11.1 ndiswrapper issue Bcm4318

magabooks · May 15, 2009, 12:25am

I have been using ndiswrapper for years for this card and it has worked fine. I have the right windows .inf file and I have installed it and it works.

So now to the issue I have been using a wpa wireless key on my network for several years no issues.(I would love to be use wpa2 but this card has never done well with that version of wpa)

After the upgrade to opensuse 11.1 no more connection to the wireless network. It is failing to complete the wpa hand shake.

The card works when I take the key off the network, so no question that is working on that level.

On opensuse 11.0 I had a few days of trouble with this issue but after upgrading to ndiswrapper 1.54 it worked as long as I did a

rcnetwork restart

This nolonger works at all.

Fixes that I have tryed.

Installing Ndiswrapper 1.54 from source.
Installing older version 1.53
Even looked into wpa_supplicant to see if that would help

Any trouble shotting tips for wpa would be great.

Hardware info
hp pavilion dv5000
Bcm4318 (would love to be using my atheros a/b/g compatible card but hp locks it bios so no upgrading)
Opensuse 11.1 32bit
Kde desktop

The card works just not with wifi security on.

deltaflyer44 · May 15, 2009, 8:52am

have you tried to see if there are native drivers for the device ? a quick look at the stickies in this section will reveal a treasure-trove of useful info. I am sure your device has native drivers,if not, use the broadcom-wl drivers.

Andy

lwfinger · May 15, 2009, 11:18pm

deltaflyer44 wrote:
> have you tried to see if there are native drivers for the device ? a
> quick look at the stickies in this section will reveal a treasure-trove
> of useful info. I am sure your device has native drivers,if not, use the
> broadcom-wl drivers.

Maybe he loves crashing his system with Windows drivers. In any case, the
BCM4318 is fully supported byt driver b43.

pdc_2 · May 16, 2009, 1:15am

hi magbook: I am not a wireless expert, but …

I am going to take a punt and guess you need the b43 driver; and I think this advice from one of the forum stickies may help you:

deltaflyer quoted Larry Finger on this one:

if you have a broadcom chip-set, & a wired connection, this command, in a console, may help
Code:

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

To install the BCM43xx firmware if you do not have a connection in Linux, do the following:

Using any method that you have to access the Internet, download this
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2

Then copy it into your home directory. Once you have it there, you should enter the following:

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
sudo mkdir -p /lib/firmware
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware \ broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o

These three commands will skip the download step and extract the firmware in the same way that the /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware does.

Note: If the output of ‘lspci -v’ indicates that you have a BCM4310, BCM4328 or BCM4329, this procedure will not work. For those cases, you will need the Windows driver and ndiswrapper.

For those devices that support 802.11a/b/g, 802.11a operation is not yet supported.
compliments of LarryFinger

this is only a pointer from this stickie

Welcome - openSUSE Forums

magabooks · May 16, 2009, 7:27am

Maybe he loves crashing his system with Windows drivers. In any case, the BCM4318 is fully supported byt driver b43.

In reply I have tried the linux driver for this card in the past and they have never worked well on open connections, never mind wpa lock networks and the signal strength was nil. If this has changed I would love to work with native drivers.

Question 1 is there a way to work with the signal strength with native driver. (I have never found such info but I would love to be enlightened. I have heard of such doing but never found documentation)
2 Question 2 Is there a large source of linux wireless documentation on hacking driver configuration code.

Thank you for the install info pdc_2 I will try this again.

magabooks · May 16, 2009, 8:24am

Card info from lspci -v

06:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at b0204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]

Module b43.ko didn’t load nothing showed when lsmod. So tried modprobe b43

linux:/home/user # modprobe b43
FATAL: Error inserting b43 (/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

Did a dmesg here is the part about b43

b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_is_enabled
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_pcicore_dev_irqvecs_enable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_may_powerdown
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_free_consistent
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_suspend
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_unregister
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_resume
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_set_devtypedata
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_disable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_alloc_consistent
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_set_mask
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_enable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_driver_unregister
b43: Unknown symbol __ssb_driver_register
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_pcmciabus_register
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_powerup
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_translation

O and here is the real kick in the teeth system failed to load kdm after restart. So I had to use the grub option “kernel safemode” to get back into the system. FUN

Q1. Does this b43 rely on the ssb.ko driver that you have to remove to use ndiswrapper?[/size]

Akoellh · May 16, 2009, 9:00am

Just three simple quiestions.

What other drivers did you install?
How did you install them?
Did you ignore any warnings on installing?

