proprietary driver automatically installed for broadcom b43 when open driver already in mainline kernel

Bug #1298641 reported by Chris Bainbridge
14
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubuntu-drivers-common (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Testing trusty amd64. After install the proprietary bcmwl driver is installed for the wifi chipset, however the open source b43 driver is already in the kernel, it just needs firmware-b43-installer to be installed to work.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: ubuntu-drivers-common 1:0.2.91.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-19.40-generic 3.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Mar 27 21:33:18 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-27 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20140326)
SourcePackage: ubuntu-drivers-common
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa) wrote :

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1298641

tags: added: iso-testing
Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

We currently prefer the bcmwl driver, as there legal situation of the b43 firmware is still unclear, and the b43 driver has worked a lot worse than bcmwl on many models, at least in the past.

Changed in ubuntu-drivers-common (Ubuntu):
status: New → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge) wrote :

Should the trusty installer then be using the bcmwl driver? At the moment the b43 module is present and loaded, but the firmware is missing - bug #1298610

Revision history for this message
chili555 (wrweston) wrote :

@Martin Pitt How is it that 'we prefer the bcmwl driver' when it is documented to not work correctly for several Broadcom devices?

Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote : Re: [Bug 1298641] Re: proprietary driver automatically installed for broadcom b43 when open driver already in mainline kernel

chili555 [2014-06-02 14:22 -0000]:
> @Martin Pitt How is it that 'we prefer the bcmwl driver' when it is
> documented to not work correctly for several Broadcom devices?

I mostly said/meant that we have done that in past releases. In 14.04
this apparently got changed to the upstream kernel provided one?
(brcmsmac)

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