Broadcom BCM4312 - will it be supported, and if so, when?

BeDifferent-1 · May 23, 2018, 9:53pm

Hello, I am new to this forum but not so new to Haiku. I have a question: for all the time I’ve been using Haiku, my Broadcom BCM4312 WiFi card (14e4,4315) has not been supported by the current drivers. My question: Will this card ever be supported, and if so, when? I really want to be able to have WiFi in Haiku, not just Ethernet.

damoklas · May 24, 2018, 4:53am

I think you should donate that type of card to some developer interested in writing driver for it, is the way if you want have it supported by Haiku as soon as possible.

BeDifferent-1 · May 24, 2018, 5:12am

Ok… The problem I have with that is this: if I could, I’d buy myself a compatible Intel card, but that’s not really an option for me right now… Also, I don’t want to have to swap in a different card just for one OS.

damoklas · May 24, 2018, 6:08am

You can buy some used card which works in Haiku.
This is Haiku specific: you must think about hardware that works in Haiku. If you do not write drivers by yourself.

extrowerk · May 24, 2018, 1:09pm

Should be working.

github.com

haiku/haiku/blob/b65adbdfbc322bb7d86d74049389c688e9962f15/src/add-ons/kernel/drivers/network/wlan/broadcom43xx/dev/bwi/if_bwi_pci.c#L86


#define	PCIR_RETRY_TIMEOUT	0x41


static const struct bwi_dev {
	uint16_t	vid;
	uint16_t	did;
	const char	*desc;
} bwi_devices[] = {
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4301,"Broadcom BCM4301 802.11b Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4307,"Broadcom BCM4307 802.11b Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4311,"Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4312,"Broadcom BCM4312 802.11a/b/g Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4313,"Broadcom BCM4312 802.11a Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4320,"Broadcom BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless Lan"},
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4321,"Broadcom BCM4306 802.11a Wireless Lan"},
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4325,"Broadcom BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless Lan"},
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4324,"Broadcom BCM4309 802.11a/b/g Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4318,"Broadcom BCM4318 802.11b/g Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4319,"Broadcom BCM4318 802.11a/b/g Wireless Lan" },
	{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x431a,"Broadcom BCM4318 802.11a Wireless Lan" },
	{ 0, 0, NULL }
};

Add some info about your card (PCI ID) to this ticket:
https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/6146

BeDifferent-1 · May 24, 2018, 2:31pm

The PCI ID listed in that ticket is exactly the same as that of the card I have. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to swap in a whole new card just to get WiFi working in Haiku, but I guess I was wrong. That is, unless someone could tell me whether the driver that actually supports it will ever be ported to Haiku…

Also, as stated in the original post, my device ID is 0x4315, not 0x4312… and I don’t believe that my card supports 802.11a.

The card itself is a Dell Wireless 1397 Half-mini card. I did find an Intel 5100 WiFi card with the same form factor for sale online; does anyone know whether that would work with Haiku?

humdinger · May 24, 2018, 3:51pm

From #5545 (bcm4312 wlan (on Dell Mini 10) not detected) – Haiku it appears that your card isn’t supported by Haiku’s FreeBSD 9.3 compat layer. So you’ll have to wait and hope for an update of that layer to FreeBSD 11.
I hear that’s non-rivial, so as to “when”, it may take a while - your chrystal ball is as good as mine…

BeDifferent-1 · May 24, 2018, 5:16pm

First off, thank you all for the informational responses. Secondly, I hope that the compatibility layer is updated before I possibly get rid of the machine I’m running Haiku on… As I said a couple of times above, I don’t want to have to swap in a new card just because the old one won’t work in one OS… And besides, I don’t have the money to buy even a used card at the moment.

jjpx · May 25, 2018, 4:42am

I have that specific card id 0x4315 model BCM4312 on an old notebook, Tried to use wifi on Haiku years ago but got no success with that card. I’ll try again when I find a stick where to boot Haiku on.

korli · May 25, 2018, 12:52pm

You could first check that the FreeBSD driver works as intented for your wireless NIC. Try TrueOS for instance.

BeDifferent-1 · May 25, 2018, 8:43pm

I’ve tried TrueOS before, and I think I got the card working under it, but can’t remember for sure (it was… probably about a year ago). I stopped using it because, for me, its interface was less than intuitive.

Also to mention that I don’t have the bandwidth to download another copy of TrueOS at the moment, and also don’t have any blank DVDs to burn it to.