(And you most certainly did, the error message is a very good indicator for that.)

magabooks · May 16, 2009, 9:29am

Installed b43 and b43lagacy
Installed them using this command mentioned above

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

Works fine no error on install the wireless indicator light turns on and I can see wifi networks (still can’t connect to my wpa home network) but everything seems fine.

Do a restart system fails to load kdm, use kernel safe mode and then uses terminal to look things over Post above from that terminal session. Lsmod still shows all modules except b43

(after posting tried instructions from answer 2 one more time)

Did another restart no power management and an lsmod shows this kernel module list (no kernel safe mode was used this time)


Module                  Size  Used by
sd_mod                 31624  5
crc_t10dif              1704  1 sd_mod
ohci_hcd               30976  0
ehci_hcd               47732  0
usbcore               165892  3 ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
edd                     8616  0
ext3                  123932  3
mbcache                 7592  1 ext3
jbd                    52872  1 ext3
fan                     4712  0
ide_pci_generic         3428  0
atiixp                  3384  0
ide_core               97492  2 ide_pci_generic,atiixp
ata_generic             4484  0
pata_atiixp             4560  4
libata                160812  2 ata_generic,pata_atiixp
scsi_mod              149672  2 sd_mod,libata
dock                   11804  1 libata
thermal                19976  0
processor              43644  2 thermal
thermal_sys            11364  3 fan,thermal,processor
hwmon                   2916  1 thermal_sys

Shortest list I have ever seen.

(O I also pressed ESC after I restarted again and the there was a message saying that I might need to update kernel after several kernel modules failed. I have the latest suse production kernel 2.6.27.21 .)

Did you ignore any warnings on installing? NO (the install output was clear I read it twice )
Removed b43 and b43lagacy (and did depmod -a )

Every thing is back to normal (power management, kernel modules,etc)

deltaflyer44 · May 16, 2009, 9:35am

before installing the b43 native drivers, did you uninstall the ndiswrapper drivers & make sure ssb was not blacklisted ? AFAIK, trying to run windows drivers via ndiswrapper alongside native drivers will cause problems

Andy

Akoellh · May 16, 2009, 9:36am

Look, you must have some other driver package installed (the above command only installs firmware), so try to remember, what you did.


FATAL: Error inserting b43 (/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/**updates**/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

This is certainly from another driver package, so think again.

magabooks · May 16, 2009, 9:48am

I removed both ndiswrapper and its installed driver. I had to remove ssb to use ndiswrapper so that one was gone.

All I did was enter that command, and after the restart I tried an modprobe b43 with throws that error message.

I have done nothing else, at least not by terminal command.

I haven’t run the updater, of the software package manager. I did enter yast2 and run the network manager but it didn’t ask to install anything.(it has prompted for missing network packages in the past. This didn’t happen on this occasion)

Akoellh · May 16, 2009, 9:53am

I don’t believe you a single word on your “I did not install anything else”-story (and the b43-module in the updates directory proves that I am right), but no matter how, you will have to reinstall (via YaST) all installed kernel packages to get your modules back, this will be at least

kernel-pae

kernel-pae-base

and

kernel-pae-extra

magabooks · May 16, 2009, 10:04am

They are back already here is the list (and all I did was remove b43.ko and b43lagacy.ko for the pae kernel. Entered a depmod -a and restarted and here is the lsmod output.

I am willing do this all over again and use xvidcap to capture all output. The steps laid out in these post are what was done.
You can’t lie and get any real help.

So thanks for the posts and I still what ever help I can get so if you need video or screen shots I am will to provide them.

