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Use an old Gateway laptop with a wireless card to provide internet through NAT to my desktop computer that isn't nearby my switch. I was doing this for the longest time using WinXP on the Gateway, but since all my other computers are now running linux, I figured, hey, why not put a really sleek and sexy copy of Arch onto the Gateway, and free up some of that HD space for easier file sharing between the desktop and the rest of the network. So I installed Arch, and have run head first into how much Arch and Broadcom wireless devices do not play well together. Have spent all my time since then searching the forums, the wiki, etc, but to no avail. So going to just go ahead and finally make my own call for help via the forums here.
I've only ever ONCE seen a scan find a wireless network, and that was after my first reboot after installing arch. That was the only time. There are at all times 2-4 wireless networks in range of this computer. I'm currently on my netbook running Ubuntu to post this (typing everything in by hand, ugh), and can see 4 networks right now. The Arch laptop can't find any.
To start off with: I have read the wikis. I have searched the forums. I HAVE INSTALLED THE FIRMWARE. I've checked to make sure my card is supported, and the driver it uses is the b43, and is not supposed to be compatible with the wl driver. This is the cardbus Linksys WPC54G v1 card. I know the card itself works.
Here's the various data I'm sure will be requested of me at one point or another. This is all taken immediately after booting.
What can I try. I've probably already tried it, but I'm willing to walk through step by step with someone if they think they can help.
lspci -vnn
...
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G v1 / WPC54GS v1 802.11g Wireless-G Notebook Adapter [1737:4320]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at 48000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Immediately after boot if I run
dmesg (related info)
[ 7.760803] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 7.769836] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
[ 7.760856] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: settling latency timer to 64
[ 8.217173] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
[ 8.276959] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[ 8.278657] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[ 8.278721] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[ 8.278788] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[ 8.278831] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS ]
[ 43.860080] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[ 43.921388] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
uname -a
Linux oms-gateway 3.2.9-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Mar 1 09:10:44 UTC 2012 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU 1066MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
Kernel version greater than 3.2 should be able to use the version 5.100.138 Broadcom drivers.
ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 metric 1
ether 00:0f:66:2e:b0:83 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 btes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
lsmod | grep b43
b43 317649 0
mac80211 203227 1 b43
cfg80211 147716 2 mac80211,b43
ssb 42035 1 b43
mmc_core 71470 2 ssb,b43
pcmcia 31502 2 ssb,b43
iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results
Last edited by oldmansutton (2012-03-11 01:53:50)
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1) Install compat-wireless from the AUR. Wireless driver development is very much in flux, especially for drivers like b43 (for Broadcom stuff) and ath9k. You'll get the latest driver with all the fixes available.
2) Why not try OpenWrt? Surely it may be a bit more of a learning curve at first but it's completely geared towards networking, with a minimal footprint (we're talking a few (tens of) megabytes, Arch is a few hundreds of megabytes easily). It has a nice web interface, if you want. It will also break far less than Arch... And if there's one thing that I value in my network hardware, it's stability.
If you're interested, you can find images here: stable or development. No guarantees about how usable trunk is, I recently heard it was broken (I am running a checkout myself from a week ago or so though).
Last edited by .:B:. (2012-03-10 13:27:10)
Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy
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I actually just found out about OpenWRT last night, is it able to run Samba as well as the router functionality? I got 18 gigs on this laptop that's just sitting unused, I'd like to be able to use some of it.
Going to try your suggestion as soon as I get the kids some breakfast, and can hook the laptop into the switch. Will post how that works.
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Yes it can do all that, and more . It can do NFS, Samba, ... everything you want.
Instructions for the x86 version can be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Openwrt-on-a-pc/. Basically it's just dd'ing the image onto a flash drive and go from there. Further instructions are in the OpenWrt wiki.
Keep in mind to install LuCI if you want a webinterface, webif is so 2009 .
Last edited by .:B:. (2012-03-10 13:37:37)
Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy
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Soooo, got compat-wireless build and installed now. I can get a scan that shows ONE of the available networks, ONCE, immediately after boot, after I bring the wlan0 up. But then it won't scan it again or connect. If I reboot, I can get it to show exactly once again. What the.... ??? =S
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According to the Linux Wireless site (which tends to be excellently documented), you need the b43legacy driver. Remove the b43 driver, load b43legacy, and scan again.
Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy
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According to the Linux Wireless site (which tends to be excellently documented), you need the b43legacy driver. Remove the b43 driver, load b43legacy, and scan again.
Yeah, I been there already, and I thought that at first too. But I have the revision 3 of this, and the b43legacy is for revision 2. But just for the sake of trying it, I removed b43, and put on b43legacy. When I do that, I completely lose my wlan0 interface.
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PCI-ID Supported? Chip ID Modes PHY version Alternative
14e4:4320 yes (b43legacy) BCM4306/2 b/g G
14e4:4320 yes BCM4306/3 ? ?
