Bugzilla – Bug 300794
Installation of WiFi Cards w firmware fails
Last modified: 2009-10-26 01:02:04 UTC
The installation of a wifi card with a required firmware is more than painful: First of all, nothing is mentioned THAT a firmware is required for this card Second, the description in /usr/share/doc/packages/wireless-tools/README.firmware has errors: 1) there is no option in YOU online update to download the firmware files. At least not anymore, that was back in the SuSE 9.x days 2) Download from the webpage of the vendor is not working as well, as he (Netgear) does not offer firmware independent from the Windows driver. 3) the firmware offered on prism54.org is not working properly 4) Luckily, I found a firmware on another machine :-| Third, the Yast2 dialog offers options, which are not available for this driver (WPA-PSK) So, finally the user is left somewhat alone, which is not good for a new user. It would be highly appreciated, if you could improve the support in this area, to support esp. new users discovering Linux
Ok, point 1 should be an easy fix. 2 and 3 might not be fixable.
As this issue is somewhat older, here are some updates: - especially for the Netgear WG511 card, firmware for the prism54-driver is available from http://www.prism54.org/fullmac.html - as I could convince your colleagues to include the p54[usb|pci] driver as well, a working firmware for these drivers can be obtained from http://www.prism54.org/newdrivers.html - a hint might be to look at /var/log/messages once the driver loads to see what firmware name he expects. This is the name into which the firmware (e.g. 2.7.0.0.arm) has to be renamed. HTH Axel
I did YOU patches for downloading firmware which we are not allowed to ship. But maintaining it is a PITA, we should consider implementing a more clever approach. For example, create meta-packages with download information. Or even better, fetch the download information from an openSUSE side, so it can be maintained for released products without having to make patches. It would require some infrastructure in YaST. I'll open a feature request for it (or reanimate an existing one, if existent).
Sorry, I didn't. Helmut, would be great if you could check FATE whether there is a feature request covering this. Resolving the bug report as WONTFIX, since it's a missing feature rather than a bug.
Closing as WONTFIX, see comment #4 for an explanation.
Maybe you should consider to rethink this: I tried Ubuntu 8.04 and was seriously surprised that it brings the right firmware for the p54-drivers, detects the card properly and got it running without a keystroke. In the live-system. I would like to see this in openSUSE as well, considering its reputation as newbie-friendly distribution
Axel, of course we want that feature and it is already entered into our internal feature request tool. Nevertheless shipping firmware with the distribution has some legal issues (at least for some firmware files, not sure about the p54) and therefore we will not do that. The correct approach to take is to download the files 'on the fly' when needed and not to ship them with the distribution. 11.0 still lacks this feature :(
Hello Helmut, (In reply to comment #11 from Helmut Schaa) > Axel, of course we want that feature and it is already entered into our > internal feature request tool. > > Nevertheless shipping firmware with the distribution has some legal issues (at > least for some firmware files, not sure about the p54) and therefore we will > not do that. Sure, at least for the p54 Softmac-drivers it is OK, see http://www.prism54.org/newdrivers.html The older Fullmac driver is not OK. > The correct approach to take is to download the files 'on the fly' when needed > and not to ship them with the distribution. Well, we are running into the hen-and-egg problem: How will u download a firmware, if you need the firmware to setup the (W)LAN?
(In reply to comment #12 from Axel Braun) > > Nevertheless shipping firmware with the distribution has some legal issues (at > > least for some firmware files, not sure about the p54) and therefore we will > > not do that. > > Sure, at least for the p54 Softmac-drivers it is OK, see > http://www.prism54.org/newdrivers.html > The older Fullmac driver is not OK. Thanks for the info. > > The correct approach to take is to download the files 'on the fly' when needed > > and not to ship them with the distribution. > > Well, we are running into the hen-and-egg problem: How will u download a > firmware, if you need the firmware to setup the (W)LAN? True. But that approach is the only way for firmware which we cannot ship due to legal issues.
Welcome back to 11.2 I see the isl3886pci firmware is still not shipped, but at least a hint in the log is given that it can be donwloaded from kernel.org. As it is OpenSource, can we maybe include it this time (knoppix ships it already...)? THANKS!
