openSUSE 12.1 RC1: b43 firmware installed, still no wireless

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1

Hello,

Last night I installed openSUSE 12.1 RC1 KDE i686 on my Toshiba laptop, Celeron M CPU, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M integrated graphic, 2 GB RAM.


# uname -r
3.1.0-rc9-1-default

Since Broadcom wl is a hassle to install for my wireless card Linksys WPC300N Rev. 1, I installed b43 firmware:


#sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

Extracting b43 firmware
This file is recognised as:
  filename   :  wl_apsta.o
  version    :  508.154

Extracting b43legacy firmware
This file is recognised as:
  filename   :  wl_apsta.o
  version    :  295.14

b43 firmware successfully installed.
b43legacy firmware successfully installed.



#/sbin/lspci -nnk

0a:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4329] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Linksys WPC300N v1 Wireless-N Notebook Adapter [1737:0058]
        Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

When I went into YAST-Network Settings to check, the Hardware Tab of the wireless connection shows kernel module is “ssb”. My wireless PCMCIA card has both Power and Link/Act lights but I have no wireless connection.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks a lot for your help!

:frowning:

2

My broadcom controller shows as “[14e4:4727]”, where yours is “[14e4:4329]”.

I described what I did to get it working in this post: Wirelss doesn’t work. Can find Wireless LAN or UDI anywhere in Hardware.

I’m not sure whether that will work for you, but it is worth a try.

3

Look here
b43 - Linux Wireless
It may be that ‘wl’ will work better. It does for me.

4

Hello caf4926,

According to the link you gave me above, b43 only works partially for my card, hence I would need to use Broadcom wl. The Factory version of Packman repo, as shown in this link Index of /suse/openSUSE_Factory/, does not give me “broadcom-wl” and “broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop” packages.

Do you use the 11.4 or 12.1 Distribution version of Packman repo in order to get these two broadcom-wl packages?

5

You can’t get 'wl from packman with 12.1 yet
You see, they have to be built to the kernel you are using. As of yet the is none built in Packman. But they are working on 12.1 repos.

ATM in 12.1 I use b43, but it’s performance is poor compared to 11.4 with ‘wl’
I have also used kernel 3 in 11.4 and b43 and it too suffers with poor speeds compared to ‘wl’

The only thing you could check is if tumbleweed has the same kernel as your 12.1 install, then you could use that to get ‘wl’

6

It looks, I think that this repo
Index of /repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard
Has the same kernel as tumbleweed

So you could roll 12.1 install to that kernel and use packman tumbleweed for now to get ‘wl’

7

Hello caf4926,

From the link you gave me, I switched to the “stable/standard” kernel and got kernel-default as well as kernel-desktop both of version 3.1.0-1.1.i586. Also got new kernel firmware. Then I installed the “openSUSE_Tumbleweed” version of Packman repo from this link: Index of /suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/.

I found “broadcom-wl” package in YAST > Software Management, but got the following warning message when I tried to install “wl”:

Nothing provides ksym (desktop:module_layout) = 60c75bc0 needed by broadcom-wl-desktop-5.100.82.38_k3.0.7_45-9.29.i586

It appears I would either need to downgrade to kernel 3.0.7_45-9.29 or wait until after 12.1 GM release. Any suggestions?

8

Since I posted that repo has been updated

You’d have to be careful now, as it seems you already lack some control letting it drag in an extra kernel
But you could add tumbleweed, grab the kernel from there as it must match the one in tw/packman: 3.0.7_45-9.29

But this is how I would do it. Remove the the kernel repo and roll back to 12.1 kernel and remove kernel-default at the same time.
When I installed 12.1 I used a CD and it uses kernel-default. So post install, I switch to kernel-desktop. What fun that is!
IIRC virtualbox, vmware and ndiswrapper (already installed) packages all play a part in making switching difficult. You have to be ultra brutal and mark the packages you don’t want a Taboo do Not Install.

Once you are back to 12.1 add the tumbleweed repo
Index of /repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard
Install the kernel packages (ONLY) from there
And the broadcom packages to match from the tw/packman

Or just wait
As you will see Packman is working on 12.1
Index of /suse/openSUSE_12.1/

9

Hello caf4926,

Here’s what I did:

  1. Deleted previous Tumbleweed repo
  2. Disabled “standard kernel” repo
  3. Switched back to kernel 3.1.0-rc9-1-desktop (via 12.1 OSS) and deleted kernel-default
  4. Reboot
  5. Added Packman repo from your link Index of/suse/openSUSE_12.1/

After reboot and checking in YAST Software Management, I did not see “broadcom-wl” at all (“No results”). What am I missing?

10

You didn’t pay attention or I wasn’t clear

Once you are back to 12.1 add the tumbleweed repo
Index of /repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard
Install the kernel packages (ONLY) from there
And the broadcom packages to match from the tw/packman

This means you should install the kernel from the tumbleweed repo.

Then use the Packman Tumbleweed repo to get broadcom

The 12.1 packman repo does not have broadcom (yet)

11

Hello caf4926,

I misunderstood your last paragraph to be it’s Ok to try the easier way:

Or just wait
As you will see Packman is working on 12.1
Index of /suse/openSUSE_12.1/

I will try your other suggestion.

12

Hello caf4926.

Yesterday I added Tumbleweed repo, switched to it and installed kernel-desktop from there. However, after reboot to activate the kernel all I got was a stationary openSUSE flash screen. I did not get any login screen. The error message was that the system could not locate the root partition, etc. I then decided to re-install 12.1 via Build 0379 KDE Live CD and wait for the final release, since it was faster.

13

Hello caf4926,

Right now I have 12.1 RC2 and it is up-to-date, with kernel 3.1.0-1.2-desktop. Just installed Packman repo, Broadcom wl and wl-kmp-desktop. After blacklisting ath5k (built-in Atheros AR-5001 miniPCI adapter for wireless G) and ssb, I got wireless connection. However, Network Manager shows the band to be “b,g” instead of “b,g,n”. I have this card:


0a:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4329] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Linksys WPC300N v1 Wireless-N Notebook Adapter [1737:0058]
        Kernel driver in use: wl

Any idea? Thanks in advance.

14

I think I’m correct in saying that ‘wl’ has limitations compared to b43

Once I updated to RC2 and kernel 3.1
I left b43 as the driver and it works well. Earlier, kernel 3.0 was suffering but the new kernel seems to have solved that.
Over the weekend I hope to installing the GoldMaster and will let you know how that goes.

15

On 11/10/2011 10:16 PM, taytong888 wrote:
>
> Hello caf4926,
>
> Right now I have 12.1 RC2 and it is up-to-date, with kernel
> 3.1.0-1.2-desktop. Just installed Packman repo, Broadcom wl and
> wl-kmp-desktop. After blacklisting ath5k (built-in Atheros AR-5001
> miniPCI adapter for wireless G) and ssb, I got wireless connection.
> However, Network Manager shows the band to be “b,g” instead of “b,g,n”.
> I have this card:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> 0a:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4329] (rev 01)
> Subsystem: Linksys WPC300N v1 Wireless-N Notebook Adapter [1737:0058]
> Kernel driver in use: wl
>
> --------------------
>
>
> Any idea? Thanks in advance.

As I have said many times, we have no way to debug the closed-source wl driver
from Broadcom. You need to complain to them. It likely will do no good, but you
might feel better. If you have a problem with b43, then we might be able to help.