openSUSE 11 and bcm43xx-fwcutter/ndiswrapper?

[janoholm]

Thanks Cookdav for seeing that!

I had used Yast->Configured Update and after that Update, and only one secure- and 5 updates went in. I was confused, because I read, that there was hundredres of updates to RC1.

Now my laptop is updating from a cable-conn. Do you think I shall try the b43legacy-driver again? Because the ndiswrapper-solution is not without problems I have to do several of the advices written on the opensuse/ndiswrapper-page:
- load ndiswrapper module from /etc/sysconfig/kernel
- use ifup instead of NM
- tried to switch of encrypt

Jan

[cookdav]

Originally Posted by janoholm

Thanks Cookdav for seeing that!
Do you think I shall try the b43legacy-driver again? Because the ndiswrapper-solution is not without problems I have to do several of the advices written on the opensuse/ndiswrapper-page:
- load ndiswrapper module from /etc/sysconfig/kernel
- use ifup instead of NM
- tried to switch of encrypt

Jan

I don't have that device, and even tho I'm a real ndiswrapper-lover,
I'd recommend you try the native drivers first.

[I'm using ifup instead of NM, because NM wouldn't work, but
since then, there's been updates to NM. So, try NM first.]

My 2-cents...

Dave

[mikxi]

Hi Guys, I have been trying to get my broadcom card working by following this thread but having probs with wget. I want to try networkmanager but cant find it anywhere and cannot invoke it from the terminal. So far, suse 11 is not working well on this lappy, (acer 7520). The display is rendering very slowly so a line typed into the terminal is taking several seconds to render. This is making it heavy going, but maybe if I can sort the wireless, I can then move onto the display problem.

Any help appreciated.

cookdav wrote:
> janoholm;1822120 Wrote:
>> Thanks Cookdav for seeing that!
>> Do you think I shall try the b43legacy-driver again? Because the
>> ndiswrapper-solution is not without problems I have to do
>> several of the advices written on the opensuse/ndiswrapper-page:
>> - load ndiswrapper module from /etc/sysconfig/kernel
>> - use ifup instead of NM
>> - tried to switch of encrypt
>>
>> Jan
>
> I don't have that device, and even tho I'm a real ndiswrapper-lover,
> I'd recommend you try the native drivers first.
>
> [I'm using ifup instead of NM, because NM wouldn't work, but
> since then, there's been updates to NM. So, try NM first.]

You should use NM and b43legacy, rather than ndiswrapper.

I did the conversion of bcm43xx to create b43legacy, thus I know it
works. There are some problems for Ubuntu users that have rfkill
switches, but I'm not aware of any with openSUSE kernels. The main
reason not to use ndiswrapper is that I am now working with the
reverse engineering team that is writing the specifications for
extending b43 to work with the latest Broadcom devices. In that work,
I see how little error checking that Broadcom does relative to the
open-source Linux driver. I have not done any RE on the Windows
driver, but I would expect the same philosophy. Of course, any
undetected error leads to a "Blue Screen of Death" on Windows, and an
equally messy crash in Linux. To add further insult, no Linux
developer will even look at any crash from the "tainted" kernel that
results from loading a non-GPLed driver. Once you run arbitrary code
at the inner-most level, all bets are off.

To help understand why you are having a problem, please post the output of

sudo iwlist scan
ifconfig
iwconfig
dmesg | grep ssb
dmesg | grep b43

Larry

[mikxi]

Hi Larry, I know you are not trying to help me but I did what you suggested:

mike@linux-i4x0:~> su
Password:
linux-i4x0:/home/mike # iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

irda0     Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0  Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

linux-i4x0:/home/mike # ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:72:01:CE:5C
          inet addr:192.168.1.64  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:72ff:fe01:ce5c/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1948 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1562 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1985912 (1.8 Mb)  TX bytes:215111 (210.0 Kb)
          Interrupt:16

irda0     Link encap:IrLAP  HWaddr 0a:91:e6:e8
          UP RUNNING NOARP  MTU:2048  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:8
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb)  TX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb)

linux-i4x0:/home/mike # iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

irda0     no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=0 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

linux-i4x0:/home/mike # dmesg | grep ssb
ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:05:00.0
linux-i4x0:/home/mike # dmesg | grep b43
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input10
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input11
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
linux-i4x0:/home/mike #

I followed the instructions in the last bit but could not find version 4. In fact, none of this makes any sense to me.

