Matthew's Journal

I am very frustrated. It would be nice to be able to use the barcode scanner downstairs, which means doing so on a computer attached to the wireless network. That means, essentially, my powerbook.

I have a USB-serial converter. Ubuntu linux drives it Just Fine. It doesn't, however, drive the wireless ethernet in my powerbook. I downloaded the bcm43xx-fwcutter package and the relevant firmware onto a usb-stick, and installed them on the powerbook, but still get no joy out of the wireless - eth1 appears, but it isn't actually broadcasting anything.

Mac OSX obviously drives the wireless ethernet just fine, but won't talk to the USB-serial converter. System Profiler detects the device, notes it's made by Prolific Technologies. I've installed Prolifics .kext file, but no /dev/tty.usbserial or similar appears, and I can't get any data out of any plausible-looking /devs.

I'm monumentally pissed off by this, and by the amount of time I've wasted trying to make this work :-(

ETA more googling suggests that you may need to reboot to get the firmware recognised properly. I can't do this, as I'm using a livecd, but I tried unloading and reloading the module, to no avail.