Post #4023665

2026-07-23 01:10 UTC

I am not a technical user so this may seem like a silly question, #freebsd friends. I have a computer that has a Broadcom wireless chip. What I’ve read is that in FreeBSD, Broadcom drivers are generally less supported than Intel chipsets. Is this because of anything other than resource allocation? Is there anything specific with Broadcom stuff that makes them more difficult to work with? Follow up question, is there a driver bounty program that people could contribute to? Allocate some resources to get some better drivers?

Replies (2)

@FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange 2026-07-23 02:39

@samd@social.coop @seanwbruno@infosec.exchange I'm more an openbsd guy, but support often depends on manufacturer docs that aren't under nda, or reversing it from a windows or linux driver.

Open ##4024926
@ameredith@deacon.social 2026-07-23 02:39

@samd@social.coop Historically, Broadcom has shipped proprietary binary drivers for Windows (and maybe Mac - not sure on that one) and has not been involved in the development of open source drivers for its hardware. Intel, on the other hand, is much more open with their driver design, and they even support and contribute to the Intel wireless driver that ships in the Linux kernel. Because it has required a lot more work and reverse engineering to get Broadcom drivers working in open source operating systems, they generally are not as well supported and are buggier. Even in Linux, there are issues, and Linux has way more developers than FreeBSD. So I think that with more resources, the broadcom situation on FreeBSD could be more similar to Linux, but it would still likely not be as good as Intel.

Open ##4243727