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troncoso

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 50

[SOLVED] No network after new installation - Broadcom BCM4401-B0

I've just made a new installation on an old Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop. After booting ARCH_201802 iso, the wired interface eth0 was up and I was able to install the base packages, although the wireless network wasn't working because the b43 firmware was missing.

This is the output of "lspci -v" about the ethernet controllers showing the kernel modules and drivers:

05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18, NUMA node 0
	Memory at c0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb

08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21, NUMA node 0
	Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Kernel driver in use: b44
	Kernel modules: b44

However, after I reboot into the new installation, there is no wired or wireless network. Output of lspci -v doesn't mention kernel modules:

05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11, NUMA node 0
	Memory at c0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel

08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10, NUMA node 0
	Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

although the relevant modules are loaded:

b43                   454656  0
bcma                   61440  1 b43
mac80211              892928  1 b43
cfg80211              733184  2 b43,mac80211
rng_core               16384  1 b43
led_class              16384  4 b43,sdhci,input_leds,dell_laptop
b44                    40960  0
mii                    16384  1 b44
ssb                    65536  2 b43,b44
mmc_core              172032  4 b43,sdhci,ssb,sdhci_pci
libphy                 73728  1 b44

The only network interface available is the loop device. I've already installed b43-fwcutter and extracted the proprietary firmware for the wireless device. I don't know what to do and would appreciate any help you can offer.

Last edited by troncoso (2018-02-10 17:10:27)

troncoso

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 50

Re: [SOLVED] No network after new installation - Broadcom BCM4401-B0

I'm not quite sure what happened: maybe it was the missing linux-headers package, which wasn't installed by "pacstrap /mnt base".

As the kernel loaded by the iso was 4.14.15-1, I downgraded my new system to that version, also installing the headers package. After rebooting I was able to set up the network. However, then I upgraded the system to the newest kernel and headers and everything continued to be all right.