user@linux:~> su
Password:            
linux:/home/user # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
xt_tcpudp               2728  1      
xt_pkttype              1560  3      
ipt_LOG                 5708  8      
xt_limit                2056  8      
af_packet              16412  2      
binfmt_misc             7732  1      
snd_pcm_oss            43024  0      
snd_mixer_oss          14288  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq                51924  0            
snd_seq_device          7168  1 snd_seq    
xt_NOTRACK              1544  2            
ipt_REJECT              2760  3            
xt_state                1904  4            
iptable_raw             2056  1            
iptable_filter          2548  1            
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns     2152  0        
nf_conntrack_ipv4      10480  4            
nf_conntrack           67400  4 xt_NOTRACK,xt_state,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables              11348  2 iptable_raw,iptable_filter                                   
cpufreq_conservative     6476  0                                                             
cpufreq_userspace       3112  0                                                              
cpufreq_powersave       1640  0                                                              
powernow_k8            12896  0                                                              
ip6_tables             12580  0                                                              
x_tables               14500  9 xt_tcpudp,xt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,xt_NOTRACK,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,ip_tables,ip6_tables
fuse                   50596  7                                                                                          
loop                   14064  0                                                                                          
dm_mod                 62588  0                                                                                          
pcmcia                 32684  0                                                                                          
8139too                22484  0                                                                                          
fglrx                2052260  22                                                                                         
video                  20308  0                                                                                          
output                  2736  1 video                                                                                    
battery                11176  0                                                                                          
sdhci_pci               7444  0                                                                                          
snd_atiixp             15960  3                                                                                          
snd_atiixp_modem       12392  1                                                                                                                                        
snd_ac97_codec         99764  2 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem                                                                                                            
ac                      4480  0                                                                                                                                        
sdhci                  17108  1 sdhci_pci                                                                                                                              
ac97_bus                1584  1 snd_ac97_codec                                                                                                                         
8139cp                 18828  0                                                                                                                                        
mmc_core               54968  1 sdhci                                                                                                                                  
mii                     4968  2 8139too,8139cp                                                                                                                         
ohci1394               27656  0                                                                                                                                        
tifm_7xx1               6708  0                                                                                                                                        
snd_pcm                76900  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec                                                                                 
tifm_core               7740  1 tifm_7xx1                                                                                                                              
ieee1394               83764  1 ohci1394                                                                                                                               
i2c_piix4              10116  0                                                                                                                                        
yenta_socket           22884  1                                                                                                                                        
snd_timer              20204  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm                                                                                                                        
wmi                     6720  0                                                                                                                                        
rsrc_nonstatic         10936  1 yenta_socket
ati_agp                 6652  0
snd                    56816  16 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
i2c_core               29900  1 i2c_piix4
k8temp                  4000  0
pcmcia_core            33164  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
rtc_cmos               10896  0
button                  6568  0
soundcore               6660  1 snd
rtc_core               17384  1 rtc_cmos
shpchp                 28296  0
rtc_lib                 2816  1 rtc_core
agpgart                32308  2 fglrx,ati_agp
pcspkr                  2344  0
snd_page_alloc          8184  3 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_pcm
sr_mod                 13360  0
joydev                  8944  0
pci_hotplug            27392  1 shpchp
cdrom                  32292  1 sr_mod
sg                     29408  0
sd_mod                 31624  7
crc_t10dif              1704  1 sd_mod
ohci_hcd               30976  0
ehci_hcd               47732  0
usbcore               165892  3 ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
edd                     8616  0
ext3                  123932  3
mbcache                 7592  1 ext3
jbd                    52872  1 ext3
fan                     4712  0
ide_pci_generic         3428  0
atiixp                  3384  0
ide_core               97492  2 ide_pci_generic,atiixp
ata_generic             4484  0
pata_atiixp             4560  6
libata                160812  2 ata_generic,pata_atiixp
scsi_mod              149672  4 sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
dock                   11804  1 libata
thermal                19976  0
processor              43644  3 powernow_k8,thermal
thermal_sys            11364  4 video,fan,thermal,processor
hwmon                   2916  2 k8temp,thermal_sys
linux:/home/user #

Akoellh · May 16, 2009, 10:17am

find /lib/modules -iname "b43*.ko" -exec rpm -qf {} \;

find /lib/modules -iname "ssb.ko" -exec rpm -qf {} \;

su

modprobe -rv b43

modprobe -v b43

Post the exact output of these commands.

magabooks · May 17, 2009, 12:57am

Output for: find /lib/modules -iname “b43*.ko” -exec rpm -qf {} ;


compat-wireless-kmp-pae-20090330_2.6.27.21_0.1-1.2
compat-wireless-kmp-pae-20090330_2.6.27.21_0.1-1.2

Output for: find /lib/modules -iname “ssb.ko” -exec rpm -qf {} ;


linux:~ # find /lib/modules -iname "ssb.ko" -exec rpm -qf {} \;
linux:~ #

Output for: modprobe -rv b43


linux:~ # modprobe -rv b43
rmmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
linux:~ #

Output for: modprobe -v b43


linux:~ # modprobe -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/input/input-polldev.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko
FATAL: Error inserting b43 (/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
linux:~ #

Output for: dmesg


b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_is_enabled
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_pcicore_dev_irqvecs_enable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_may_powerdown
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_free_consistent
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_suspend
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_unregister
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_resume
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_set_devtypedata
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_disable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_alloc_consistent
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_set_mask
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_device_enable
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_driver_unregister
b43: Unknown symbol __ssb_driver_register
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_pcmciabus_register
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_powerup
b43: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_translation

Akoellh · May 17, 2009, 1:09am

So you must have deliberately removed b43.ko/b43legacy.ko and ssb.ko from your kernel modules tree, otherwise it would be there.

find /lib/modules -iname "ssb.ko" -exec rpm -qf {} \;

kernel-pae-2.6.27.21-0.1.2
compat-wireless-kmp-pae-2.6.30_rc4_2.6.27.21_0.1-1.1

You also installed compat-wireless (so much for “didn’t install anything else”) which needs adding another repository by hand and choosing the package for installation and then you must have removed ssb.ko from that package too, otherwise at least that one would be there (see output above).

