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Comment by bxparks

14 hours ago

From the link: "Note: The inbuilt WiFi chip is not natively supported by FreeBSD, so you will need to (temporarily) use a USB WiFi or Ethernet dongle, or (as I will explain) copy some files from a different system to the Macbook. You could also just transplant a different chip into the system."

You say "works perfectly". I do not think it means what you think it means.

To be fair, Linux also has trouble with the Broadcom chip, the driver needs to be installed as a separate step on most distros.

15 comments

bxparks

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emptybits  1 hour ago

I assume this is what is meant:

                       | Works Perfectly | Mostly Works | Has Lots Of Bugs
    -------------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------
    Default Install    |                 |              |
    -------------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------
    With Add-Ons       |       X         |              |
    -------------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------
    Major Config Work  |                 |              |

i.e. Declare its working quality after the install is done. The install may take multiple steps. (In this case, copying some files over, apparently.)

wolvoleo  14 hours ago

> Broadcom

Here's the real problem.

It's sad how a company that spawned the raspberry pi in earlier times got so evil so quickly.

  • bityard  12 hours ago

    Broadcom (and to a lesser extent, Realtek) devices had always been anywhere between hit-or-miss and completely unworkable on Linux, LONG before Raspberry Pi came around.

    • trinix912  9 hours ago

      My experience too. Sometimes I did manage to eventually get their cards working under Linux after pulling some proprietary firmware blobs.

  • opan  1 hour ago

    I always saw Broadcom as evil, and saw Raspberry Pi as just reusing cheap parts from set top boxes or similar, with all the proprietary stuff that that comes with.

  • fhn  7 hours ago

    RaspberryPi Foundation spawned the raspberry pi and used a Broadcom SOC.

  • sausagefeet  9 hours ago

    I imagine that is because modern Broadcom is a different Broadcom, Avago bought and took the name in 2016.

skydhash  14 hours ago

I think the intersection between BSD users and people who will buy a dongle or use Ethernet is a perfect circle.

mmsc  13 hours ago

> You say "works perfectly". I do not think it means what you think it means.

Copying some files from a different machine is not that burdensome. The point is, it works.

  • marssaxman  9 hours ago

    By that logic, every piece of software ever made can be said to work perfectly in every situation, because there is always some amount of additional work which could be done to make up for its native deficiencies.

    • opan  1 hour ago

      That's quite the leap. The work is already done, they just can't/won't ship the driver in base, right? Isn't it comparable to installing Debian and needing to load in non-free drivers separately?

  • bxparks  3 hours ago

    I was mostly objecting to the "perfectly" part. And I couldn't resist making a Princess Bride reference for amusement.