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#1 2013-10-18 04:00:10

saltedpotatos
Member
Registered: 2013-10-18
Posts: 4

Broadcom Wireless Woes

I think I have all relevant information in the link below, please let me know if there's anything you can think of, or some other useful information I should display. I have got this card working on arch/other distros before, but it's a struggle every time. Thanks

http://pastebin.com/SrghpUip

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#2 2013-10-18 23:27:21

nomorewindows
Member
Registered: 2010-04-03
Posts: 3,362

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Start with the b43-firmware.


I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

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#3 2013-10-18 23:55:24

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
Website

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

That card is supported both by b43 and brcmfmac.  I would use either of those before wl.


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#4 2013-10-19 02:02:50

bigcountryva
Member
Registered: 2012-09-29
Posts: 5

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

I agree with the above, and being I have a different wifi card, and still had the problem, this helped me.


 [joey@joey ~]$ sudo pacman -R networkmanager 

*next step may be extra and not needed, again worked for me*


 [joey@joey ~]$ sudo pacman -Sc 

Finally


 [joey@joey ~]$ sudo pacman -S networkmanager 

Also, make sure you have a alternate way to connect to the internet.  As always, your milage may vary.

Hope it helps

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#5 2013-10-20 03:35:46

saltedpotatos
Member
Registered: 2013-10-18
Posts: 4

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I switched to the b43 driver, at the advice of Trilby. Now, I have been able to see wireless networks, but intermittently. I will run a scan with iwlist, or networkmanager, and will see networks, but running that same scan 2 minutes later and no dice. Not sure of the cause of the intermittent behaviour. I have never had wicd see a network, but I dont know if thats something with my card and wicd, or just a biproduct of the intermittent results.

Also, http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri … _b43legacy lists my card as being only partially supported, which is why I went with broadcom-wl initially. I didn't see where I could find what wasn't supported with this card.


Here are another round of scans/logs/information. Appreciate any further advice

pacman -Q | grep b43

b43-firmware 5.100.138-2
b43-fwcutter 018-1

lspci -vnn

04:02.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4329] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Netgear WN311B RangeMax Next 270 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter [1385:7d00]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
	Memory at f7ffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb

ip link

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT qlen 1000
    link/ether e0:cb:4e:b9:05:1e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT qlen 1000
    link/ether c0:3f:0e:bd:89:df brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

At this point, I saw wlan0 state as being down, so I ran ip link set wlan0 up, which returned back successfully, or at least without an error. However, re running ip link, the adapter state remained down.

iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

enp2s0    no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 20:10:7A:06:FA:AB
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=41/70  Signal level=-69 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"Pretty Fly For A Wifi"

... More to that network, as well as other seen networks. Didn't want to post all. Seemed redundant. Running that same command 2 minutes later, no networks found.

dmesg | grep b43

[    2.668274] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4321 WLAN found (core revision 11)
[    2.703956] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 5, Type 4 (N), Revision 1
[    3.297283] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[    3.384399] b43-phy0 ERROR: Fatal DMA error: 0x00000400, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
[    3.384403] b43-phy0 ERROR: This device does not support DMA on your system. It will now be switched to PIO.
[    3.384405] b43-phy0: Controller RESET (DMA error) ...
[    3.587254] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[    3.657348] b43-phy0 warning: Forced PIO by use_pio module parameter. This should not be needed and will result in lower performance.
[    3.674913] b43-phy0: Controller restarted

No idea what the fatal DMA error means, and if I should be concerned by it, or if PIO is ok/good enough..?

Thanks, sorry for information overload, but more is probably better than less. Let me know. All comments appreciated.

On a semi-related note, anyone have recommendations for a wireless-n card that works out of the box? PCI preferred, PCI-e and usb also accepted. Lol.

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#6 2013-10-20 11:40:30

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
Website

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Wlan0 is up:

3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT qlen 1000
    link/ether c0:3f:0e:bd:89:df brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

The UP/DOWN inside the angled brackets is for the interface.  The second UP/DOWN after state is for an actual connection.  So the interface is up, but just not connected to anything yet.  So the next steps are iwlist scan, then to associate with one of the scanned networks.  What have you done to attempt to associate with your network?

I'm not familiar with that last error you are reporting, but have you removed everything related to wl?  Have you rmmod the module and/or removed it from modprobe.conf and rebooted?

Last edited by Trilby (2013-10-20 11:43:26)


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#7 2013-10-20 13:28:06

nomorewindows
Member
Registered: 2010-04-03
Posts: 3,362

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

It seems like wl was a pain to remove, and if left in there would cause further problems with b43-firmware.  It was because o the blacklisting that wl does.


I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

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#8 2013-10-20 19:57:46

bhadotia
Member
From: Karnal, India
Registered: 2008-12-09
Posts: 87

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

saltedpotatos wrote:

iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 20:10:7A:06:FA:AB
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=41/70  Signal level=-69 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"Pretty Fly For A Wifi"

... More to that network, as well as other seen networks. Didn't want to post all. Seemed redundant. Running that same command 2 minutes later, no networks found.

You should have your network listed in networkmanager. Try connecting with that first. iwlist scan might not always return a result as the signal strength is only about 50%.

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#9 2013-10-20 20:17:33

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
Website

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

bhadotia wrote:

You should have your network listed in networkmanager. Try connecting with that first. iwlist scan might not always return a result as the signal strength is only about 50%.

