Broadcom WiFi card ceased to work after upgrading to Suse 11.4

English Network/Internet
#1

Hello there,

I recently installed Suse 11.4 on my Dell Latitude 2110 netbook using the KDE live distribution, and, after that, the Broadcom wireless ceased to work.

To enable the wireless connection, I have to press Fn + F6.
If I do it now, the wireless led indicator turns on for a couple of seconds, then turns off again. Moreover, the option to enable the wireless connection in the network manager is greyed out

lspci output:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)

iwconfig output:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

dmesg output:

    8.330963] brcm80211: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
    8.362403] brcm80211 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
    8.362422] brcm80211 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

output of rpm -qa | grep broadcom:

broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-5.100.82.38_k2.6.37.1_1.2-7.pm.8.1.x86_64
broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-7.pm.8.1.x86_64

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

#2

Post result of

/sbin/lspci -nnk

only need the wireless part really

#3

If so - that may even include my amateurish suggestions :wink:

To the driver:

Could you also post anything that includes the hexadecimal numeric ID of your wireless LAN device to be really sure what you have in front of you (something like [14e4:4353])?

I think the relevant part of

/sbin/lspci -nn

or
the output of

/sbin/lspci -vnn | grep 14e4

(14e4 stands for the vendor broadcom)
should include that.

Outlook to the future:
If no other cause for your problem is to be found you may have to install the closed “wl” driver from the vendor (packed by packman). But maybe lwfinger or another clever person will find an other cause and so a possibility to stay on the open way…
And I guess going first through the (other) possibilities step by step would be wise.

To possible blocking things (soft blocked or hard blocked):

May you please post the output of:

/usr/sbin/rfkill list

If the rfkill program is not install jet you may install it - example given with:

sudo zypper install rfkill

Regards
Martin
(pistazienfresser)

#4

Or that way (maybe I should write fewer and faster…) :wink:

#5

This is the result of /sbin/lspci -nnk:

0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4353] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:000e]
        Kernel driver in use: brcm80211

and this is the output from rfkill:

0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: dell-wwan: Wireless WAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
3: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
4: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

To Martin:

If no other cause for your problem is to be found you may have to install the closed “wl” driver from the vendor (packed by packman)

I thought that the files I have installed, i.e.

  • broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-5.100.82.38_k2.6.37.1_1.2-7.pm.8.1.x86_64
  • broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-7.pm.8.1.x86_64
    were already the closed one released by the vendor… Am I wrong?
#6

You are right.
But the cause of my confusion may also be related to the cause of your problem:
As the lspci output says you are currently using brcm80211 → see: brcm80211 - Linux Wireless .
I guess if you want to use the closed source driver you may have to load it (via modprobe ?).
What do the other members of this forums think?

Just to be sure that you have installed the right kernel-module and closed source driver - what does

uname -a

say?

Regards
Martin
(pistazienfresser)

#7

And to the open way:
Did you try to install the fitting Broadcom firmware for the brcm80211 before tying to use the closed driver?

Regards
Martin
(pistazienfresser)

#8

this is my linux version:
Linux nanodesktop.site 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-02-21 10:34:10 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
so, the wl driver I downloaded should fit the kernel version.

Martin, just to be sure to do the things right: do I have to remove the wl drivers before installing the b43?

#9

As su do this:

/sbin/modprobe -rv brcm80211

/sbin/modprobe -v wl

Can you check

/etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

add this if it’s not there:

blacklist brcm80211
#10

I think you should follow Carl’s (caf4926’s) advice and try to load the closed source driver - he is more experienced in software things and especially in relation to Broadcom hardware than me.

But a short remark:
Please do not install or load the driver b43 -> this is just an other driver for other Broadcom devices and will
(according to the table “Known PCI devices” on b43 - Linux Wireless )
not support your “14e4:4353” device.

I wish you success
Martin
(pistazienfresser)

#11

Caf,

I modified the 50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf according to your suggestion.

