FC5 and Broadcom wireless...HELP!

lancherider · #1 1st June 2006, 05:27 PM

First of all, let me just say that I am cursing Dell for changing their HW specs. Just when everything was running smoothly with ipw2xxx, they switch over to #$!?**@ Broadcom!

So, ranting aside, I need some help getting wireless to work. I have a brand-spanking-new Dell Inspiron 640m and have FC5 running great, except that I can't get wireless working. I am running the latest kernel, and everything is patched. Here is the relevant output of lspci:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 4311 (rev 01)

So, I first tried the How-to here:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...adcom+wireless
but when I ran system-config-network, the wireless card doesn't show up. The only option I get is "Other Wireless Card"

Next, I moved on to ndiswrapper, and followed the instructions here:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...adcom+wireless

When I do ndiswrapper -l, I get the following:
bcmwl5 driver installed

But no "hardware present" or "hardware detected" or anything like that. Again, when I run system-config-network, the only choice I see to set up a new wireless connection is "Other Wireless Card"

I've also played around with wine trying to install via a Windows .exe file, but no luck there either. Can anyone offer me any suggestions? I think the problem may be that the OS isn't detecting a specific Broadcom card, just the "Unknown device" nonsense from lspci, but I don't know how to fix this. I would greatly appreciate any help on this, as I have three of these machines and need to get them configured for users ASAP. Thanks!

brunson · #2 1st June 2006, 06:42 PM

I'm using a broadcom based motorola card. I used ndiswrapper for a long time until my second try with the bcm43xx drivers worked. It helps to try it during the day when you're thinking clearly, rather that at 2am when I should have been sleeping. :-)

I'm currently boycotting ndiswrapper, so if you want some help with the native drivers, I may be able to help.

Were you able to get the fwcutter to extract the firmware and is it properly installed? Does the module load properly? Can you find reference to the driver loading in your messages file and post them?

lancherider · #3 1st June 2006, 08:27 PM

The firmware appears to extract and install correctly into /lib/firmware:

Code:

# bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
bcm43xx-fwcutter can cut the firmware out of wl_apsta.o

  filename :  wl_apsta.o
  version  :  3.130.20.0
  MD5      :  e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3

extracting bcm43xx_microcode2.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode4.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode5.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode11.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_pcm4.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_pcm5.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval01.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval02.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval03.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval04.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval05.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval06.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval07.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval08.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval09.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval10.fw ...

Then I verify that they are in /lib/firmware:

Code:

# ls /lib/firmware/
bcm43xx_initval01.fw  bcm43xx_initval05.fw  bcm43xx_initval09.fw    bcm43xx_microcode4.fw
bcm43xx_initval02.fw  bcm43xx_initval06.fw  bcm43xx_initval10.fw    bcm43xx_microcode5.fw
bcm43xx_initval03.fw  bcm43xx_initval07.fw  bcm43xx_microcode11.fw  bcm43xx_pcm4.fw
bcm43xx_initval04.fw  bcm43xx_initval08.fw  bcm43xx_microcode2.fw   bcm43xx_pcm5.fw

Then depmod -a and modprobe bcm43xx and dmesg shows:

Code:

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.7
ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>
bcm43xx driver

But I can't see it when I run system-config-network.

brunson · #4 1st June 2006, 09:13 PM

Can you see it when you run "/sbin/ifconfig -a"?

lancherider · #5 1st June 2006, 09:23 PM

Nope. All I have is eth0 (my ethernet NIC), lo and sit0.

brunson · #6 2nd June 2006, 04:27 AM

It sounds like the module isn't actually loading. Is the bcm43xx module listed in the output of /sbin/lsmod? And what messages show up in /var/log/messages when you modprobe it, sometimes there are messages there that don't show up in dmesg. I don't get any errors about 80211_crypt, my only messages are:

Code:

May 28 17:06:55 charlie kernel: ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.7
May 28 17:06:55 charlie kernel: ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>

Plus I have a stack of messages like this when I insert the card (I know yours isn't cardbus, but you should still get something like it):

Code:

Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Failed to switch to core 0
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Failed to switch to core 4
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: gpio error: Neither ChipCommon nor PCI core available!
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA 0x0200 (RX) max used slots: 58/64
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Wait on DMA RX status timed out.
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA 0x0260 (TX) max used slots: 0/512
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Wait on DMA TX status timed out.
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA 0x0240 (TX) max used slots: 0/512
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Wait on DMA TX status timed out.
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA 0x0220 (TX) max used slots: 39/512
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Wait on DMA TX status timed out.
Jun  1 16:58:09 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA 0x0200 (TX) max used slots: 0/512
Jun  1 16:58:10 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Wait on DMA TX status timed out.
Jun  1 16:58:10 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Failed to switch to core 0
Jun  1 16:58:10 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Failed to switch to core 0
Jun  1 16:58:10 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Failed to switch to core 0
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4306, rev 0x3
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Number of cores: 5
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x4, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0x5, vendor 0x4243, disabled
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x80d, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x807, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, disabled
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Core 4: ID 0x804, rev 0x9, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 2, Type 2, Revision 2
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2)
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
Jun  1 16:58:13 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: set security called
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx:    .active_key = 0
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx:    .level = 1
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx:    .enabled = 1
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx:    .encrypt = 1
Jun  1 16:58:16 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Jun  1 16:58:17 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned on
Jun  1 16:58:17 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Chip initialized
Jun  1 16:58:17 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: DMA initialized
Jun  1 16:58:17 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: 80211 cores initialized
Jun  1 16:58:17 charlie kernel: bcm43xx: Keys cleared