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Whether rev 3 needs legacy or not is controversial. I assume you blacklisted b43 when trying legacy?
How about any need to blacklist when you need b43. Anything suspicious around in lsmod?
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Whether rev 3 needs legacy or not is controversial. I assume you blacklisted b43 when trying legacy?
How about any need to blacklist when you need b43. Anything suspicious around in lsmod?
with b43, you can see me previous lsmod on the original post.
with b43legacy, the only related things I see from lsmod are b43legacy, mac80211, cfg80211, and ssb.
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Strike0 wrote:Whether rev 3 needs legacy or not is controversial. I assume you blacklisted b43 when trying legacy?
How about any need to blacklist when you need b43. Anything suspicious around in lsmod?with b43, you can see me previous lsmod on the original post.
with b43legacy, the only related things I see from lsmod are b43legacy, mac80211, cfg80211, and ssb.
Wait. Hmmm....
rmmod b43
modprobe b43legacy
....
rmmod b43legacy
modprobe b43
lsmod |grep b43
Now bcma is showing up. But it didn't before. It just started showing up with b43 since I did the compat-wireless package. But seeing as I'm getting scans SOMETIMES now, I hesitate to call it a problem. Maybe?
Any other ideas?
It can scan ONCE. The b43 driver is obviously functional at least for a bit.
Standard network service, wicd, netcfg, etc, I've tried them all. Reinstalled from scratch twice. Looking for NEW ideas basically. I've read just about every single post about every broadcom chipset out there. I just happen to have one of these rare ones apparently.
Last edited by oldmansutton (2012-03-10 17:46:59)
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There was a change recently about when to blacklist bcma, but I could not find it right now. Look at rfkill list when it does not scan.
Bit awkward, but since you re-installed twice: I have had good results with the LTS kernel regarding wifi. The current is in a lot of flux regarding wireless recently.
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Try OpenWrt on a USB stick, see if it does better.
Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy
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This card doesn't use bcma, so the stuff regarding it is not relevant. But the rfkill advice is good. However, if it does search once, then the radio isn't killed.
One thing you can try is an older kernel. Try the linux-lts package. But note that this kernel needs a different firmware version. So if you try linux-lts, remove the firmware you have now and install b43-firmware-lts from AUR.
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Hmm, didn't have rfkill installed. Got it on there now. Rebooted. Brought wlan0 up after boot, scanned, saw my network. Tried to connect, hung, wlan0 went down. Ran rfkill list afterwards, got the following output:
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
soft blocked: no
hard blocked: no
Not sure what this tells me. Except it looks about the same as if I run it before doing a working scan.
Willing to try the LTS older kernel you guys are mentioning, but don't know that I've ever rolled a kernel back or built one by hand before. Got a good link to instructions on that?
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Also, don't have a thumb drive to try openwrt on. If I had the $10-15 to get one, I'd just get a wireless usb adapter for the desktop and skip the whole repurposing of this laptop altogether lol
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linux-lts is a package, you don't need to build by hand. I don't use Arch kernels so I may be wrong, but in essence you do
pacman -S linux-lts
and adjust the bootloader to load vmlinuz-linux-lts and initramfs-linux-lts. Also, like I said, remove the b43 firmware you have now and install b43-firmware-lts from AUR.
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Ah, was actually building it right now from the AUR ... could try that first rather, heh.
As far as the wlan0 goes, it's like it only is functional the first minute or two after boot. If I wait longer than that, scans refuse to work. Really driving me nuts. I hope this kernel works better
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*sighs* Got it loaded, but same stuff.
uname -r
3.0.23-1-lts
dmesg (changes from previous runs)
[ 10.579368] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS, Firmware-ID: FW13]
[ 55.070091] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 508.1084 (2009-01-14 01:32:01)
Not even getting anything back on an "iwlist scan" anymore.
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Well, only one thing remains - report to the b43 mailing list, ask for pointers how to debug this: http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/b43-dev (note: that page won't load for me right now, but it's for sure the correct address, so try a bit later). You can also write to the linux-wireless mailing list.
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Mmmyeah, time to try a different distro in the meantime heh Thanks for the help though.
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Heh, thought maybe I'd just try ndiswrapper... but I have the ONE chipset that doesn't work with it >.<
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Heh, thought maybe I'd just try ndiswrapper... but I have the ONE chipset that doesn't work with it >.<
LOL! Sorry if that's a bit rude, but... yeah.
The thing is, you're off by just one friggin' revision. I also have a BCM4306 with the pci-id 14e4:4320, but mine is (rev 02) instead of (rev 03). It works perfectly with the b43legacy driver.
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That's just the way it always seems to go with me and hardware. Always have the one that was made on the day everybody was drunk.
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I have the same problem with the same hardware family (BCM4306 802.11a/b/g rev 03) on a Dell Latitude D600. Downgrading the kernel to 3.2.8-1 and downgrading kmod to 5-4 provides a temporary fix for me.
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