-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Kubuntu WLAN setup
- From: "Glen Sawtell" <glen.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:30:21 +1000
Unfortunately this is a problem with some hardware manufacturers.
Since they do not want people to know exactly how the hardware works,
drivers cannot be written for the hardware by anyone outside of the
manufacturer. This is why they have 'binary only' drivers that are
supplied by the manufacturer. Often the Linux distributions will
refuse to or cannot package them with their software since the drivers
that are released by these manufacturers are under a license which
does not permit them to distribute them, sometimes it is also a moral
refusal since some Linux vendors are purists who will not include any
piece of software with their distribution that is not open source and
freely distributable.
Some other examples of this are the drivers for NVidia display
adapters which are binary only. If you would like some help with this
I would be glad to give you assistance.
Regards,
Glen.
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 1:15 PM, Don101 <don101@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> OH BOY. I suspect the problem is a missing driver, so I went
> looking. I was browsing through the system log and while I am not
> certain of what I read, the best I can understand is some
> firmware/driver file is missing. One line in the log says I have to
> go to this site:
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
>
> (A short excerpt from the log is at the bottom of this message)
>
> I went there and wish I hadn't. Lordy mercy I can not believe
> something as simple as a driver requires a PhD in computer
> gobbledy-gook just to learn how to find/install a missing driver. And
> all for a ubiquitous generic Broadcom 802.11g network adapter driver
> that should be packaged with the distro.
>
> Somebody please remind me why I wanted to install a Linux distro.
>
> I will uninstall and wait a few months to see if they add the driver
> in the next update.
>
> Except for that, so far I really like the look and feel of it. I'll
> never know the command line as well as I would like to but the GUI is
> very nice. Much better than Vista.
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