are even such books. It's not that complicated. Usually, all you need is a small Phillips screw driver.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Phillips

Then unplug your laptop from any electricity, remove the battery and start unscrewing screws, usually starting from the bottom of the laptop. Remember where the unscrewed screws were from, since there may be many of them! :) I have a way of organizing the screws so I can remember where they were from.

Different laptops are disassembled in different ways. Watch some videos of people disassembling laptops. There may be even disassembling videos of your laptop model. Sometimes you can find an official disassembling guide for you laptop.

If you are worried about breaking you laptop, try disassembling a cheaper or non-working laptop. It is possible to break you laptop, if you're not careful. :)

Also, if you want try a WiFi card in a shop like me, make sure you can disassemble and test the new WiFi fast, so you don't waste people's time and get in the way. Figure out how to disassemble the laptop at home, before going to the shop. :)

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

The main differences are how fast they are, how big they are, what their range is, what version of Linux they need, and what they plug into. Some of the newer ones can work with old versions of Linux, but because the necessary firmware was proprietary until recently, you need to add on the firmware if you're using a deblobbed kernel.

If you want the least hassle, my guess is the Wireless G USB adapter would be your best bet. It's the slowest out of the USB adapters; whether this matters depends on how fast your Internet connection is, of course. TP says all the other USB adapters currently need additional free firmware to work on Debian 7, Trisquel 6, and a few others.

For non-USB ones, you need to figure out what kind of slot you have and get an appropriate one, choosing based on what size, speed, and range you need. There's a guide for the slots on the ThinkPenguin site here:

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/mini-pci-mini-pci-e-mini-pci-e-half-height-guide-laptop-wifi-cards

You need to watch out for digital restriction mechanisms as well; apparently some computers use restriction mechanisms to prevent you from using approved cards. The ThinkPenguin site says you can return or exchange the adapter if it turns out your computer is defective by design, so you can try it with no worries and get a USB adapter instead if it turns out it doesn't work; but if you don't want to deal with that, you might want to just get a USB adapter.

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

As far as I understand, there is no need to update the kernel anymore. It used to be useful to get this adapter working on the latest Trisquel. However, the package open-ath9k-htc-firmware has made into its repository. trisquel-base even depends on it. So if you still have that meta-package installed (the case unless you removed some system package that were installed by default), open-ath9k-htc-firmware already is installed, waiting for the adapter to be plugged. :-)

Opting for an internal card, hoping the laptop is not "defective by design" (what is the brand?), the half-height mini PCIe model is the answer. It is the smallest (but would work in a laptop that accepts a "full-height" mini PCIe card), the fastest (that basically the "N" means!) and the cheapest one! Mini PCI (without the "e") are for pretty old laptops (before 2005).

xilixi
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Joined: 11/28/2013

I am also interested in replacing my wireless card. I own a L500 Toshiba Laptop. Could you explain how I work out if this my laptop is a "Defective by Design" one?

Thanks in advance

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

See this (six month old) message by Chris (CEO of ThinkPenguin):

The problem with HP is they are on the 'bad list' of companies in that they use digital restrictions to prevent the user from replacing it with another card. This is done because there is a lucrative market for after-warranty part sales. By restricting the cards which work in this slot it forces customers back to HP for a replacement part. There have been claims by HP/and or other companies that this is done to comply with FCC rules. However the free software community made a huge fuss about it (amongst others) and the FCC responded with a public statement saying this was false. There are no such regulations that would prevent the company from letting users install third party cards. After this they made further claims about it not being the FCC but other countries. The problem with this is that the original claims were very specific and other companies would be in the same situation. However the list of companies implementing these restrictions is fairly short: HP, Dell, *Toshiba*, IBM/Lenovo, and Apple (via a proprietary component), and possibly Sony. Asus, Acer, and most others have no such restrictions on there systems. These are not small companies whom only target the US market or any other small market and would also be in the same position as HP were this true.

While you can't replace the wifi card in this system you could use an external USB wireless adapter to work around the problem. It may not be ideal although if you already own the system (and have for some time, ie can't return it) then it is you next best option.

xilixi
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Joined: 11/28/2013

Finally I risked buying a Wireless WiFi Card AtherosAR5B95 AR9285 Half Size Mini PCI Express. I didn't know if it would work. After replacing the original wireless card everything is fine. In fact I am replying this message connected with my new card ;)

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

excelent!

