Comment 32 for bug 1156138

Thanks for your thoughts, Bernardo.

I've lost and can't find the links any more, but I previously found Alberto Milone was communicating with the kernel devs about the problem where rcu_read_unlock_special is not useable, even though it is apparently defined in the low latency symbol table. I actually hacked a lot of the kernel source into my own bcmwl source, but this was my final sticking point. Given that Alberto knows what he is doing and I'm just feeling my way, anything I had to say would have just been duplication.

This is a wider issue than just broadcom's proprietary driver. I also found someone with a similar problem compiling the ati video driver under the low latency kernel. There was also someone blogging about "gpl hell" and proprietary drivers.

I think most linux users (including me) are completely unaware of the politics behind this issue. We bought our hardware and want to run linux - why deny us that?

Do the linux devs want to drive us back to windoze???? Should I go back to the 3.5 kernel, which happily co-exists with these drivers, and then never upgrade? And anyway, what is so special about the low latency kernel - the generic supports the latest bcmwl driver without a murmer of disapproval! I don't think this is a case of a conspiracy, just "the usual" c#*k up alternative theory.