Now both the commands
/sbin/modprobe -v wl
/sbin/modprobe -rv brcm80211

give empty output; but still when I activate the wirelees Lan it stays on for only a couple of seconds.

#12

@caf4926 (Carl) & @lwfinger (Larry Finger) and other experienced people
[about the other (possible?) way]:

Would the firmware for the Open Source driver -brcm8021- be in the package
brcm80211-firmware
from
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=brcm80211-firmware&project=driver%3Awireless
?

If this package would be installed - would the firmware be
in
/lib/firmware/brcm
(beneath the other Broadcom firmware from the other package
kernel-firmware)?

Does anybody know why this package -brcm80211-firmware- is not build for
openSUSE 11.4 and Factory (but for the older versions)?

Regards
puzzled pistazienfresser
(Martin)

#13

On 04/05/2011 10:17 AM, pistazienfresser wrote:
> @caf4926 (Carl)& @lwfinger (Larry Finger) and other experienced people
> [about the other (possible?) way]:

I do not help debug problems with wl by personal choice, thus I’m only
commenting on some things I read in this thread:

  1. b43 does not touch this device, thus it is immaterial what you do with it!

  2. For brcm80211, there is firmware in the kernel-firmware package. Driver wl
    has the firmware embedded in it - no need for external files.

  3. The initial post indicates that brcm80211 is loaded, but the OP’s most recent
    posting indicates that wl is loaded and brcm80211 is not. Why the inconsistency?

#14

I’m not sure what your problem is

But if you went back to the brcm80211, I think Larry would help you, but not with the wl driver.

How hard have you tried with wl?

#15

How hard have you tried with wl?

To be honest, not very hard, because actually I am not so skilled to make it work just relying on my knowledge.
I installed the system, saw it was not working, and since I saw from Yast that there were no drivers installed, I tried the wl one cause it seemed the most straightforward way. It did not work, so I did a couple of trials installing/uninstalling them again, but when I saw I was getting anywhere I wrote this post.

I will be happy to get back to the brcm80211, if it will solve the issue… but how do I do that?
Do I have to remove the wl driver and install the b43 one? Both the driver and the firmware?

#16

Well you did report the wl was working a little, which makes me wonder why.

But I suggested reverting back because Larry would assist.
To revert back, you need to uninstall the 2 broadcom packages from packman.
Remove the blacklist entry, then modprobe brcm80211

#17

For the records, after many many trials I finally made it work using new broadcom drivers. This is what I have done:

  • I updated the kernel (don’t know if it is relevant)

  • I deleted the brcm drivers

  • I installed the broadcom proprietary drivers (broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop in my case)

  • I created from scratch a new 50-Broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf with the following lines
    blacklist bcm43xx
    blacklist ssb
    blacklist b43
    blacklist ndiswrapper

  • gave the following commands (as root)
    modprobe -r bcm43xx
    modprobe -r ssbb43
    modprobe -r b43
    modprobe wl

  • I rebooted, and now everithing works fine

Hope this may help other people

#18

On 05/01/2011 08:36 AM, MadSplinter wrote:
>
> For the records, after many many trials I finally made it work using new
> broadcom drivers. This is what I have done:
>
> - I updated the kernel (don’t know if it is relevant)
> - I deleted the brcm drivers
> - I installed the broadcom proprietary drivers (broadcom-wl and
> broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop in my case)
> - I created from scratch a new 50-Broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf with the
> following lines
> blacklist bcm43xx
> blacklist ssb
> blacklist b43
> blacklist ndiswrapper
>
> - gave the following commands (as root)
> modprobe -r bcm43xx
> modprobe -r ssbb43
> modprobe -r b43
> modprobe wl
>
> - I rebooted, and now everithing works fine

Just for the record, driver bcm43xx has not been in the kernel since 2.6.24 was
released in early 2008. I know you are just following a prescription, but those
commands are no longer needed.