bcm43xx-fwcutter might as well download firmware even if bcm43xx_microcode11.fw exists

[Michael R. Head]

Binary package hint: bcm43xx-fwcutter

The postinst script for bcm43xx-fwcutter checks for the existence of /lib/firmware/bcm43xx_microcode11.fw and cancels the download if it's there. I think it should not check for this file because 1) just because that file is there doesn't mean the rest of the firmware is there, and 2) there might be a newer firmware available, even if all the files were installed and set up properly in the past.

[Matteo Z (matteozandi)]

I can confirm this, moreover Ubuntu likes the firmware to be in

/lib/firmware/`uname -r`

instead of

/lib/firmware/

Matteo

[Marco Scholl (traxanos)]

I have the same problem. Bug#150262

Messege of the other Bugreport:

I have bcm43xx-based wlancard. i have the 2.6.22-12-generic kernel.
the restricted manager have install the correct firmware and the card will
work great. after an update of kernel the driver should not found the
firmware. the restricted manager ask me to download the firmware.
but i'm offline and i couldn't download the firmware.

as workaround i copied the firmware manual:
cp /lib/firmware/2.6.22-12-generic/bcm* /lib/firmware/2.6.22-13-generic/

[Marco Scholl (traxanos)]

I think the problem is bcm43xx-fwcutter should save the firmware in an other directory, independent from kernel.

[Przemek K. (azrael)]

bcm43xx-fwcutter have been replaced by b43-fwcutter in Ubuntu 8.04 (AFAIR).

The postinst script now checks for the whole directories

azrael@laptop616:~/b43-fwcutter-012/debian$ cat b43-fwcutter.postinst
#!/bin/sh

set -e

. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule

db_get b43-fwcutter/cut_firmware
if [ "$RET" = "true" ] && [ ! -d /lib/firmware/b43 -o ! -d /lib/firmware/b43legacy ]; then
 /usr/share/b43-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh
fi

#DEBHELPER#

DOes this mean that we can close this bug?