mikxi wrote:
> Hi Larry, I know you are not trying to help me but I did what you
> suggested:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> mike@linux-i4x0:~> su
> Password:
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike # iwlist scan
> lo Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> irda0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
>
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike # ifconfig
> eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1D:72:01:CE:5C
> inet addr:192.168.1.64 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
> inet6 addr: fe80::21d:72ff:fe01:ce5c/64 Scope:Link
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:1948 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:1562 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:1985912 (1.8 Mb) TX bytes:215111 (210.0 Kb)
> Interrupt:16
>
> irda0 Link encap:IrLAP HWaddr 0a:91:e6:e8
> UP RUNNING NOARP MTU:2048 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:8
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
>
> lo Link encap:Local Loopback
> inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
> inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
> UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
> RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
> RX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb) TX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb)
>
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike # iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> irda0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
> Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
> Tx-Power=0 dBm
> Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B
> Encryption keyff
> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike # dmesg | grep ssb
> ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:05:00.0
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike # dmesg | grep b43
> b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
> input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input10
> b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
> b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
> input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input11
> b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
> b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
> linux-i4x0:/home/mike #
> --------------------
>
>
> I followed the instructions in the last bit but could not find version
> 4. In fact, none of this makes any sense to me.

You need to do the part under the section labeled "You are using the
b43 driver from linux-2.6.25 or newer" as this is what you are doing
with 11.0. Version 4 firmware is used for the devices that need b43.
Version 3 is strictly for the older bcm43xx driver, and for the
b43legacy driver used by 802.11b devices and the earliest BCM4306 cards.

The kernel message won't mention an alternative because it is only
valid for openSUSE, but you can enter the command

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

in a console window. This script will install the correct firmware as
long as you have a network connection.

Larry

[mikxi]

Originally Posted by Larry Finger

The kernel message won't mention an alternative because it is only
valid for openSUSE, but you can enter the command

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

in a console window. This script will install the correct firmware as
long as you have a network connection.

Larry

Wow, thanks Larry, that sorted it in 2 minutes! I have spent most of the day trying to get the wireless working. There is so much stuff out there it is hard to find the right solution.

I really admire you guys who work on this stuff. I just ran iwconfig and it tells me I have a link level of 93/100 and a bit rate of 54 mb/s. I am currently running Mandriva as my primary OS but will move to suse 11 if I can sort out the video problem. I ended up using ndiswrapper on Mandriva because the bcm driver I used only gave a low link level with sporadic connection and a speed of 24 mb/s. Probably using the wrong driver?

Anyway, thanks again for making it so easy.
Cheers, Mike.

mikxi wrote:
> Larry Finger;1822549 Wrote:
>> The kernel message won't mention an alternative because it is only
>> valid for openSUSE, but you can enter the command
>>
>> sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
>>
>> in a console window. This script will install the correct firmware as
>> long as you have a network connection.
>>
>> Larry
>
> Wow, thanks Larry, that sorted it in 2 minutes! I have spent most of
> the day trying to get the wireless working. There is so much stuff out
> there it is hard to find the right solution.
>
> I really admire you guys who work on this stuff. I just ran iwconfig
> and it tells me I have a link level of 93/100 and a bit rate of 54
> mb/s. I am currently running Mandriva as my primary OS but will move
> to suse 11 if I can sort out the video problem. I ended up using
> ndiswrapper on Mandriva because the bcm driver I used only gave a low
> link level with sporadic connection and a speed of 24 mb/s. Probably
> using the wrong driver?
>
> Anyway, thanks again for making it so easy.

You are welcome.

The speed difference is the result of many improvements to the
open-source driver since kernels 2.6.23. There are many more coming.
For instance, open-source firmware is working for read operations for
some PHY revisions. Once it is fully operational, the distros will be
able to include usable firmware on their CD, and all of this will be
only an ugly set of memories.

Larry

[mikxi]

That sounds great.
Incidently, I rebooted a couple times since my last post and checked iwconfig, and strangely, each time I rebooted, the bit rate changed, first to 36 mb/s and this time it is only showing 12 mb/s. Can you shed any light on this?

Cheers, mike

mikxi wrote:
> That sounds great.
> Incidently, I rebooted a couple times since my last post and checked
> iwconfig, and strangely, each time I rebooted, the bit rate changed,
> first to 36 mb/s and this time it is only showing 12 mb/s. Can you shed
> any light on this?

It starts at 1 Mbs and will adjust the speed using an algorithm
implemented in mac80211. I don't know the details, but it will
increase the rate such that the error rate is tolerable.

Larry