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Posts: 671 | Thanked: 1,630 times | Joined on Aug 2010
#5
I forgot to mention the decrepit ACER Iconia w4-821
gathering dust in the window.

Noticing that antiX- MX16 was released, I spooled it up
(using nomodeset to get the graphics to work)
and ran into the old wifi problem.
It seemed they have added quite a few broadcom modules,
so I set to investigating.

I just now got the wifi to working (receiving, but not yet connect)
It is Broadcom 43241b4
and with a big thanks to the guys who already hacked through at
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....3#post13278703

it seems to be just a matter of getting the firmware
brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt file edited and into /lib/firmware/brcm/.
I did that using easier instructions at kernel.org:


NVRAM from EFI

Some new devices are storing the nvram which is needed in addition to the firmware by the driver in an EFI variable and the Windows driver can access it (this file should be optional in the case of PCIe devices). Currently brcmfmac does not support this automatically. First mount the efi vars into sysfs:

Code:
mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
The content of the nvram is in this file:

Code:
/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113
Copy this file where brcmfmac expects the nvram, for example:
Code:
 cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt


I am almost there (only maybe ):
I can see all SSIDs here
but I need to try and fix networkmanager (fails to log on)
or toss it and get wicd onboard - some sort of bus error thingy.

This unit uses the 3740 atom,
fwiw to anyone who arrives here..

More news as I get through this.
The Acer is ancient, but if we can get wifi working
on a system that has a working touch+display we can probably
get this out on other less-ancient models.
Stuff newer than a year I doubt, as linux hardware hacks
lag way behind what is needed to get new hardware working.


At least my new year begins with a bit of hope....
__________________
Three n900s: One for stable working platform,
One for development testing Chopping Onions
One for saltwater immersion power testing resurrected ! parts scavenging

My Mods for Wonko's Advanced Clock Plugin:
ISO8601 clock mod and Momental_IST clock mod

Printing your Email with the N900
 

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