Apparently unrecognized Airport card

I’ve followed the instructions that I can find as well as I can, but it seems I’ve hit a relatively unusual condition. Here’s the preliminary stuff:

lspci output:

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Apple Computer Inc. Device 008c
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at 97300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
        Capabilities: [e8] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 74-d2-5b-ff-ff-ca-00-1f
        Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge


So I successfully installed the broadcom driver via /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware or whatever it is, but in dmesg i found the following:

    7.276490] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4321 WLAN found (core revision 12)
...
    7.294255] b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 5, Type 4, Revision 2)
    7.294300] b43: probe of ssb0:0 failed with error -95
    7.294314] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded  Features: PMLS, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]

Currently, the interface seems to be set up correctly in the YaST network settings thing, labeled as wlan0, and it doesn’t have the ‘Not Connected’ indicator after it.

So, I’m assuming the problem has to do with the stuff in dmesg.

Thanks for any help! P.S. I may not be online for another 24 hours.

EDIT: Oh, and iwconfig doesn’t list wlan0; it just lists eth0 and lo0, saying neither have a wireless extension[/size]

So you did not say is this openSUSE 11.3, 11.4 or what? Are you using KDE or GNOME? Make sure, if this is KDE to disable ifup and switch to NETWORKMANAGER and you need to load KWALLET as well. If this is KDE and you have switched to NetworkManager and you loaded KWALLET then perhaps you need to reset KNETWORKMANAGER and KWALLET. I have a script that can do that here:

knetfix - Version 1.00 -KDE KNetworkManager Fix for Wireless Connection Problems

If this is openSUSE 11.4 & KDE then you must change one line in the script. The bold is just to show what is changed:

if  "$DESKTOP_SESSION" != "**kde4**" ] ; then ---> if  "$DESKTOP_SESSION" != "**default**" ] ; then

If all else fails, you could compile and install this version from Braodcom:

Broadcom.com - 802.11 Linux STA driver

I used this version on my Dell 36400 Laptop and it worked just fine.

Thank You,

:shame:
Just a few questions to enhance your and decrease my puzzlement:

Are you sure (enough) about the device and so about the fitting driver?

1a)
The readme text to the closed driver from the manufactor listed three Broadcom wireless LAN divices called “4322” with the numeric IDs

Is there something in the ‘normal’ lspci output (without any options) that tells you more (this is a real question).

1b)
Why not check the numeric ID with

lspci -vnn | grep 14e4

?

Is there any advantage in compiling a driver on your own (especially if it is from 2010-12-22) over using the (same, or not?) driver and kernel module already compiled and packed from Packman (unless you are using a different kernel than one of the normal ones for a openSUSE version)?
And if you are compiling on your own you will probably have to do it again after a kernel update, or not?

Compare the thread:
Install Broadcom Drivers from Packman

puzzled pistazienfresser
(Martin)

:shame:
Just a few questions to enhance your and decrease my puzzlement:
Probably James is right but maybe I got only a few times beaten for asking unnecessary questions. :\

Are you sure (enough) about the device and so about the fitting driver?

1a)
The readme text to the closed driver from the manufacture listed four (4) Broadcom wireless LAN devices called “4321” with the three (3) numeric IDs

  • [14e4:4328] (Dualband) [Dell 1505]
  • [14e4:4328] (Dualband) [Dell 1500]
  • [14e4:4329] (2.4 Ghz)
  • [14e4:432a] (5 Ghz)
    but there may be more/different ones - compare the ??? in the table under b43 #Known_PCI_devices | Linux Wireless.

Is there something in the ‘normal’ lspci output (without any options) that tells you more (this is a real question)?

1b)
Why not check the numeric ID with

lspci -vnn | grep 14e4

?

Is there any advantage in compiling a driver on your own (especially if it is from 2010-12-22) over using the (same, or not?) driver and kernel module already compiled and packed from Packman (unless you are using a different kernel than one of the normal ones for a openSUSE version)?
And if you are compiling on your own you will probably have to do it again after a kernel update, or not?

Compare the thread:
Install Broadcom Drivers from Packman

puzzled pistazienfresser
(Martin)

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I am in fact using OpenSUSE 11.4 as you guessed, with KDE. I recently discovered, though, that $DESKTOP_SESSION is ‘kde4_plasma’. Not sure whether that is significant.

I’m also unclear as to how I would go about ‘loading’ kwallet. I’ve set it up and everything (by finding it in the ‘main’ menu of sorts on the bottom left), but the script you linked to said it isn’t ‘loaded’. What exactly does it mean for something to be ‘loaded’? Is this specific terminology that desktop systems use?

I ran the script and, unfortunately, everything is the same. Hopefully all of this trouble is due to my choosing of Plasma workspaces or whatever, which I don’t even recall doing explicitly but oh well. Not even sure what it is.

I know my way around *nix systems but I’ve never used linux before; what exactly is going on here that isn’t correct? From my dmesg output it would seem that the problem is at the driver/firmware level rather than some GUI userspace configuration detail.

Also, double clicking knetworkmanager does nothing detectable. I can click on the plug symbol on the bottom left and follow ‘Manage Connections,’ but the ‘Wireless’ tab is grayed out; i can only set up the wired connection.

Thanks very much for the assistance.

To load Kwallet in KDE you goto menu / System / Desktop Applet / KwalletManager. Once run the first, you have a little setup to do including a usage password. Then Kwallet will keep your wireless password and feeds it to the NetworkManager. As far as I know, running kde4_plasma is not a problem. I found a thread about changing the NetworkManager in KDE to using the GNOME NetworkManager here:

Gave up Knetworkmanager. Made Networkmanager-GNOME work on KDE4!

Of course, I would load Kwallet first to make sure that is not the problem.

Thank You,

On 03/24/2011 12:36 AM, hsz wrote:
> I know my way around *nix systems but I’ve never used linux before;
> what exactly is going on here that isn’t correct? From my dmesg output
> it would seem that the problem is at the driver/firmware level rather
> than some GUI userspace configuration detail.

Could you please post the exact message concerning firmware from the dmesg output?