opensuse11.3 doesn't recognize installed Broadcom wl driver

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi,

I have a Toshiba laptop that has a built-in Atheros AR-5211 card with ath5k driver. When I was running 11.2 until recently with Linksys WPC300N PCMCIA card and Broadcom wl and wl-kmp drivers I was able to connect wirelessly. This success was due to reboting into 11.2’s Debug kernel and configuring BCM43XG as eth1.

Today I fresh installed 11.3 over 11.2 and even after installing Broadcom wl and wl-kmp drivers I cannot see them being listed in Network Settings.
Can you direct me to the link for the Debug kernel of 11.3?

Thanks a lot for your help.

#2

Please post the /sbin/lspci -nnk info for the device

Also: uname -a
And: rpm -qa | grep broadcom

#3

Hello caf4926,

  1. uname -a:

Linux linux-x7dh.site 2.6.34-12-default #1 SMP 2010-06-29 02:39:08 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

  1. rpm -qa|grep broadcom:

broadcom-wl-kmp-default-5.60.48.36_k2.6.34.0_12-7.pm.7.2.i586
broadcom-wl-5.60.48.36-7.pm.7.2.i586

Note that these 2 are “installed” versions. I just found out that for each driver there are 3 versions: installed, packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/11.3 and packman repos. I am not sure if the 3 versions are equivalent. I tried removing the “installed” version and re-install each of the other 2 versions but I failed.

  1. /sbin/lspci -nnk:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp. Device [144f:7106]
Kernel driver in use: ath5k

I cannot find reference to Broadcom wireless in this last output.

#4

Try removing the wireless card and inserting again, then do

dmesg |tail
#5

The Blue text was what I was wondering about, you must install to match the kernel, which that does.

But you don’t need broadcom for that Atheros device, which should be working ‘Out of the Box’. http://wiki.opensuse.org/HCL:Network_(Wireless)#Atheros

If you have another device not showing, then do a deano suggests

#6

Hi caf4926,

I would prefer using Linksys WPC300N because it offers wireless N,whereas the built-in Atheros miniPCI card only provides wireless G.

Perhaps I should try blacklisting ath5k first. I forgot all about the modprobe and blacklist commands though. Please help.

If blacklisting ath5k still doesn’t work, then I would try the other suggestion by deano_ferrari.

#7

@caf4926: I think he’s referring to his wireless card not being detected/supported…

When I was running 11.2 until recently with Linksys WPC300N PCMCIA card and Broadcom wl and wl-kmp drivers I was able to connect wirelessly. This success was due to reboting into 11.2’s Debug kernel and configuring BCM43XG as eth1.

#8

I think maybe you can assist better than I here.
And in my experience with wireless N and G, there is next to no difference. In fact I am currently getting better results from my old netgear G router.

#9

Hi everyone,

  1. dmesg|grep firmware:

    0.000000] SFI: Simple Firmware Interface v0.7 What is SFI? | Simple Firmware Interface
    28.271312] platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/R300_cp.bin

  2. dmesg|tail gives:

    26.521382] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
    27.643936] NET: Registered protocol family 17
    28.270379] [drm] Setting GART location based on new memory map
    28.271306] [drm] Loading R300 Microcode
    28.271312] platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/R300_cp.bin
    28.282657] [drm] Num pipes: 4
    28.282667] [drm] writeback test succeeded in 1 usecs
    34.094354] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 1 devices found
    37.922095] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
    72.951494] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on

  3. /sbin/lspci -nnk gives:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:5a31] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge [1002:5a3f]
00:06.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge [1002:5a38]
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:12.0 IDE interface [0101]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller [1002:4379] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: sata_sil
00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller [1002:4374] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
00:13.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller [1002:4375] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller [1002:4373] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller [1002:4372] (rev 82)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
00:14.1 IDE interface [0101]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller [1002:4376] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller [1002:437b] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge [1002:4377] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge [1002:4371] (rev 80)
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M] [1002:5a62]
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff03]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp. Device [144f:7106]
Kernel driver in use: ath5k
09:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller [1106:3044] (rev c0)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
09:04.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller [1524:1410] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
09:06.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
Kernel driver in use: 8139too

I would appreciate your advice or suggestions regarding what to do next.

#10

I wonder which interface is being referred to here

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

Are these dmesg |tail results from just after wireless card inserted?

Even though this device might look like pcmcia, it may just be a usb device. (I’ve had broadband modem pc-cards like this before).

With card plugged in, type

lsusb

A similar thread here:

How do I change wireless driver in 11.2?

