Arch Linux

Super_ness

Member

Registered: 2010-10-22

Posts: 3

Pitiful performance with b43 BCM4318, very weird stuff

Well, I'm at a huge loss here. My networking performance is very bad. But not completly broken. Some sites will load, but most fail randomly. Pacman gives a "no address record" or "not found" error very often, making it nigh impossible to install packages.

Now, the main stuff. I'm using the standard "network" daemon. During init, it claims that network failed, but upon iwconfig, I can see that wlan0 did get assigned a ESSID, along with an IP address. I'm using the b43 driver, using instructions from http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43.

Here's the output of ifconfig...

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1A:70:36:8F:53  
          inet addr:192.168.11.11  Bcast:192.168.11.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:45 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:37 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:5736 (5.6 Kb)  TX bytes:5799 (5.6 Kb)

Here's iwconfig...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"0016010FC1D0"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:16:01:0F:C1:D1   
          Bit Rate=24 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=49/70  Signal level=-61 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

iwlist wlan0 scan...

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:16:01:0F:C1:D1
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=60/70  Signal level=-50 dBm  
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"0016010FC1D0"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000005aeeb1a8e
                    Extra: Last beacon: 66ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000C303031363031304643314430
                    IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD060010180202F1

Here's /etc/rc.conf, or most of it, I left out localzation...

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(!snd_pcsp !pcspkr loop !b43legacy b43)

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="gabes-computer"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#

#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0 wlan0)
eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid "0016010FC1D0""
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 10.42.43.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
 
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng @dbus @hal network @netfs @crond @alsa @sshd gdm)

I'd really rather not use NetworkManager, as I've had some really bad times with it in Ubuntu. Suffice it to say, I hate I NM with a passion!

Speaking of Ubuntu, I'm currently dual-booting with it, and this very same card with this very same driver works flawlessly... I should also add that I got those outputs from a nice and steady SSH connection to it, so I have no idea!

So, thanks for your time, for your support to Arch, and just give a shout if you need more info.

Last edited by Super_ness (2010-10-22 02:13:57)

3])

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2009-10-12

Posts: 215

Re: Pitiful performance with b43 BCM4318, very weird stuff

You do know there's a "networking" section in the rc.conf, perhaps post that and the daemons you boot at the start.

---

“There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”-- C.A.R. Hoare

vanvalium

Member

From: Austria

Registered: 2010-10-09

Posts: 86

Re: Pitiful performance with b43 BCM4318, very weird stuff

Would really appriciate it if someone has a solution or if you found one yourself
I've got the same problem at the moment, the only difference is that I start it manually because it's a fresh install

moniker117

Member

Registered: 2010-06-18

Posts: 7

Re: Pitiful performance with b43 BCM4318, very weird stuff

That's strange.  I'm having similar issues with a Broadcom wireless card, but it appears to happen accross regardless of OS.  I attribute it to bad drivers.

I think the reason why you get a fail message on your network is because you have the following setting in your rc.conf:

#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0 wlan0)
eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid "0016010FC1D0""

If I understand this correctly, you are telling the system to bring up both the wireless and ethernet cards.  If your computer is not plugged into the ethernet, that will fail every time.  You may also notice a delay every time the system boots while it tries to get an address from the ethernet card.