Problem compiling BCM Wireless driver on 2.6.37 (lib80211 symbol issue)

Shreyansh Jain shrey.linux at gmail.com
Sun Mar 20 14:12:36 EDT 2011


Hi Greg

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 9:28 PM, Greg KH <greg at kroah.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 09:04:21PM +0530, Shreyansh Jain wrote:
>> Dear List,
>>
>> I recently compiled and booted up the 2.6.37 kernel on my Ubuntu
>> (10.04), from 2.6.36.1. I have been trying to compile the Broadcom
>> Wireless driver on 2.6.37, after making some changes in the source
>> code. Just to add, this driver has been working fine on 2.6.36.1 which
>> my machine ran earlier.
>
> <snip>
>
> Why not ask the authors of that code?  As it is closed source, they are
> the only ones that can legally help you out.

Well, I have not considered asking the authors because I have the
code, I can successfully compile it and then, unable to link to the
kernel because of a missing function which is present in another
module and exported in the kernel.

Yes, this driver might not be GPL'd, but I certainly have its code. As
for help on compilation, if a source code is not getting compiled and
giving a common error like symbol not found (and that symbol being
present in another GPL'd module), any issue of the code not GPL
shouldn't prevent the code from being compiled-linked-loaded.
Probably, Its just that I am missing some basic point (of a random
kernel module compilation-loading) which I am not able to figure out.

And yes, thanks for your suggestion - I will search for an appropriate
list (specific for this driver) and post there as well.

>
> Or you could try the 2.6.38 kernel which has support for this hardware
> already in it...

Certainly that is an option - its just that I haven't yet compiled the
2.6.38 kernel. In case nothing works out on this issue, I would take
this path. But, not before understanding why this is not working.

>
> best of luck,

Thanks!

>
> greg k-h
>

Shreyansh



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