(In reply to comment #14) > I see the isl3886pci firmware is still not shipped, but at least a hint in the > log is given that it can be donwloaded from kernel.org. > As it is OpenSource, can we maybe include it this time (knoppix ships it > already...)? Axel, I took over the wlan maintenance from Helmut. I would like to package the required firmware if it is public now, but http://www.prism54.org/ is unavailable and I can not find any isl3886pci firmware on kernel.org. Please send me any link to the firmware if you got it. Thank you.
(In reply to comment #15) > Axel, I took over the wlan maintenance from Helmut. Welcome on board.... > I would like to package the > required firmware if it is public now, but http://www.prism54.org/ is > unavailable and I can not find any isl3886pci firmware on kernel.org. Please > send me any link to the firmware if you got it. Thank you. If it is sufficient for you...I can upload the FW-snippet that I use. No idea what's wrong with prism.org.
Created attachment 306658 [details] firmware may be renamed to isl3886pci
forgot to mention: The original message was: Jul 4 19:32:22 a30 kernel: [ 138.011226] phy0: you are using an obsolete firmware. visit http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54 and grab one for "kernel >= 2.6.28"!
For kernel >= 2.6.28 try to install isl3886pci-2.6.29-ucode-2.13.12.0-1.1.noarch.rpm from [1]. I have no p54 HW . Please tell me if it is working for you. I would like to know what HW do you have. Please post "# hwinfo --wlan". [1] http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/vbotka:/Factory/openSUSE_Factory/noarch/
a30:~ # hwinfo --wlan 16: PCI 300.0: 0282 WLAN controller [Created at pci.318] UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1260_3890 Unique ID: y9sn.hcybAM7htgB Parent ID: B35A.MhVV5BYmpM1 SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:00.0/0000:03:00.0 SysFS BusID: 0000:03:00.0 Hardware Class: network Model: "Netgear WG511 Wireless Adapter" Vendor: pci 0x1260 "Intersil Corporation" Device: pci 0x3890 "ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow]" SubVendor: pci 0x1385 "Netgear" SubDevice: pci 0x4800 "WG511 Wireless Adapter" Revision: 0x01 Driver: "p54pci" Driver Modules: "p54pci" Device File: wlan0 Features: WLAN Memory Range: 0xc4000000-0xc4001fff (rw,non-prefetchable) IRQ: 11 (no events) HW Address: 00:09:5b:98:8c:7c Link detected: yes WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap Module Alias: "pci:v00001260d00003890sv00001385sd00004800bc02sc80i00" Driver Info #0: Driver Status: prism54 is not active Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe prism54" Driver Info #1: Driver Status: p54pci is active Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe p54pci" Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown Attached to: #13 (CardBus bridge) Works perfect. Actually the prism54 driver is the old one with only WEP capabilites, that one should be blacklisted. Thanks for taking care about this!
I have requested the submit into the openSUSE:FActory.
I just installed 11.2 RC1, the package is *not* on the DVD. Can we include it somehow?
# osc sr -m "new package, prism54 , bnc300794" openSUSE:Factory created request id 22850 Stephan, i do not think this will land in the upstream kernel-firmware soon. Shall I update the kernel-firmware instead ? How it will land in RC2 ?
It won't end up there. The time for new package has passed. It can be installed from build service repo. And if it should be in kernel-firmware package, please clarify with the maintainer of said package.
I am going to close this issue as WONTFIX. The license of the firmware [1] [2] is not very clear. If I ask for fate it will land by me for evaluation anyway. If you can point me to the clear license reopen. [1] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54#p54 [2] http://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/
(In reply to comment #25) > The license of the firmware [1] [2] is not very clear. If I ask for fate it > will land by me for evaluation anyway. If you can point me to the clear license > reopen. Thats not too difficult: The old prism54 driver used the firmware (*.arm) that the manufacturer created, and that is available from [2] http://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/ License? No idea, but the prism54 driver is somewhat outdated (only WEP, no WPA encryption) - it is marked as deprecated The p54 driver and its firmware (isl*) from [1] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54#p54 is a GPL-build (as it is already in the kernel). Knoppix etc ship it as well. So I dont see any license concerns. Therfore I reopen this issue
(In reply to comment #26) > License? No idea, but the prism54 driver is somewhat outdated (only WEP, no WPA > encryption) - it is marked as deprecated > > The p54 driver and its firmware (isl*) from > [1] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54#p54 > is a GPL-build (as it is already in the kernel). Knoppix etc ship it as well. > So I dont see any license concerns. Therfore I reopen this issue No. There is no clear license for the firmware. I can not take the responsibility.