Broadcom wireless card

I just installed open SUSE 10.3 on my Dell Inspiron B130. I have the
Broadcom 4318 wireless card. The install found the card and lets me
configure it. IWCONFIG shows it, but I can't connect to my home network.
According to Add Software bcm43xx-foocutter is installed.
Any ideas on getting this working?

Thanks
Marie

Marie wrote:
> I just installed open SUSE 10.3 on my Dell Inspiron B130. I have the
> Broadcom 4318 wireless card. The install found the card and lets me
> configure it. IWCONFIG shows it, but I can't connect to my home network.
> According to Add Software bcm43xx-foocutter is installed.
> Any ideas on getting this working?

The 4318 should work. Have you run bcm43xx-fwcutter? That program takes a Broadcom driver and
extracts the firmware and will place it in /lib/firmware, where the bcm43xx driver reads it. Check
the output resulting from 'dmesg | grep bcm'. It is likely that it reports a problem loading firmware.

To fix this do the following (as user):

wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources...a-3.130.20.0.o
su (and enter your root password)
bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

At this point, type 'iwlist scan' and you should see your access point. I'm assuming that you have
configured the interface with YaST. If you are using NetworkManager, you should be able to right
click on the applet, see your AP and click on it to connect. If not using NM, do an ifup eth1 (or
wlan0).

If you have any problems, post the output from 'dmesg | grep bcm'.

Larry

Thanks Larry, I finally got it working. I copied the fwcutter script
command from the hcl chipset chart for 10.2. Ran it, it downloaded the
drivers and installed it. Working fine now. The documentation is hard to
find telling you that you need to do that. I just took a guess.
Thanks again.

Marie

Marie wrote:
> Thanks Larry, I finally got it working. I copied the fwcutter script
> command from the hcl chipset chart for 10.2. Ran it, it downloaded the
> drivers and installed it. Working fine now. The documentation is hard to
> find telling you that you need to do that. I just took a guess.
> Thanks again.

I just added detailed instructions for installing firmware to
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43. I hope future users will be able to find it.

Larry

Larry,

I have a similar situation. I have an HP dv6000, which uses the
Broadcom 43xx.

I thought I did what you said on the website. I run:
mybox:~/download # bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

filename : wl_apsta.o
version : 3.130.20.0
MD5 : e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
microcodes : 2 4 5 11
pcms : 4 5

microcode : 2
revision : 0x0127
patchlevel : 0x000e
date : 2005-04-18
time : 02:36:27

microcode : 4
revision : 0x0127
patchlevel : 0x000e
date : 2005-04-18
time : 02:36:27

microcode : 5
revision : 0x0127
patchlevel : 0x000e
date : 2005-04-18
time : 02:36:27

microcode : 11
revision : 0x0127
patchlevel : 0x000e
date : 2005-04-18
time : 02:36:27

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 ...

When I run:
mybox:~/download # iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 No scan results

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.


Not sure what is going on here.

eric

Larry Finger wrote:
> Marie wrote:
>> Thanks Larry, I finally got it working. I copied the fwcutter script
>> command from the hcl chipset chart for 10.2. Ran it, it downloaded the
>> drivers and installed it. Working fine now. The documentation is hard to
>> find telling you that you need to do that. I just took a guess.
>> Thanks again.
>
> I just added detailed instructions for installing firmware to
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43. I hope future users will be able to find it.
>
> Larry

eric wrote:
> Larry,
>
> I have a similar situation. I have an HP dv6000, which uses the
> Broadcom 43xx.
>
> I thought I did what you said on the website. I run:
> mybox:~/download # bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
>
> filename : wl_apsta.o
> version : 3.130.20.0
> MD5 : e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
> microcodes : 2 4 5 11
> pcms : 4 5
>
> microcode : 2
> revision : 0x0127
> patchlevel : 0x000e
> date : 2005-04-18
> time : 02:36:27
>
> microcode : 4
> revision : 0x0127
> patchlevel : 0x000e
> date : 2005-04-18
> time : 02:36:27
>
> microcode : 5
> revision : 0x0127
> patchlevel : 0x000e
> date : 2005-04-18
> time : 02:36:27
>
> microcode : 11
> revision : 0x0127
> patchlevel : 0x000e
> date : 2005-04-18
> time : 02:36:27
>
> 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 ...
>
> When I run:
> mybox:~/download # iwlist scan
> lo Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> eth1 No scan results
>
> eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
>
> Not sure what is going on here.

Your firmware should be installed correctly. You can see any errors with 'dmesg | grep bcm'. Please
post that output, as well as the output of 'iwconfig'. Other questions - does your computer have a
radio on/off button? Is it on?

Larry

Larry,

Very strange... About a half hour later it started working. I can't
remember doing anything after I sent the post. Radio switch was on the
whole time. I hate it when things magically fix themselves. They
usually break themselves again.

In any event, sorry to have bothered you. It has been working for 3
days now. Glad for that.

Thanks

eric

Larry Finger wrote:
> eric wrote:
>> Larry,
>>
>> I have a similar situation. I have an HP dv6000, which uses the
>> Broadcom 43xx.
>>
>> I thought I did what you said on the website. I run:
>> mybox:~/download # bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware
>> wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
>>
>> filename : wl_apsta.o
>> version : 3.130.20.0
>> MD5 : e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
>> microcodes : 2 4 5 11
>> pcms : 4 5
>>
>> microcode : 2
>> revision : 0x0127
>> patchlevel : 0x000e
>> date : 2005-04-18
>> time : 02:36:27
>>
>> microcode : 4
>> revision : 0x0127
>> patchlevel : 0x000e
>> date : 2005-04-18
>> time : 02:36:27
>>
>> microcode : 5
>> revision : 0x0127
>> patchlevel : 0x000e
>> date : 2005-04-18
>> time : 02:36:27
>>
>> microcode : 11
>> revision : 0x0127
>> patchlevel : 0x000e
>> date : 2005-04-18
>> time : 02:36:27
>>
>> 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 ...
>>
>> When I run:
>> mybox:~/download # iwlist scan
>> lo Interface doesn't support scanning.
>>
>> eth1 No scan results
>>
>> eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
>>
>>
>> Not sure what is going on here.
>
> Your firmware should be installed correctly. You can see any errors with
> 'dmesg | grep bcm'. Please post that output, as well as the output of
> 'iwconfig'. Other questions - does your computer have a radio on/off
> button? Is it on?
>
> Larry