Now, after removing a module needed by another one, why is it no surprise that you get errors?

Look, I don’t want to prove a point on “You are lying to me” here, but this is exactly why it is not working and you have “forgotten” to mention what you did to screw up your installation.

I also told you to reinstall your kernel packages, which you obviously also not did, because otherwise there would be at least one module “ssb.ko” found (with compat-wireless you should get two hits for the second find-command, as seen above).

You screwed up your system deliberately and then completely “forgot” what you did, but you expect me/us to fix that even if you don’t give necessary information and also don’t follow my/our suggestions on what to do.

Do you get the point now, why I persisted in “think again”?

Reinstall all installed kernel-packages
Reinstall or uninstall compat-wireless (both will work)
Reboot your machine
Don’t expect any more answers from me, because if I want somebody playing tricks on me, I do it myself.

magabooks · May 17, 2009, 1:28am

I removed the b43.ko for this folder location last night.

/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
These folders here have no b43.ko. Removing these restored the systems kernel models to a loadable state or so it seems.


linux:/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/net/wireless # ls
adm8211.ko  ath9k         b43        ipw2100.ko  mac80211_hwsim.ko  orinoco_nortel.ko  p54            rt2x00          strip.ko       zd1201.ko
airo_cs.ko  atmel_cs.ko   b43legacy  ipw2200.ko  netwave_cs.ko      orinoco_pci.ko     prism54        rtl8180.ko      wavelan_cs.ko  zd1211rw
airo.ko     atmel.ko      hermes.ko  iwlwifi     orinoco_cs.ko      orinoco_plx.ko     ray_cs.ko      rtl8187.ko      wavelan.ko
ath5k       atmel_pci.ko  hostap     libertas    orinoco.ko         orinoco_tmd.ko     rndis_wlan.ko  spectrum_cs.ko  wl3501_cs.ko
linux:/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/net/wireless #

This seems to be the location of the b43.ko module at the time of this search.
/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43

ssb folder is empty

magabooks · May 17, 2009, 8:21am

compat-wireless-kmp-pae is the package that contains the b43
driver. So yes I installed it if you consider installing suse and doing kernel updates through online updater installing a driver.

/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko

Source links to point out the presence of b43 in the default kernel.
Suse repo info
link to explanation of package content
kernelnewbies.org the developer of compat-wireless
After looking at five other opensuse installs they all come with b43. Catch is not all of them called them compat-wireless. On my part I am still looking for the reason. My guess is that it has to do with the fact that I had to remove the original b43 driver leaving the updated one.(/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/)

In post #6 I clearly asked if b43 need ssb and that I had removed it.

Q1. Does this b43 rely on the ssb.ko driver that you have to remove to use ndiswrapper?

I have now read the dmesg out again and see that it does so thats my bad.

Thanks all, I now understand that I must use fwcutter with the firmware I download to make my card work. Or so I am told by others we will see.

Akoellh · May 17, 2009, 8:48am

Not the only one, the driver is already in the standard kernel and would work fine if you had not removed it.

My guess is that it has to do with the fact that I had to remove the original b43 driver leaving the updated one.(/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/drivers/net/wireless/b43/)

No, you did not have to remove anything, this removing screwed things up and did not fix them.

In post #6 I clearly asked if b43 need ssb and that I had removed it.

You did not have to remove that one either, see above.

Thanks all, I now understand that I must use fwcutter with the firmware I download to make my card work. Or so I am told by others we will see.

If you don’t already have the firmware, yes, but you should also do, what I told you at least twice now considering “reinstalling your kernel-packages” to get the driver back you deleted before or it can _not_work, how should it?

You could also use the ready made firmware rpm packages from packman instead of messing around with the firmware cutter, google or forums search are your friends.

magabooks · June 13, 2009, 7:53pm

Did what you said and as you know it worked.

The Bcm4318 is finally working in Opensuse without a glitch to speak of. I just can get over how well it has worked thus far, the range is better than its ever been.

So Thank you For the coaching.

I would like to know where I can keep up to date on the wireless support of the kernel I wish to keep my education up to date with the support that is out there. (It will save me allot of time and trouble if I just keep current)