13.2 no wireless

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi everyone,
I’d very much appreciate your help to fix this installation issue: I’ve just bought a new PC and installed opensuse 13.2. Everything went smoothly except that I can’t get the wireless to work.

techwinder@linux-wi19:~> /sbin/lspci
...
3b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
3c:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

So I installed the broadcom-wl package

However the wireless controller doesn’t show in YAST/Network devices/Network Settings. I only see the ethernet controller.
When using the network manager / Add wireless there is no longer the “scan” button there used to be in 13.1.

Last, this may not be related, but during the boot process there is this error message : “hid null: usage index exceeded” without detail

Thanks for any help - I’m running out of ideas !

2

The BCM4352 should be supported by broadcom-wl.

Which packages did you install exactly? You need both broadcom-wl and one of the kmp packages matching your kernel.

rpm -qa | egrep "kernel|broadcom"

When using the network manager / Add wireless there is no longer the “scan” button there used to be in 13.1.

Yes, there is none. 13.2 contains the completely rewritten plasma-nm instead of the old plasmoid-networkmanagement.
It should show all available wireless networks in the plasmoid itself, or in the SSID chooser in the connection editor.

Last, this may not be related, but during the boot process there is this error message : “hid null: usage index exceeded” without detail

Well, “hid” means “Human Interface Device”, i.e. things like mouse or keyboard. Definitely not related to your wireless…

3

Thanks for your reply


broadcom-wl-6.30.223.248-1.1.x86_64techwinder@linux-wi19:~> sudo rpm -qa | egrep "kernel|broadcom"
kernel-default-3.16.7-7.1.x86_64
broadcom-wl-kmp-default-6.30.223.248_k3.16.6_2-1.1.x86_64
kernel-desktop-3.16.7-7.1.x86_64
kernel-firmware-20141122git-5.1.noarch
kernel-desktop-3.16.6-2.1.x86_64
kernel-default-3.16.6-2.1.x86_64
broadcom-wl-6.30.223.248-1.1.x86_64

and the KDE nm doesn’t show any networks in the SSID box.

Bluetooth works, if that means anything.

Thanks,
André

4

And which kernel are you actually using?

uname -a

I would guess kernel-desktop. It seems you installed broadcom-wl-kmp-default by mistake instead of the correct broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop, and that also installed kernel-default as dependency, but you are still booting kernel-desktop, so the driver is not found/working.

My suggestion: remove kernel-default and broadcom-wl-kmp-default, and install broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop:

sudo zypper rm kernel-default broadcom-wl-kmp-default
sudo zypper in broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop

After a reboot, your wireless should work.

and the KDE nm doesn’t show any networks in the SSID box.

Of course it doesn’t, if YaST doesn’t even list the device.

Bluetooth works, if that means anything.

No.

5

Based on your reply, I added more or less randomly the two packages broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop and broadcom-wl-kmp-xen
and the wireless is now up and running.
Solved !
Thanks

6

Why randomly?
You only need the one that matches your kernel.

So remove broadcom-wl-kmp-xen again, and kernel-xen as well if it got installed.

and the wireless is now up and running.
Solved !

Good to hear! :slight_smile:

7

Bad news… there was an automatic system update today which required opensuse to restart; and now the wireless is lost again. Same symptoms as before.


techwinder@linux-wi19:~> /sbin/lspci
...
3b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
3c:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)



techwinder@linux-wi19:~> rpm -qa | egrep "kernel|broadcom"
broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_7-1.4.x86_64
kernel-desktop-3.16.7-7.1.x86_64
broadcom-wl-6.30.223.248-2.2.x86_64
kernel-firmware-20141122git-5.1.noarch
kernel-desktop-3.16.7-13.2.x86_64
broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_7-1.2.x86_64
broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_7-2.1.x86_64
broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_7-1.3.x86_64
broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_7-2.2.x86_64

Please help !
Thanks

8

[QUOTE=techwinder;2704653]Bad news… there was an automatic system update today which required opensuse to restart; and now the wireless is lost again. Same symptoms as before.
There was a kernel update today, and the broadcom-wl driver has to match exactly to the kernel, so the old package won’t work with the new kernel.

Select the older kernel in “Advanced Options” in the boot menu, this should make your wireless work again.

Then update your system to install the corresponding broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop update (either run “zypper up”, use your desktop’s updater or YaST->Software Management).
If it’s not available yet, use the older kernel until it is.
It should have the version broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.248_k3.16.7_13-2.

9

Thanks for the quick answer.
I selected Linux 3.16.7-7-desktop in the advanced options and the wireless is back.
I’ll wait for the new broadcom driver.

10

Well, it has been built already 4 hours ago.
But the mirrors only sync every few hours depending on which particular mirror you use, so it might still take a while until you get the update.

It should be there tomorrow at the latest though.