pin Hello again & thanks for the response
Haven't really touched Void for sometime - its actually on the 'newer' battlebus, Dell 6430, but I've got a long-standing hardware (speaker) issue with it that I still haven't resolved 😒
The Broadcom card should be supported on NetBSD although, I did not check your model.
The easiest way is to boot from an install image, drop to console and check a few outputs. If you want, I guess we can help.
Start with dmesg and pcictl pci0 list
Here's the relevant parts:
# pcictl pci0 list:
001:05:0: ATI Technologies Radeon Xpress Series (RS482M) (VGA display)
005:00:0: Broadcom BCM4311 2.4GHz (miscellaneous network, revision 0x01)
# dmesg
bwi0: autoconfiguration error: firmware_open failed on v3/vcode5.fw
there were a few initial configuration errors & warnings for the graphics card but it looks like it is then configured with the radeondrm kernel module loaded.
bwi0: autoconfiguration error: firmware_open failed on v3/vcode5.fw
Figures - the bwi driver is used in freebsd & I had to install/enable it in my Nomadbsd installation to enable wi-fi as I stated in my OP.
Here: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bwi&sektion=4&manpath=freebsd-release-ports
BWI(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual BWI(4)
NAME
bwi -- Broadcom BCM43xx IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
kernel configuration file:
device bwi
device wlan
device wlan_amrr
device firmware
Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
following line in loader.conf(5):
if_bwi_load="YES"
DESCRIPTION
The bwi driver provides support for Broadcom BCM43xx based PCI/CardBus
network adapters.
It supports station and monitor mode operation. Only one virtual inter-
face may be configured at any time. For more information on configuring
this device, see ifconfig(8).
This driver requires firmware to be loaded before it will work. The
ports/net/bwi-firmware-kmod port needs to be installed before ifconfig(8)
will work.
HARDWARE
The bwi driver supports Broadcom BCM43xx based wireless devices, includ-
ing:
Card Chip Bus Standard
Apple Airport Extreme BCM4306 PCI b/g
Apple Airport Extreme BCM4318 PCI b/g
ASUS WL-100g BCM4306 CardBus b/g
ASUS WL-138g BCM4318 PCI b/g
Buffalo WLI-CB-G54S BCM4318 CardBus b/g
Buffalo WLI-PCI-G54S BCM4306 PCI b/g
Compaq R4035 onboard BCM4306 PCI b/g
**_Dell Wireless 1390 BCM4311 Mini PCI b/g_**
Dell Wireless 1470 BCM4318 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Truemobile 1300 r2 BCM4306 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Truemobile 1400 BCM4309 Mini PCI b/g
HP nx6125 BCM4319 PCI b/g
Linksys WPC54G Ver 3 BCM4318 CardBus b/g
Linksys WPC54GS Ver 2 BCM4318 CardBus b/g
TRENDnet TEW-401PCplus BCM4306 CardBus b/g
US Robotics 5411 BCM4318 CardBus b/g
The bwi driver uses the older v3 version of Broadcom's firmware. While
this older firmware does support most BCM43xx parts, the bwn(4) driver
works better for the newer chips it supports. You must use the bwi
driver if you are using older Broadcom chipsets (BCM4301, BCM4303 and
BCM4306 rev 2). The v4 version of the firmware that bwn(4) uses does not
support these chips.
EXAMPLES
Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):
ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwi0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
netmask 0xffffff00
Join a specific BSS network with network name "my_net":
ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwi0 ssid my_net up
Join a specific BSS network with 64-bit WEP encryption:
ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwi0 ssid my_net \
wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1 up
SEE ALSO
arp(4), cardbus(4), intro(4), pci(4), wlan(4), wlan_amrr(4), ifconfig(8),
wpa_supplicant(8)
HISTORY
The bwi driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.
AUTHORS
The bwi driver was written for DragonFly BSD by Sepherosa Ziehau and sub-
sequently ported to FreeBSD.
BUGS
Some card based on the BCM4306 and BCM4309 chips do not work properly on
channel 1, 2 and 3.
BSD August 7, 2015 BSD
The BCM4311 card is specifically listed
However here: https://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?bwi+4.i386+NetBSD-9.0
BWI(4) NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual BWI(4)
NAME
bwi -- Broadcom BCM430x/4318 IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver
SYNOPSIS
bwi* at pci? dev ? function ?
bwi* at cardbus? function ?
DESCRIPTION
The bwi driver provides support for Broadcom BCM430x/4318 wireless net-
work adapters. For more information on configuring this device, see
ifconfig(8).
MIB Variables
The following per-interface variables are implemented in the hw.bwiX
branch of the sysctl(3) MIB.
debug Debug flags.
dwell_time Channel dwell time during scan (msec).
fw_version Firmware version.
led_idle Number of ticks before LED enters idle state.
led_blink Allow LED to blink.
txpwr_calib Enable software TX power calibration.
HARDWARE
The following cards are among those supported by the bwi driver:
Card Chip Bus Standard
Buffalo WLI-CB-G54 BCM4306 CardBus b/g
Buffalo WLI3-CB-G54L BCM4318 CardBus b/g
Buffalo WLI-PCI-G54S BCM4306 PCI b/g
Dell Wireless 1370 BCM4318 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Wireless 1470 BCM4318 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Truemobile 1400 BCM4309 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Latitude D505 BCM4306 PCI b/g
Apple AirPort Extreme b/g
FILES
The firmware for the adapter is not shipped with NetBSD and must be
obtained separately. An archive with firmware files that are known to
work can be found at:
http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~sephe/bwi/v3.tbz
The firmware files conventionally reside in /libdata/firmware/bwi and
will be loaded when the interface is brought up. Note: the v3 subdirec-
tory in the above firmware archive should exist in the firmware folder.
The full list of paths checked for firmware can be found in the
hw.firmware.path sysctl(3) node.
SEE ALSO
arp(4), cardbus(4), ifmedia(4), pci(4), ifconfig(8), sysctl(8),
wiconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)
HISTORY
The bwi driver first appeared in NetBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
The bwi driver was written by Sepherosa Ziehau for Dragonfly BSD. It was
ported to NetBSD by Taylor R. Campbell <riastradh@NetBSD.org>.
The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the people at
http://bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net.
Thanks go also to johill and mb on the #bcm-specs channel.
BUGS
BCM4306 and BCM4309 chips do not work properly on channel 1, 2, and 3.
NetBSD 9.0 April 25, 2012 NetBSD 9.0
It isn't specifically listed
I realise the FreeBsd page is a later dated issue but I have seen an issue dated 'February 6, 2011' with the BCM4311 specifically listed - obviously predating the NetBsd page above. Both the NetBsd & FreeBsd pages list the same source author for the bwi driver so I am going to assume that it will work for NetBsd as it does for FreeBsd.
What do you think @pin ?