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Topic: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix (Read 445 times) previous topic - next topic
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To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

After great, lengthy pain finally got convinced, found a new knowledge in a specific case but no guarantee if it's in more general one.
So to not let it be in vain, is being shared now

On H/W using Wifi or WL card/adapter of Broadcomm, the latest Linux kernel and/or F/W has clear gap performance with Windows one, more specific here now Windows 11
On here is significantly quite lower quality, and get more obvious when the wifi quality is very low e.g being in intermittent connected-disconnected condition and when it's connected it'd be under 50 Kbps (~33 Kbps avg.), not sure what causing so (but pretty sure it differs to the H/W context eg. dB signal strength)

So when wifi in such poor quality, rebooted to start Windows up and Wndows would do longer getting connected with only 2-3 intermittent occurrences for 21 or so such on Linux

Searched led to possibility of acquire Windows' driver to be utilized on here non-systemd Arch OS:
https://superuser.com/questions/1190075/use-drivers-from-windows-to-linux

So ask a huge favor from generous experts, knowledgeable developers to do little research and analysis to conceive a definitive steps of work to realize this proprietary Windows driver to get (nearly) fully made good use here
Thanks in advance

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #1 –
I don't mean to be rude but... NAH.

better to change the hardware to something well supported by Linux.  Broadcomm has always been a PIA ever since their fake (winmodems) modems.  Binaries suck and as seen by recent events, a security risk.

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #2 –
Hello Mardiyah,

Thank you for asking this question!  No doubt having an answer will help other users.

As mrbrklyn said, you may consider moving away from Broadcomm devices.  However, I understand the monetary, logistic, or compatibility limitations that can preclude an immediate hardware change.

Have you explored using ndiswrapper?  From the wiki homepage:

Quote
This project implements Windows kernel API and NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) API within Linux kernel. A Windows driver for wireless network card is then linked to this implementation so that the driver runs natively, as though it is in Windows, without binary emulation

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #3 –
An alternative approach is to get the original source code package of the driver for Linux, if it exists as an external kernel module. Then carefully go through all the configuration options and research what they are for. Possibly the driver isn't being built correctly if it's not working as well, this does happen sometimes. Another thing to check is if you have the firmware in place, a lot of these wifi cards need a non-free binary blob in addition to the open source driver. But as Mr Brklyn says, it's so cheap to get a used wifi adapter there's not a lot of practical benefit, except as a challenge or puzzle, or an attempt to improve Linux hardware support for users.  ;D

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #4 –
Quote from: ####### – on
But as Mr Brklyn says, it's so cheap to get a used wifi adapter there's not a lot of practical benefit, except as a challenge or puzzle, or an attempt to improve Linux hardware support for users.  ;D
Some laptops have whitelist of "wifi" cards (in the bios) which they will accept in the internal slots.
That may result in getting a USB adapter which can be incovenient to carry.

For ndiswrapper, I would also go by archwiki manual, but it is hit or miss.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Network_configuration/Wireless#ndiswrapper

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #5 –
Yes, my laptops supposedly had this, and I found posts on the makers forum about people fitting upgraded cards that didn't work, but I got an old cheap ATH wifi card from a similar era machine which was never installed as standard, and it worked fine. I suspect in some cases that info comes from people trying to fit newer cards with unsupported extra features and then when it doesn't work they think it's because of a whitelist. Remember many laptops have Windows on initially and are used by Windows users.... ymmv  ;D

Re: To correctly to get wifi driver of Windows into Artix

Reply #6 –
Proven works though a patient inspection tells it not 100%Windows' performance: (overhead cost or

  • Get the git, not the SF one, as it's newer, working:
    https://github.com/pgiri/ndiswrapper
  • This'd compile smoothly, install it as root
  • Get on Windows, start menu (Win+x) > device manager
  • Pick: network
  • Pick: wireless network
  • Pick: driver > driver details
  • Read to get .sys filename(s), should be begin with/containthe co. brand brevity eg. bcm, ath, rt for broadcom, atheros  etc
  • Read one without 'net' string nor letter 'v' nor both in addition to it, as it means virtual network
  • write it down, reboot to get on Linux back & mount Windows
  • cd to /Windows/System32/DriverStore
  • get into each written file name dir. of the intended,
  • with globsar on, ls **/<file>; cd <theDir>,  may go on another one if need all them
  • copy .sys &.inf to a new directory , get into it
  • $ sudo ndiswrapper -i .<inf file>
  • so on to another one by one, if anymore[, do likewise
  • reboot, try it, work on its benchmark comparison and feed us back