Suse 11.0 - KDE 4.0 - BCM4306 (No Connect)

[reglinusr]

This is a clean install of Suse 11.0 using KDE 4.0

HP Pavilion ze2000
Model ze2113us
Dual-boot: Suse - WinXP

---------------------------------

lspci -v (Broadcom Wireless Info)

05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 12f8
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
Memory at c0204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb

---------------------------------

The wireless card was automatically recognized and setup during
the OS install. I configured it under YaST but I have no connection
to the router and subsequently, no internet connect.

Pinging router elicits: connect: Network is unreachable response.

The wireless connection is working with no problems while using
WinXP.

[reglinusr]

Additional information I forgot to post:

---------------------------------

iwconfig

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

[lwfinger]

I think you are hitting a bug that we have recently found for BCM4306
cards with a PCI format. Does that describe your card? The problem is
an SPROM coding error that was likely introduced by Broadcom. So far,
this error has affected cards branded by ASUS, Linksys, Dell and an
unknown vendor. You are likely adding HP to the list.

Please do two things for me:

(1) In a terminal, run the command '/sbin/lspci -nnv' and post the
first two lines of the section that describes your BCM4306.

(2) In a terminal with module ssb loaded, run the following commands:

SPROM=$(find /sys -name ssb_sprom)
echo $SPROM
sudo cat $SPROM > sprom.dat

Depending on your setup, the first of these may generate some
warnings; however, if the second results in a string that looks like
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/0000:04:00.0/ssb_sprom, then it
is OK. The numbers will be different on your device depending on how
your PCI adapter is attached to the computer. The contents of the file
sprom.dat will be a string of hexadecimal characters. Please post that
here. To make sure that the data are not corrupted, please attach that
file. If your device has the SPROM error, I will modify the SPROM
contents, post the revised encoding and give you the instructions on
how to rewrite the SPROM contents.

Larry

[reglinusr]

/sbin/lspci -nnv output

05:02.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:12f8]

I see no way to post attachments here.

BTW, this is a laptop, JFYI, if that is important. Not sure if you knew that or not.

Thanks for the help Larry

[Imaginos]

I'm in the same boat with a BCM4306 dell 1350 mini PCI in my laptop. I'll have to keep an eye on this topic.

[lwfinger]

reglinuser, Imaginos and any other user with a BCM4306 that doesn't work:

Please PM me with your E-mail address, and I'll send you instructions on how to send me your sprom.dat.

Bummer that one cannot attach files to the forum items.

Larry

[Imaginos]

reglinuser, Imaginos and any other user with a BCM4306 that doesn't work:

Please PM me with your E-mail address, and I'll send you instructions on how to send me your sprom.dat.

Bummer that one cannot attach files to the forum items.

Larry

Sent my sprom.dat your way. Hope it is an easy fix that they accept into the current build.

[reglinusr]

How do I verify if the firmware hack is installed Larry?

I got your e-mail and did the SPROM update but still no
connection yet. I changed to ifup mode in YaST network
configuration but only thing I can get set so far is the
ESSID. I looked at ifcfg-wlan0 and it contains some of
the information that I put in but not all of the other
information seems to stay when I set the WiFi parameters
in YaST. My IWCONFIG is now as follows.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MY ESSID"
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Invalid
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

Even though ifcfg-wlan0 has the encryption information
it isn't being used.

[lwfinger]

reglinusr wrote:
> How do I verify if the firmware hack is installed Larry?

Read out the SPROM contents and compare them with the updated info I
sent you. The revised one should end with the string "025D".


> -wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MY ESSID"
> Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Invalid
> 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-

You still have not associated with the AP. What kind of encryption are
you using? If WEP, did you use a hex key or a passphrase?

Larry

[reglinusr]

OK, SPROM is the one you sent and ends with 025d.

I am using WEP 128 Open ASCII Encryption. I am
about ready to dump this internal wlan card and
get a USB or PCMCIA NIC instead! Broadcom cards
seem to be nothing but trouble. You got any good
suggestions for an a/b/g wlan card that works with
none of these problems if this thing can't get into
a functioning state?

And, thanks again for the help!