ssb loaded B43_legacy driver which doesn't exceed 1Mb/s

English Network/Internet
#1

With the help of this forum I was able to resolve the issue of my sound card not working with NDISWRAPPER. I unloaded NDISWRAPPER and my sound works now, however my wireless speed has dropped to 1Mb/s with this 4306 card (which is capable of 56Mb/s). I found this websight and before I thy their solution I was wondering if the opensuse community has come up with a simpler solution. Here’s the websight: b43 - Linux Wireless

If this problem has been solved I’d like to use an opensuse solution. My wireless is working, but not at the speed of that of 10.3 and I’m gun shy about making changes. My system indicates I’m using b43_legacy with the SSB mod as a driver. I’d like to get my bandwidth back to 56 capability.

#2

sgbrockman wrote:
> With the help of this forum I was able to resolve the issue of my sound
> card not working with NDISWRAPPER. I unloaded NDISWRAPPER and my sound
> works now, however my wireless speed has dropped to 1Mb/s with this 4306
> card (which is capable of 56Mb/s). I found this websight and before I
> thy their solution I was wondering if the opensuse community has come
> up with a simpler solution. Here’s the websight: ‘b43 - Linux
> Wireless’ (http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43)
>
> If this problem has been solved I’d like to use an opensuse solution.
> My wireless is working, but not at the speed of that of 10.3 and I’m
> gun shy about making changes. My system indicates I’m using b43_legacy
> with the SSB mod as a driver. I’d like to get my bandwidth back to 56
> capability.

The BCM4306/2, which is the one that uses b43legacy, does not have very good
performance using OFDM rates. It is likely an error in the reverse engineering,
but no one has had time to investigate the problem. The BCM4306 works, and we
have at least 3 models that do not work at all.

It also seems as if the automatic rate adjustment is not working. If true, that
is a bug that needs to be explored.

In the meantime, you should manually set the rate to 11Mb/s using

sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M

If your wireless has been renamed, use the proper name in place of the wlan0.

My BCM4306/2 gets a TX rate of 5.8 Mb/s and an RX rate of 4.8 Mb/s. By
comparison, most of the later model BCM43xx cards get 20 Mb/s.

Larry

#3

I tried your suggestion and it killed my wireless card. Upon reboot things returned to the 1Mb/s as indicated by this copy and past:

sgbrockman@laplinux11:~> su
Password:
laplinux11:/home/sgbrockman # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:“DLINK624”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:11:95:55:35:85
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=65/100 Signal level=-63 dBm Noise level=-68 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

laplinux11:/home/sgbrockman #

Any thing else I should try?

#4

With 10.3 I was typically getting 48Mb/s with this wireless connection. The computer has moved so the location with respect to the wireless router hasn’t changed.

#5

I’m sorry I meant to say that the computer has not moved in respect to the wireless router since 10.3.

#6

sgbrockman wrote:
> I tried your suggestion and it killed my wireless card. Upon reboot
> things returned to the 1Mb/s as indicated by this copy and past:
>
> sgbrockman@laplinux11:~> su
> Password:
> laplinux11:/home/sgbrockman # iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:“DLINK624”
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point:
> 00:11:95:55:35:85
> Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
> Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
> Encryption key:off
> Link Quality=65/100 Signal level=-63 dBm Noise level=-68
> dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Your signal to noise is marginal. On mine, at about 2 m from the AP, the signal
is -31 dBm. My noise is also -68 dBm.

You can try setting the rate to 5.5M. If it fails, you shouldn’t have to reboot

  • just reset the rate to 1M. Check ‘man iwconfig’ for the options.

You may have been getting a bit rate of 48M before, but the maximum transfer
rate of any 802.11g device is less than half the bit rate.

Larry

#7

The exact same iwconfig command on my previous 10.3, utilizing NDISWRAPPER reflected 48Mb/s or better. The problem is with ssb driver, I don’t understand why I’d have to settle for less bandwidth, 5.5 is still not to par with whath I had with 10.3 and NDISWRAPPER. My network activity is severely less than that prior to my 11.0 installation.

#8

I’m not simply talking about what iwconfig reflects, my network bandwidth for this laptop has degraded significantly. A simple 3M file that transfered in 2-3 seconds has since been reduced to about 8 minutes.

#9

The driver is the problem, has anyone figured out the driver problem. I’m tweeking a driver that didn’t work in 10.3. SSB didn’t work in that version and it has proved severly degraded in this version. I don’t want to lose my sound and revert back to NDISWRAPPER. Oh, by the way, my iwconfig with NDISWRAPPER and 11.0 was also 48Mb/s or better. The problem seems to be with SSB. Google it, it seems to be a problem across multiple distributions of linux with this kernel.

#10

Just because I didn’t join this forum till recently doesn’t mean I’m not Linux savy. I’ve used opensuse since back in the day with 7.0. I’ve also been involved with computers and hardware going back to 1988. I dumped Microsoft in 2003 and have been using linux ever since. Opensuse is my choice of OS’s, and I’ve been programming for the last 10 yrs.

#11

sgbrockman wrote:
> The driver is the problem, has anyone figured out the driver problem.
> I’m tweeking a driver that didn’t work in 10.3. SSB didn’t work in
> that version and it has proved severly degraded in this version. I
> don’t want to lose my sound and revert back to NDISWRAPPER. Oh, by the
> way, my iwconfig with NDISWRAPPER and 11.0 was also 48Mb/s or better.
> The problem seems to be with SSB. Google it, it seems to be a problem
> across multiple distributions of linux with this kernel.

Of course it doesn’t depend on the distro - IT IS A PROBLEM WITH THE DRIVER.
Why? Talk to Broadcom and ask why they don’t cooperate with the Linux driver
writer and provide specifications.

I told you earlier why it didn’t work. Now GO AWAY. I DO NOT EVER WANT TO HEAR
FROM YOU AGAIN!!!