BCM 4306 not Working with Kernel 11-97

dboon · #1 26th July 2008, 06:00 PM

This is my third day of having Fedora 9 installed on my laptop. It has been an enlightening experience, and I've spent quite a few hours here on the forums and other websites researching, experimenting, and learning how things work.

Anyway, with kernel 2.6.25.14, I was able to get my wireless card working using Dangermouse's great little tool, autonine. However, once I upgraded to 2.6.25.10-86, it stopped, and autonine didn't help. I upgraded to 2.6.25.11-97, and still no wireless.

Any suggestions?

bbfuller · #2 26th July 2008, 09:00 PM

Hello dboon

I have a 4306 that is working OK with the 97 kernel. There was a kernel, either 86 or the previous, that did have wireless problems, but I haven't seen any reports of difficulties with the 97.

As a point of interest, it's best if you ever face this problem again not to update when you have a new kernel that fails in some way. Your previous working kernel will be lost in the update precedure. Usual practice then is to modify one of the yum (update manager) configuration files to keep more that two kernels. We can talk about that if you wish.

Meantime, try running these commands in a terminal:

Code:

dmesg | grep b43

and

Code:

dmesg | grep wlan0

to see if we can isolate any fault messages from the driver or interface.

dboon · #3 26th July 2008, 09:55 PM

Next time I have something like this come up, I will definitely follow your advice and not upgrade again.

Here's what came up when I entered the commands in the terminal:

Code:

[drew@localhost ~]$ dmesg | grep b43
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input8
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
b43-phy0 debug: 30-bit DMA initialized
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
b43-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2

Code:

[drew@localhost ~]$ dmesg | grep wlan0
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

***Dangermouse*** · #4 26th July 2008, 10:03 PM

Hi
i dont mean to but in, and may sound daft but have you checked the wireless switch is on, if you have dual booted with windows, then i would boot in windows and check that it is on, this is a common accidental mistake, if not then just ignore me, and follow what bbfuller says as he,s very good with wireless.

dboon · #5 26th July 2008, 10:38 PM

Dangermouse, that was it. Thanks. Thanks to bbfuller too.

bbfuller · #6 26th July 2008, 11:24 PM

Hello dboon

Glad it worked out OK.

I wasn't advocating not updating to a new kernel by the way, we wouldn't be using Fedora at all if we didn't want the latest and greatest. It's just that the latest and greatest is sometimes a bit broken and you have to be prepared as best as possible for it to happen.

What I was advocating was hanging onto more than the default two kernels. Only having two is a bit like playing Russian Roulette, if you are going to loose your working kernel in the update and you don't know if the new one works.

A lot of us retain more than two kernels and it's a simple procedure.

Post back if you want to investigate it.

Thanks Dangermouse, it's so easy to get hung up on the technology and forget the obvious!