Thank you for sharing this.

I'm glad that you succeeded un the replacement because one is sick of all those restriccions.

Telstar
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Joined: 08/17/2011

If you decide to replace the internal WiFi, take a lot of patience and do NOT use the force. Sometimes you can find a hardware maintenance manual for your laptop, giving you step-by-step instructions for taking it apart (and replacing the WiFi). If you cant, well, some laptops have it placed under one lid on the bottom, but some have it placed inside, somewhere under the keyboard or handrest. If you don't know what youre doing but are willing to experience, I suggest take too many pictures of each step, so you can put it back together again - and again, don't use the force.

Legimet
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Joined: 12/10/2013

The Wifi card should work, there's free firmware in Trisquel in the openfwwf package.

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

OpenFWWF only works with just a few older Broadcom cards, namely AirForce wlan chipsets:

* BCM4306
* BCM4311 revision 1
* BCM4318
* BCM4320

Legimet
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Joined: 12/10/2013

Oh, I didn't know that. Anyway, I recommend the TP-Link TL-WN722N, version 1. When I got it (last month) it was the only version. If it still is, then you should be safe, since it uses AR9271+AR7010. However, you need the open-ath9k-htc-firmware package.

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Those of us who keep their Trisquel 6 up to date (and have not removed "trisquel-base") already have that package installed. See my previous message: https://trisquel.info/fr/forum/help-me-get-rid-last-proprietary-component-my-os-b43-driver#comment-48932

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Thank you to all of you.

I'm evaluating the money I have to spend.

One more question please:

Why I have to reinstall the propietary firmware/driver every time I change the kernel?

Why the free as in freedom ones not?

Note: Even if I have the same problem with a free driver I still would use it instead a nonfree; so don't be shy in the answer please.

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

That would be because the deblobbed versions of Linux don't have the firmware or driver included with them. You said you're using Debian; Debian has all non-free firmware blobs in separate packages found in the non-free repo. I don't know how exactly it's packaged, but my educated guess is a given firmware blob needs a particular version or range of versions of Linux, or something like that. Whatever the details, the cause of the annoyance would be that it's separate from Linux.

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Thank you for the answer.

For some reason, I had the same problems in all distributions I've used before (Slackware, Arch, Fedora...) before trying to be as free as in freedom as I can.
So must I interpret that the firmware is not part of Linux ion general?

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

It is, indeed, in a separate package. And, no, updating the kernel will be painless (nothing to manually do).

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Sorry for bringing this up again but my laptop is a hp Pavilion dv5 and H-node does not tell if the computer denies third party hardware.

Does anyone know if this particular model has restrictions about the hardware I put in?

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

I'm using a hp Pavilion dv5 and the wifi works (mostly, sometimes it drops the connection...) without non-free software. My wifi is Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02).

I think this machine is so old (something like 2005 or 2006?) it does not have those restrictions. I'm interested in hearing how it goes if you do get another wifi card.

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Ok, perhaps I should take this situation as an oportunity and inform you and h-node after I try it.

I'm a little scared, fortunately It seems Thinkpenguin lets you return the device if your machine does have digital handcuffs.

Thank you

jsebean
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Joined: 05/23/2013

Does anyone know if openfwwm works with BCM4313 (I believe that's the chip). My father's netbook has that chip and is running Debian, but s cannot use the wifi card since I do not have the contrib and non-free repos in it (to ensure it's free), so he is currently using a wifi USB stick that uses ath9k. It's annoying.

Otherwise I may considering seeing if I can change the chip as the stick is an annoyance.

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

/usr/share/doc/openfwwf/README.Debian:

OpenFWWF has so far only been tested with "core revision 5" (as identified by the module initialisation routine in dmesg for kernels >= 2.6.30) variants of the following Broadcom AirForce wlan chipsets:

* BCM4306
* BCM4311 revision 1
* BCM4318
* BCM4320

While it might work with later core revisions as well, their RF behaviour is not validated and might damage the hardware or violate frequency spectrum regulations.

So I guess you're out of luck with that card.

jsebean
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Joined: 05/23/2013

I expect you're right, I was just wondering if it worked as the way that was written it implied that some other chips *may* work. Probably not mine though, I'll probably look for another chip in the end.