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Stolen from here via Planet Fedora

when compile hybrid-portsrc_x86_64-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz from Broadcom, there is an error “ implicit declaration of function ‘init_MUTEX’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]“. So if you want to compile wl.ko in F15, you need change “src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c” line 487 from
init_MUTEX(&wl->sem);
into
sema_init(&wl->sem, 1);

Thank you!!

I’m about to start getting my main work system running Fedora 15. The cobbled together Ubuntu/Gnome 3 desktop just doesn’t inspire confidence in me. Sad I’d rather run a pre-release distro with great QA over a released base with PPA add-ons. But, it makes sense for me. This should be a fun couple hours.

Finally got my wireless working on my laptop under Fedora 15. I’m a happy boy now.

I’ll explain later on what kind of particular ass-pain was involved.

Oh, and same hardware:

Ubuntu Natty: ~ 120 min battery time at best

Fedora 15 Beta: ~240min battery time.

So now 2 of my 3 main systems are running Fedora 15.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Ubuntu for years now. I love the Debian-ish aspects of it, but hate the attitude that is sometimes pushed. I love the ease of configuration and hardware, but hate the fact that upstreams don’t seem to pick them up.

Anyway, I’ve been using the Natty 11.04 release since beta, even as my primary work desktop, for several weeks. I use the Gnome 3 PPA though, as Unity, while a decent idea, seems to take the worst of Gnome 2 and add it with parts of Gnome 3. I’m just not impressed with it. So in order to get the pluses I like, I have to resort to a PPA to get the desktop I want – which kind of kills the point of the “ease of use” in maintaining a desktop install. In 6 months, I’ll probably have to reinstall from scratch in order to not totally break my system.

So here I sit, on my laptop. With Natty and Unity. Natty automagically picked up my broadcom wireless. Fedora 15 isn’t shipping the brcm80211 driver yet (ironic for a Free distro to sill ship the old b43 one with the nasty firmware hack), and is generally a PITA to get working on this laptop. But it is happily running on my secondary desktop, and will very likely become my primary desktop OS for work once the fragile collection of PPAs for Ubuntu breaks (or sooner thanks to a nasty Firefox bug that locks my keyboard when I visit a client’s particularly nasty javascripted site).

So what is all this ranting about? Because I want the best of both worlds. I WANT Gnome 3. I WANT automagically detected wifi. But the Linux distro landscape right now seems very much a series of trade offs. Fedora has always been a close second to Debian on my favorites list (even with its wacky selinux crap), but in 2011 should I really have to recompile my kernel to get wireless working out of the box? Ubuntu’s Gnome fork, err, Unity desktop is just horrible. Giant wastes of desktop space with jumbo sized buttons, a dock-like bar that seems to serve no real purpose except to take up real estate, etc.

Why can’t I have it all?!?!

So here I am again, distro shopping. My love/hate relationship with a few has developed again. Over the years, it’s happened several times. Maybe I’m just afraid of commitment? The choices always come down to Ubuntu/Debian vs Fedora. I’m going to be thinking out loud on the keyboard here so excuse me if I jump around.

Debian, my first true love, has always been my go-to choice. The current situation is a bit complicated though, as I am needing a distro for what is (for Debian) bleeding edge hardware. An HP desktop , repurposed as a home server and my Dell craptop. Debian puked all over itself on the HP and the Dell’s wireless and funky ACPI. Next up was Ubuntu, which had similar results as Debian but the Natty Alpha/Beta did much better on both machines – but my mixed feelings about Unity and knowing Ubuntu’s overall direction doesn’t exactly endear it to me. So I shopped a bit, tried OpenSUSE (SuSE was my first day to day distro circa 2000-2001ish) but wasn’t thrilled either. Fedora has always been rock solid once set up (but setup can be time consuming), but seems to lack the wide assortment of freely available packaged software the Debian based distros have.

So what’s a geek to do? Well, the HP is running Ubuntu Natty and acting as my secondary work PC. Not because I loved Natty, but mostly because I had to back up my old VPS in a hurry and that’s what was on the machine when I needed it. So by default it’s on there still. The laptop, well, I’m sitting here with a Fedora 15 DVD, a Natty USB stick, and a Debian CD. May the best, er, simplest distro win.