[FC-6 x86_64] Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 woes

[homer420]

Just picked up a new HP dv2120 laptop which has a broadcom wireless card (lspci -vvv and -n output below). Working w/ a fresh install of FC-6 GOLD x86_64, kernel is 2.6.18-1.2798.

I've read the bcm43xx HOWTO here in the forums, as well as the excellent HOWTO David Woodhouse posted to the fedora lists, however no luck thus far. The bcm43xx module loads just fine, no errors in syslog. I've tried a handful of the drivers listed in the bcm43xx-fwcutter README, and the fwcutter tool seems to extract the firmware fine. But NetworkManager isn't seeing any wireless devices, and attempting to manually bring up the interface also states that the device isn't present:

---
[dave@smithers ~]$ ifup eth1
bcm43xx device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
---

I'm not sure how to further troubleshoot this problem. Any/all advice is greatly appreciated!

~Homer~

-----
[dave@smithers ~]$ lspci -vvv
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1363
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: Memory at c3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag+
Device: Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
Device: AtnBtn- AtnInd- PwrInd-
Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
Device: RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s, Port 0
Link: Latency L0s <4us, L1 <64us
Link: ASPM Disabled RCB 64 bytes CommClk- ExtSynch-
Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
-----
[dave@smithers ~]$ lspci -n
01:00.0 0280: 14e4:4311 (rev 01)

[homer420]

I wanted to quickly follow-up on this post for the benefit of anybody else who has this broadcom card ...

I received word from 1 of the lead wireless guys that this card is PCI Express which isn't supported in the stock FC-6 kernels. He pointed me to his latest test kernel which has a patch to add support for PCI-E broadcom cards, and this does get things working, somewhat.

http://people.redhat.com/linville/kernels/fc6

I'm still having troubles getting the card to work reliably, but progress is definitely being made. The current status can be followed in this BugZilla report:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=213556

Cheers,
~Homer~

[Batman2372]

I'm so glad to see you post! I've got the Presario V3015NR, but I've the same wireless card as you apparently. I've been trying bcm43xx and ndiswrapper to no avail as well. Glad to see you've found at least something.

A glimmer of hope... at last!

I have a couple of noobish questions on what you've done, according to your buzilla post. So did you patch up the kernel, or did you load up one of the test kernels? And once you did that, did you then proceed to use bcm43xx using fwcutter, or was once you patched the kernel, was it good to go?

[nanodano]

I wanted to quickly follow-up on this post for the benefit of anybody else who has this broadcom card ...

I received word from 1 of the lead wireless guys that this card is PCI Express which isn't supported in the stock FC-6 kernels. He pointed me to his latest test kernel which has a patch to add support for PCI-E broadcom cards, and this does get things working, somewhat.

http://people.redhat.com/linville/kernels/fc6

I'm still having troubles getting the card to work reliably, but progress is definitely being made. The current status can be followed in this BugZilla report:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=213556

Cheers,
~Homer~

I downloaded that test kernel from your link and it worked for me. I use a Presario notebook with a Broadcom 4318 wireless card built in.

[(V)eGa]

I'm having the same issues kinda. I have a Broadcom 4306 in my R3000T (CTO Model) Presario. When I installed FC6, it already knew I had a Broadcom 4306 wireless card. When I went to network settings, It shown Eth0 - Which was the nic card and eth1 - which was the wireless card. I hit edit to edit the settings on the wireless connection, put in all my wireless network settings. I even put in the channel just to be safe. I installed the newest version of fwcutter-005 and I put the firmware in /lib/firmware. When I got back to network settings and hit the activate button, I'm watching the syslog and it looks like it's connecting but still nothing. This is what my system log says after activating the wireless card:

Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: set security called, .active_key = 0, .level = 1, .enabled = 1, .encrypt = 1
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Canceling existing associate request!
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks first.
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is device up?
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0xf5, pl 0x1e (2003-10-10 18:14:18)
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned on
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: Chip initialized
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: 30-bit DMA initialized
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: Keys cleared
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: bcm43xx: Selected 802.11 core (phytype 2)
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Queueing Authentication Request to 00:0f:66:38:6e:bf
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Cannot associate without being authenticated, requested authentication
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Sent Authentication Request to 00:0f:66:38:6e:bf.
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:0f:66:38:6e:bf
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: invalid iw_mode!
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: sent association request!
Nov 6 05:08:10 sherik kernel: SoftMAC: associated!
Nov 6 05:08:11 sherik kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
Nov 6 05:08:13 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: New relevant interface eth1.IPv6 for mDNS.
Nov 6 05:08:13 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth1.IPv6 with address fe80::290:4bff:fe5f:879d.
Nov 6 05:08:13 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: Registering new address record for fe80::290:4bff:fe5f:879d on eth1.
Nov 6 05:08:14 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: New relevant interface eth1.IPv4 for mDNS.
Nov 6 05:08:14 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth1.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.101.
Nov 6 05:08:14 sherik avahi-daemon[2402]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.101 on eth1.

Here is more info on my card taken from lspci -vvv:

02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company NX9500 Built-in Wireless
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 201
Region 0: Memory at e8204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

I am also using the kernals you posted in your first post. Any help is appreciated :)

MeGa

[(V)eGa]

Ok I got everything working by following what Alex posted in this thread here

http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=115572

It worked like a charm. Find my post on the 4th page I think because on some notebooks, you might have to actually hit the on and off button to turn the card on.

MeGa
Edit - The thread i posted, you have to find a post by a guy named Alex-Grim. That's what got me going.

[Batman2372]

Holy cow, that did the trick for me, too! It's a little bit slow, but it's working!!!!!!

edit: Oh, I spoke too soon. it worked fine for a little while, but I left to go have lunch, and came back and no go. Now I see the device, but it won't activate. Guess I'll keep trying.

Homer, thank you so much for posting this.

[scotta3234]

Just wanted to say thanks homer for posting the links to the patch kernel and bugzilla report. I just picked up a dv2120 and of course the wireless doesn't want to play nice in linux :p Again, as you said, it does appear progress is being made. I have tried the kernel-2.6.18-1.2861.2.1.fc6.jwltest. kernel and it appears that my wireless device is recognized and can scan and list networks, although no connection just yet. Just wanted to say thanks again for pointing me to the bugzilla link.