Broadcom disabled sometimes in Windows & SuSE

Hi.
I have a problem… i had suse 10.2 x86 with the broadcom driver working fine. after i’ve installed suse 10.3 x86_x64 -having windows xp, and formated suse 10.2- i installed the broadcom driver. normal, worked fine.

but i’ve checked sometimes when i enter in windows, the wireless driver is disabled completely and when i go to suse is disabled too.

why is happening that?

i’ve found the problem. the module ndiswrapper isn’t loading.

the module loads 2 or three times -mean, when i start the laptop- and after doesn’t load.

how do i do to work ndiswrapper at the beginning. ?

NestorAcevedo wrote:
> i’ve found the problem. the module ndiswrapper isn’t loading.
>
> the module loads 2 or three times -mean, when i start the laptop- and
> after doesn’t load.
>
> how do i do to work ndiswrapper at the beginning. ?

What version of the Broadcom device are you using? It is pretty likely that you
do not need to use ndiswrapper at all.

it’s a Compaq Presario F555la although suse says that is a kind of presario v6… i don’t remember the next numbers.

it came with vista but i did a downgrade to winXP x64.

To help identify your hardware, open a console, and su to root. Then paste the output of hwinfo --network here.

here are the data

31: None 00.0: 10700 Loopback
[Created at net.124]
Unique ID: ZsBS.GQNx7L4uPNA
SysFS ID: /class/net/lo
Hardware Class: network interface
Model: “Loopback network interface”
Device File: lo
Link detected: yes
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

32: None 01.0: 10701 Ethernet
[Created at net.124]
Unique ID: L2Ua.ndpeucax6V1
Parent ID: JNkJ.coC57EIum66
SysFS ID: /class/net/eth1
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:03:00.0
Hardware Class: network interface
Model: “Ethernet network interface”
Driver: “ndiswrapper”
Driver Modules: “ndiswrapper”, “ndiswrapper”
Device File: eth1
HW Address: 00:1a:73:46:44:dc
Link detected: no
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #27 (Ethernet controller)

33: None 00.0: 10701 Ethernet
[Created at net.124]
Unique ID: usDW.ndpeucax6V1
Parent ID: rBUF.bYAEq7iXviA
SysFS ID: /class/net/eth0
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0
Hardware Class: network interface
Model: “Ethernet network interface”
Driver: “forcedeth”
Driver Modules: “forcedeth”
Device File: eth0
HW Address: 00:1b:24:18:dd:5f
Link detected: no
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #22 (Ethernet controller)

i got those data with the wireless card active.

Deano meant to say:

…and post the output of ‘hwinfo --wlan’

with hwinfo --wlan

27: PCI 300.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at pci.301]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_14e4_4311
Unique ID: JNkJ.eFWO33Uywa9
Parent ID: 3hqH.gMd7Qwtg110
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:03:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:03:00.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Hewlett-Packard Company BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI”
Vendor: pci 0x14e4 “Broadcom”
Device: pci 0x4311 “BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI”
SubVendor: pci 0x103c “Hewlett-Packard Company”
SubDevice: pci 0x1364
Revision: 0x01
Driver: “ndiswrapper”
Driver Modules: “ndiswrapper”, “ndiswrapper”
Device File: eth1
Features: WLAN
Memory Range: 0xb8000000-0xb8003fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 20 (no events)
HW Address: 00:1a:73:46:44:dc
Link detected: no
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 2.467 2.472 2.484
WLAN bitrates: 6 9 12 18
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “pci:v000014E4d00004311sv0000103Csd00001364bc02sc80i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: bcm43xx is not active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe bcm43xx”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #10 (PCI bridge)

Just one thought… if you look at your wireless config output, you’ll see you have ndiswrapper and bcm43xx drivers present. Did you blacklist the bcm43xx driver (as required if using ndiswrapper)?

rmmod bcm43xx
echo “blacklist bcm43xx” >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Maybe another broadcom wireless user can offer some advice here…

I had neither installed bcm43xx. even i’ll do it.

but if it still continue… how could i to try to load it with bcm43xx-fwcutter?

NestorAcevedo wrote:
> I had neither installed bcm43xx. even i’ll do it.
>
> but if it still continue… how could i to try to load it with
> bcm43xx-fwcutter?

The fwcutter program is used to extract firmware from one of the
drivers for other operating systems so that it can be used by the real
drivers for the Broadcom devices, namely b43, b43legacy using
b43-fwcutter, or bcm43xx using bcm43xx-fwcutter.

To use bcm43xx, you will need to go to the Linux wireless web site,
get the code for bcm43xx-fwcutter, compile it, and run the scripts
provided. I recommend using b43.

You can install the firmware for b43 with the command

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

Larry

Sometimes a BIOS update can work wonders with hardware issues :wink:

Look on the hp.com site to see if there is a newer version for your laptop.

-Wj

no by the moment. i checked it.

now i disabled the ndiswrapper module and used the bcm43xx-fwcutter.

at the restarting of suse, the wireless card was enabled. and the system after recognized -too late- the card type and the firmware. i’ve just configured and checked the module is bcm43xx. i did 2 restartings more to test and worked fine.

the last week i turn on my notebook and one more time the wireless got disabled. but if it happened only in suse, i wouldn’t have any problem, but it get disabled for the both OS’s: Windows XP x64 Edition and SuSE Linux 10.3 x64.

i think could be the kernel version. i’m working with the default kernel version included with the DVD. i don’t know if maybe that or another factors.

What version of openSUSE? If 11.0, you should be using b43 and not
bcm43xx.

Windows and Linux would be affected if your hardware died, or if the
radio-enable switch were turned off. With b43, there would be a
diagnostic message in the output of the dmesg command, but not with
bcm43xx.

The default kernel should be OK.

Larry

& i thinked were the wireless card who was failing but if i uninstall suse, the wireless gets active again. and i’m using bcm43xx

& i thinked were the wireless card who was failing but if i uninstall suse, the wireless gets active again. and i’m using bcm43xx

NestorAcevedo wrote:
> NestorAcevedo;1860792 Wrote:
>> openSuSE Linux 10.3 x64.
>>
> & i thinked were the wireless card who was failing but if i uninstall
> suse, the wireless gets active again. and i’m using bcm43xx

Did you do a cold restart (i.e. power off) between SUSE and Windows?
The act of uninstalling SUSE cannot make any difference!

Larry

yes. i did.

and the suse uninstall at the beginning obviously doesn’t matte anything. but in the second restarting of my notebook the wireless works fine in windows.

good. actually isn’t an uninstall from suse. is a disk format from windows. but even. my question is why the wireless is disabling in both systems when i make the firmware or driver install in suse?

When you turn the power off, the device forgets the firmware. If you
then boot to Windows, it is as though Linux does not exist on the system.

Are you trying to hibernate Windows and boot to Linux, or vice-versa?
That is a disaster waiting to happen. Linux will change the state of
the interface and Windows will malfunction.

I used to boot between Windows and Linux all the time and never had a
problem. Now I have Windows XP as a VirtualBox guest and always boot
Linux.

Reformatting the Linux partition(s) is as good as uninstalling Linux.
Remember that Linux doesn’t do anything fancy with the registry - all
configuration parameters are stored as files.

Larry