This doesn't make any sense.  Using network manager will not solve any driver issues.  And network manager will not see anything iwlist doesn't.  Network manager is just a convenient wrapper for the iwlist and ip tools.


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#10 2013-10-20 21:56:44

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Well, the network seems to be working.  It has demonstrated the ability to use the radio and do a site survey.

DMA means Direct Memory Access.  DMA allows peripherals to take control of the bus and transfer data to and from main memory without the processor having to move data byte by byte.  It is much faster and, if the processor does not need anything on the bus, can continue processing while the transfer.  PIO (Programmed Input/Output) means the processor has to do the heavy lifting.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#11 2013-10-21 08:01:12

saltedpotatos
Member
Registered: 2013-10-18
Posts: 4

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Let's see here.

rmmod wl

rmmod: ERROR: Module wl is not currently loaded

There is nothing in modprobe.conf, nor any other files in /etc/modprobe.d/

I used pacman to uninstall the broadcom-wl driver I had obtained from the AUR. AFAIK it is entirely gone.

This is the network I would like to connect to, ArchWifi. It is an unsecured network, but does have mac address filtering enabled. My mac address is on the approved list. So here is my process.


sudo iwlist scan

          Cell 02 - Address: 22:10:7A:06:FA:AC
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=49/70  Signal level=-61 dBm  
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"ArchWifi"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000000035685fd6a
                    Extra: Last beacon: 46ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00084172636857696669
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1AFC181BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D1601080000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F02C0000
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00

next step, according to wiki

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid ArchWifi


This returns a prompt.

So to check if im connected, I run sudo iwconfig wlan0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"ArchWifi"  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

So this has my essid set correctly, but access point is not associated? Anywho.

Running dhcpcd at this point, all i see for wlan0 is waiting for carrier. Never grabs an IP.

NetworkManager also sees networks, I click on ArchWifi, and nothing happens. Could network manager be interfering somehow with my trying to connect manually? I am using gnome as a DE, in case that has some importance with applets or somesuch. The reason I bring that up is this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? … bfb96908e5 , although it is old, and for a different distro.

That's everything important I can think of to mention right now. I appreciate the continued patience, thanks all.

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#12 2013-10-21 16:43:01

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

It says that your network has encryption... so you need to read through those instructions more closely.  In general, iwconfig has been succeeded by iw, though the use of either of those tools is still typically okay... as long as you have no security.

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#13 2013-10-21 17:05:58

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
Website

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

WonderWoofy wrote:

It says that your network has encryption... so you need to read through those instructions more closely.  In general, iwconfig has been succeeded by iw, though the use of either of those tools is still typically okay... as long as you have no security.

What am I missing that leads you do that conclusion?

Encryption key:off

That means it's an open network, right?


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#14 2013-10-21 17:40:15

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Whoops. I could have sworn it said "on". Guess I had better have my eyes checked!

Edit: I see now. I was looking at post #5.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-10-21 17:42:08)

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#15 2013-10-24 00:47:46

bhadotia
Member
From: Karnal, India
Registered: 2008-12-09
Posts: 87

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Trilby wrote:
bhadotia wrote:

You should have your network listed in networkmanager. Try connecting with that first. iwlist scan might not always return a result as the signal strength is only about 50%.

This doesn't make any sense.  Using network manager will not solve any driver issues.  And network manager will not see anything iwlist doesn't.  Network manager is just a convenient wrapper for the iwlist and ip tools.

I was speaking by experience over there. I have had WLANs with weak signals dissappear from the iwlist scan results when they still are present in the networkmanager list.
I think this should clarify what I was trying to point out:

saltedpotatos wrote:

NetworkManager also sees networks

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#16 2013-10-25 04:40:30

saltedpotatos
Member
Registered: 2013-10-18
Posts: 4

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

No real progress to mention. Running dmesg -w while trying to connect gives me

[13820.876993] wlan0: authenticate with 22:10:7a:06:fa:ac
[13820.889777] wlan0: send auth to 22:10:7a:06:fa:ac (try 1/3)
[13821.092861] wlan0: send auth to 22:10:7a:06:fa:ac (try 2/3)
[13821.296163] wlan0: send auth to 22:10:7a:06:fa:ac (try 3/3)
[13821.499544] wlan0: authentication with 22:10:7a:06:fa:ac timed out

the mac address is correct the ArchWifi, the unsecured network, and it does try and connect, but times out. Interesting, but I don't know whats causing the timeout.

Also, by launching cinnamon-settings through terminal, and trying to connect to a network, I get this error. Or well, warning.

** (nm-connection-editor:6258): WARNING **: nm_connection_list_new: failed to load VPN plugins: Couldn't read VPN .name files directory /etc/NetworkManager/VPN.
Error creating proxy: The connection is closed (g-io-error-quark, 18)

Unsure what else to try. Thanks

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#17 2013-10-25 14:33:23

nomorewindows
Member
Registered: 2010-04-03
Posts: 3,362

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

Might try dhclient.


I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

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#18 2013-10-27 17:07:05

surfatwork
Member
Registered: 2012-01-05
Posts: 137

Re: Broadcom Wireless Woes

My suggestion:
turn off MAC address filtering on the router
turn off encryption
boot into command prompt
then run iwconfig wlan0 essid Archwifi

check if it associates fine. You need to remove all possible sources of issues.. atm, there are some many factors - gnome, networkmanager, mac filtering....

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