B43 WLAN device does not stay installed. Disappears with each reboot. KDE 12.1

Hello, I am relatively new to openSUSE and linux as a whole. My experience is mostly rooted in AIX 4.1
I have perused the forum, and found users with similar issues, though not quite the same as mine. I would appreciate any help very much, and hope that the information that I provide makes it easier to reach a conclusion.

I am running openSUSE 12.1 (KDE desktop) on a Dell Precision M65, and the Wifi adapter claims to be a BCM4311. My problem is that the device disappears each time I restart the computer. (Restart, or Shutdown-but not Hibernate)

So every time I turn on my laptop, I am greeted with the following visual:
http://i.imgur.com/ThDvc.png

At this point:

Networking is enabled and controlled by Network Manager (opposed to YAST). If I were to plug in an ethernet cable, there would be no issues connecting. The configurations seem to be fine. The only thing that appears to be wrong is that there is **no wlan device installed. **
Also at this point, were I to run the following:

machinename:/usr/sbin> sudo cat /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
WimaxEnabled=true

Now, the WLAN did not install outofthebox, but installed without a hitch after running:

/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

and this is what I run each time, I start the computer, to reinstall the WLAN adapter- and immediately my network is recognized and prompts me for my KDE wallet password.

I’ve read of users losing the device in hibernate, and after playing with the hard-switch, though I do not seem to share these problems.

Please advise, as I am stumped. I’ve never experienced a device just disappearing like this.

On 06/17/2012 04:36 PM, TheCreepyKid wrote:

> Now, the WLAN did not install outofthebox, but installed without a
> hitch after running:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
> --------------------

With a Broadcom device, we are not allowed to redistribute the firmware, which
is why you need to run that script ONCE. That is normal.

> and this is what I run each time, I start the computer, to reinstall
> the WLAN adapter- and immediately my network is recognized and prompts
> me for my KDE wallet password.

You should not have to do that again unless something is deleting the firmware
files. Of course if you are booting the Live CD, then the files will not be
preserved.

Once you have rebooted, please make certain that /lib/firmware/b43/ has quite a
few files named xxx.fw. In addition, you need to examine the output of the dmesg
command. Does it indicate that the firmware files cannot be found. In addition,
run the commands ‘/usr/sbin/iwconfig’ and ‘sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan’.

I figured this was not a normal situation. I am not running SUSE as a live OS, thought I do have root and home on separate partitions. I also failed to mention I’m running a 64bit OS.

The lib/firmware/b43 directory has the same number (and size of) files before shutting down while my device is recognized and after restarting but while the device is notrecognized.

As I previously stated, the device simply isn’t there, so running those commands yeild:


MachineName:/usr/sbin # iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

Machinename:/usr/sbin # iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Though after running the b43 script again, wlan0 does list. !!!

The output of dmesg did not include anything regarding wlan0… should I be looking for anything else?

NOTE: I did notice something odd just now:

There is a default and a normal folder of somekind. Is this normal, could it be related?

Answered my last question, but answers only invite more questions. Why are there two kernels when they’re exactly the same?

The SUSE OS has available a number of kernel flavours ‘default’ ‘desktop’ being 2 of them.

Even if you had installed both ‘default’ and ‘desktop’, it wouldn’t matter when using b43

Let’s see what you have

rpm -qa | grep kernel

On 06/17/2012 09:56 PM, caf4926 wrote:
>
> The SUSE OS has available a number of kernel flavours ‘default’
> ‘desktop’ being 2 of them.
>
> Even if you had installed both ‘default’ and ‘desktop’, it wouldn’t
> matter when using b43
>
> Let’s see what you have
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> rpm -qa | grep kernel
> --------------------

One of the additional things that the install_bcm43xx_firmware script does is
unload the b43 driver, and then loads it with ‘modprobe b43’. I suspect that you
have something that is preventing b43 from loading. That is easy to test. After
a reboot, rather than running the script, try


sudo /sbin/modprobe -v b43

If that works, then look in the directory /etc/modprobe.d/ for some mention of
b43, ssb, and any other driver that is loaded by the modprobe. Note that if you
made any attempt to install the wl driver, then it created the blacklisting of b43.

MachineName:/usr/sbin> rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-default-base-3.1.10-1.9.1.x86_64
kernel-desktop-3.1.10-1.9.1.x86_64
kernel-firmware-20111025git-1.10.1.noarch

/sbin/modprobe doesn’t exist, and there’s no mention of b43 in /etc/modprobe.d
There is a broadcom-wl-blacklist and a iwl3945.conf that reads: *options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1 *though I don’t think either of those is relevant.

broadcom-wl-blacklist

probably this needs deleting

Just to be clear, is broadcom-wl-blacklist that you mentioned a .conf?

ie: broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

On 06/17/2012 11:56 PM, caf4926 wrote:
>
> caf4926;2469873 Wrote:
>> broadcom-wl-blacklist
>>
>> probably this needs deleting
>
> Just to be clear, is broadcom-wl-blacklist that you mentioned a .conf?
>
> ie: broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

To further clarify, I did not mean a file that had “b43” in its name, rather a
file that said “blacklist b43”. There must be one there.

There is a file named 50-broadcome-wl-blacklist.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/ which includes the line *blacklist b43

Like I said
Delete it

Just making sure we’re on the same page. Commencing.

Okay, so that totally worked. Did this file exist for the same licensing reasons as why Broadcoms don’t install with the OOBE?

Thankyou to everyone.

The file is the remains of another driver called ‘wl’, it’s the proprietary broadcom driver, you must have used it at some time. Normally SUSE users install that from Packman and if they then remove it, that file is also removed. I’m not sure what happened in your case.

Working after delete 2 file :
50-blacklist.conf
50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

Thank u guys…:wink:

On 05/23/2013 02:26 AM, orca123 wrote:
>
> Working after delete 2 file :
> 50-blacklist.conf
> 50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

You should not have deleted 50-blacklist.conf. That contains some useful
information. You should have edited it. Use YaST to reload package sysconfig and
it will be restored.