Could use Larry’s help here. :slight_smile:

#11

Hi deano,

The Linksys card is never removed.

wlan0 refers to the built-in miniPCI wireless card by Atheros (AR5001 chipset).

lusb does not return anything. However, lspci gives the following (I only chose relevant results):


01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

09:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)
09:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
09:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

At this point, I am wondering if I should uninstall “bc43-firmware”, “broadcom-wl”, and “broadcom-wl-kmp-default” via Software Management then compile the “Broadcom Linux hybrid wireless driver” from source, i.e. www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_STA.php.

#12

lusb does not return anything.

The command is ‘lsusb’. The lspci results have nothing to do with the Linksys card. It is worth checking the card’s behaviour in another laptop, checking the connecter pins, or re-inserting the card, just to make sure its not a hardware problem.

I specifically asked for the card to be removed/inserted, then ‘dmesg|tail’ so I could see any useful output generated by kernel. Executing this at any other time will not be helpful (any kernel messaging coud be generated at a particular time).

Sof far, (unless I’m missing something), we’ve seen no evidence it works, or is plugged in…

#13

Hi deano,

I will repeat the experiment as you suggested later today. Mind you, with the Linksys PCMCIA card remains plugged in, I am still able to connect wirelessly under Win7, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Fedora Core 11 in this multiboot laptop.

#14

Hi deano,

  1. I removed, reinserted the card then typed “dmesg|tail”. I got:


   68.191262] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
  178.739005] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
  189.736883] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
  189.736888] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
  189.736891] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
  189.843755] Slow work thread pool: Starting up
  189.848812] Slow work thread pool: Ready
  189.848889] FS-Cache: Loaded
  189.946592] FS-Cache: Netfs 'nfs' registered for caching
  319.195416] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cardbus cards are not supported.

I am wondering if the last line above regarding cardbus cards not being supported has anything to do with “pnpbios=off” in the boot parameter list of the default kernel.

  1. With the card remains plugged in, “lsusb” gives:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
#15

With the card plugged in, and the CAT5 cable removed, I was able to have a wireless connection (stair step icon & 2 green lights on the card) under Windows 7. Same result under Ubuntu. Same under FC11. I use Gnome’s Network Manager for Ubuntu and Fedora Core. So under these 3 operating systems the Linksys card works.

#16

An educated guess says that line is a problem. (Now you can see why I asked you for it just after card insertion).

There is a pcmciautils package that has the pccardctl utility. Try

/sbin/pccardctl ls

/sbin/pccardctl info

Any useful output?

I’m not sure about the ‘pnpbios=off’ kernel boot option, and its effect with this (at least without researching). Does the failsafe mode have this option as well? You could try removing, although this may stop your system from booting properly. I’d be inclined to create an additonal grub menu entry with this option removed, so you can always boot from the original (if that makes sense).

#17

Hi deano,

  1. /sbin/pccardctl ls gives:
Socket 0 Bridge:   	[yenta_cardbus] 	(bus ID: 0000:09:04.0)

Note that yenta_cardbus works with ath5k which I already blacklisted. Perhaps I should try blacklisting yenta_cardbus as well?

  1. /sbin/pccardctl info yields:
bash: sbin/pccardctl: No such file or directory
#18

On 08/05/2010 05:36 AM, deano ferrari wrote:
> I’m not sure about the ‘pnpbios=off’ kernel boot option, and its effect
> with this (at least without researching). Does the failsafe mode have
> this option as well? You could try removing, although this may stop your
> system from booting properly. I’d be inclined to create an additonal
> grub menu entry with this option removed, so you can always boot from
> the original (if that makes sense).

If you have PNP turned off, then your card will not be recognized. Why is it set
that way?

There may also be a bug in the PCMCIA code. Whatever is happening, the BCM43xx
card is never being recognized, thus it cannot be expected to work. Once you can
see it in the lspci scan (Cardbus devices are PCI), then you can start
configuring it.

#19

Hi iwfinger,

I only recently put PNPBIOS=OFF into the boot parameter list of the default kernel because this was recommended on screen by the system in order to have stability, when I was trying to install openSUSE 11.3 fresh or even upgrading from 11.2. Yesterday even when PNPBIOS=OFF was not inserted the card was still not recognized.

The BCM43XG card was and still is recognized under Ubuntu, Fedora and Win 7 though.

#20

Hi,

In this laptop, Ubuntu 10.04 uses Broadcom STA wireless drivers (BCCM 4311, 4312, 4321, 4322-based cards. Also in Ubuntu, lspci gives: Network Controller: Broadcom Corp. BCM43XG (Rev. 01).

Also in the same multiboot machine, Fedora Core 11’s yum extender shows the following installed packages:

broadcom-wl (common files for Broadcom 802.11 STA drivers)
bcm43xx-fwcutter
b43-fwcutter

I am wondering what is blocking the Broadcom 802.11STA drivers in openSUSE 11.3?

Secondly, under /etc/sysconfig/kernel, which of the above drivers should be added to the section called MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT?

I did have a look in /lib/firmware but did not see any Broadcom STA drivers.