[SOLVED] FC14 with two Broadcom wireless cards

[dakpenguin]

My laptop has these Broadcom chipsets (from lspci):

00:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)

The 4321 is working fine with wl, but I can't figure out how to get the 4306 working. As I understand, I can't use wl for that one. I once had it working (in FC10 or so) with b43legacy, which is now blacklisted for wl. Unblacklisting it alone doesn't make the other card work.

Is there some other configuration I need to do?

Thanks!

[stoat]

That BCM4306 device needs firmware. It might work with the b43-openfwwf firmware package in the Fedora repos. And if that doesn't work, then firmware extracted from a Broadcom proprietary driver (obtained from OpenWrt) surely will.

However, as you know, the b43 and b43legacy kernel modules do not load when wl is loaded. So if you intend use them both at once, then you probably have an interesting technical problem to work out. If you want to use one or the other, then you probably can use a script to unload and load modules and restart NetworkManager.

[dakpenguin]

Hmm. I want to use them for a bridge, so I suppose I have an "interesting technical problem". Maybe I'll cheat and try Ndiswrapper.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by dakpenguin

Hmm. I want to use them for a bridge, so I suppose I have an "interesting technical problem".

Maybe. I don't know. BCM4306 works well with b43/b43legacy depending on the chipset. I just don't know if broadcom-wl can co-exist with them. If you find out, return to tell about it.

If you want to try, you could unblacklist b43, b43legacy, ssb, and anything else that broadcom-wl blacklisted (just disable their lines in the blacklist file with the # character). Turn off or disconnect the BCM4321 and reboot. Run lsmod and see if the kernel loaded b43 or b43legacy (I trust it to do the right thing). Then install the appropriate firmware from OpenWrt (see the steps in the HOWTO). Either way, I predict that the BCM4306 will work normally. Then reconnect the BCM4321 and reboot. That is where I predict troubles will begin. But who knows.

Originally Posted by dakpenguin

Maybe I'll cheat and try Ndiswrapper.

I used ndiswrapper with my BCM4306 cards for a long time before there was a Linux driver for Broadcom. The HOWTO has the steps for that, too.

If you have problems or questions related to the HOWTO, then return here to deal with those.

[dakpenguin]

Both cards work now, the 4321 with wl and the 4306 with ndiswrapper. I even got the bridge set up without any trouble. Thank you.