Try to modprobe bcm43xx and look for failures in /var/log/messages. I think that 80211_crypt error may be causing some problems. Troubleshooting 101: If you don't understand an error message enough to know that it can be ignored, assume you shouldn't be ignoring it.

lancherider · #7 2nd June 2006, 04:50 PM

Here is the output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
bcm43xx               401761  0
ieee80211softmac       32065  1 bcm43xx
ieee80211              33033  2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt        10049  1 ieee80211

/var/log/messages doesn't shed much more light than dmesg does:

Code:

Jun  2 09:45:31 localhost kernel: ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.7
Jun  2 09:45:31 localhost kernel: ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>
Jun  2 09:45:31 localhost kernel: bcm43xx driver

These are the last three lines of /var/log/messages after I modprobe bcm43xx.

Do I need to download the ieee subsystem from atrpms or something?

brunson · #8 2nd June 2006, 05:21 PM

I'm stumped, I'm afraid. I get those same messages in my logs, followed by about 40 lines of logging from the actual bcm43xx driver.

Maybe there's something odd about the embedded version of the chipset that the driver isn't recognizing, a revision code or something. The fact that ndiswrapper isn't working for you lends credence (in my mind) to the hypothesis that the chipset isn't being recognized properly.

Unless someone here has any more ideas you may need to take your questions to a more specific forum. http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/ is the official support forum for then bcm43xx kernel module. I'm interested in knowing what the problem is so please keep us posted.

lancherider · #9 2nd June 2006, 05:26 PM

Thanks for your help, brunson. I'll check out that other forum and let you know how it turns out.

smfinley · #10 2nd June 2006, 05:27 PM

This post may help. It uses the same driver.

lancherider · #11 2nd June 2006, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smfinley

This post may help. It uses the same driver.

Yeah, I tried that already. I can get to the point where ifconfig -a shows the wlan0 interface. However, it still doesn't show up in system-config-network. I can manually create ifcfg-wlan0 in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts, but when I try to ifup wlan0, I get the message:

Code:

Determining IP information for wlan0... failed; no link present.  Check cable?

LinOrWin · #12 5th June 2006, 11:57 AM

G'Day!
A miracle!!! My broadcom in my Acer 5002WLMi finally works under ndiswrapper!

Ok, if you type the command lspci, do you see your broadcom hardware?
If so, that's a good start.

I went to http://rpm.pbone.net and dowloaded the two (2) rpm modules necessary for ndiswrapper. I.e.
ndiswrapper-1.13-2.lvn5 (for MY i386, FC5) AND kmod-ndiswrapper-1.13.2.6.16_1.2122_FC5.
Download the 2 rpm modules for YOUR Linux version AND kernel version.

Copy them (or download) them in a directory. Go to that directory and type rpm -Uvh *.rpm
Log out. Log in root.
Create a directory with all the drivers for your broadcom hardware. I went to Acer and downloaded 802bg.zip. I unzipped it in a directory called bcmwl5.
then type /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i /path and directory where you unzipped 802bg.zip/bcmwl5.inf
Then type /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
try /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l to see if hardware present.
Edit /etc/modprobe.conf and add at the end of file: alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
Make sure there is a carriage return at the end of that line
Still in root, type depmod -a
then modprobe ndiswrapper
Start the network utility (system, admin, network). and configure your wlan0 - ndiswrapper.
allow all users to start stop ...
I ticked IPv6... don't know if that is useful
mode managed
press the button in front of laptop. It should start flashing.
Good luck.

Try http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

Rob Byrne · #13 5th June 2006, 11:17 PM

Hi, not sure but it may be a kernel version issue. I have a Dell inspiron 9100 which has the broadcom wireless card. I followed the howto here below and it worked real smoothly, including activating the wireless card and settings via the System->Administration->Network gui:
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail...ch/000804.html

For info, previously I was using ndiswrapper on FC3, which worked very well indeed.

daveidtucker · #14 6th June 2006, 07:05 AM

have you manually edited the modprobe.conf file?
gedit /etc/modprobe.conf

add the line
alias eth1 bcm43xx

make sure theres and carrige line at the end.
that was my problem why it wasnt showing up under the
network configure.

mine is working fine. only other problem i had is that when
the computer starts it starts bcm43xx but when i
log into my user i need to deactive and reactivate the
connection to get it going.
havent figured out the answer to that one yet so if anyone
knows the fix to that throw me a line.

hope that helps