Bug 145525

Summary:	net-misc/bcm4400 phase-out by Broadcom
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Philip Kovacs <pkdevel>
Component:	New packages	Assignee:	Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers <kernel>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	masterdriverz, slotik, sven.koehler, tharding
Priority:	High	Keywords:	PMASKED
Version:	2006.0
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Linux
URL:	http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/downloaddrivers.php
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Bug Depends on:	147722
Bug Blocks:

Description Philip Kovacs 2006-08-29 13:06:48 UTC

Looks like Broadcom is now offering a slightly modified b44 driver on their web site, and not their proprietary bcm4400 driver.

From the README in their linux-1.00g tarball:

"The b44 driver from this Broadcom package is almost identical to the
b44 driver in the latest 2.6 upstream Linux kernel. It includes some
additional kernel compatible code to allow it to compile on older 2.6
and some 2.4 kernels. The version number is also similar but generally
has a one letter suffix at the end, (e.g. 1.00a) to distinguish it from
the in-kernel b44 driver."

Looks like they are now modifying the open source driver itself for older kernels.  It might be time to consider removing net-misc/bcm4400 entirely 
from portage, unless you feel that the patches Broadcom is offering to the
open source kernel for older kernels merits continuation, etc.

Comment 1 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-08-29 19:15:24 UTC

Added to package.mask

Comment 2 Sven 2006-08-30 13:20:15 UTC

I always had problem with the in-kernel driver. Sounds like Broadcom now "supports" the development of the in-kerner driver. Hopefully all bugs, that i have experienced, have been fixed in the in-kernel driver by now.

Comment 3 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-08-30 20:10:27 UTC

Please retest the in-kernel one now (Linux 2.6.17) and if there are problems, file bugs and mark them as blockers of this bug.

Comment 4 Tyson Harding 2006-09-15 10:24:20 UTC

142609 should block this bug. I left a detailed comment under that bug explaining the fact that the kernel driver does not appear to work with an older BCM4401 controller.

Comment 5 schitthoch2 2006-09-24 08:52:11 UTC

the in-kernel module does not support WOL (Wake on LAN), while the external bcm4400 does for the wol option "g".

# ethtool -i eth0
driver: b44
version: 1.00
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:00:0f.0

# ethtool -s eth0 wol g
Cannot get current wake-on-lan settings: Operation not supported
  not setting wol

Comment 6 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-09-24 09:32:37 UTC

Please file a separate bug for this

Comment 7 Martin Slota 2006-10-07 03:38:59 UTC

I filed a bug for the wol problem: bug #150365

Comment 8 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-10-10 20:01:22 UTC

2.6.18 should be stable before we remove this (bug #150365)

Comment 9 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-12-16 20:06:04 UTC

# Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org> (29 Aug 2006)
# pending removal, obsoleted by in-kernel driver (bug #145525)
# if you have any reason to use this package over the in-kernel version,
# speak up now!
net-misc/bcm4400

Time to die... :)

Comment 10 Charlie Shepherd (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-12-17 02:22:17 UTC

Sorry about the delay in filing the upstream bug, its done now.

Comment 11 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-12-17 09:01:09 UTC

Not removing just yet, as we still have the open bug

Comment 12 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2007-01-23 21:51:54 UTC

removed