Suse 11.0 - KDE 4.0 - BCM4306 (No Connect)

This is a clean install of Suse 11.0 using KDE 4.0

HP Pavilion ze2000
Model ze2113us
Dual-boot: Suse - WinXP


lspci -v (Broadcom Wireless Info)

05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 12f8
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
Memory at c0204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb


The wireless card was automatically recognized and setup during
the OS install. I configured it under YaST but I have no connection
to the router and subsequently, no internet connect.

Pinging router elicits: connect: Network is unreachable response.

The wireless connection is working with no problems while using
WinXP.[/size]

Additional information I forgot to post:


iwconfig

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

I think you are hitting a bug that we have recently found for BCM4306
cards with a PCI format. Does that describe your card? The problem is
an SPROM coding error that was likely introduced by Broadcom. So far,
this error has affected cards branded by ASUS, Linksys, Dell and an
unknown vendor. You are likely adding HP to the list.

Please do two things for me:

(1) In a terminal, run the command ‘/sbin/lspci -nnv’ and post the
first two lines of the section that describes your BCM4306.

(2) In a terminal with module ssb loaded, run the following commands:

SPROM=$(find /sys -name ssb_sprom)
echo $SPROM
sudo cat $SPROM > sprom.dat

Depending on your setup, the first of these may generate some
warnings; however, if the second results in a string that looks like
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/0000:04:00.0/ssb_sprom, then it
is OK. The numbers will be different on your device depending on how
your PCI adapter is attached to the computer. The contents of the file
sprom.dat will be a string of hexadecimal characters. Please post that
here. To make sure that the data are not corrupted, please attach that
file. If your device has the SPROM error, I will modify the SPROM
contents, post the revised encoding and give you the instructions on
how to rewrite the SPROM contents.

Larry

/sbin/lspci -nnv output

05:02.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:12f8]

I see no way to post attachments here.

BTW, this is a laptop, JFYI, if that is important. Not sure if you knew that or not.

Thanks for the help Larry

I’m in the same boat with a BCM4306 dell 1350 mini PCI in my laptop. I’ll have to keep an eye on this topic.

reglinuser, Imaginos and any other user with a BCM4306 that doesn’t work:

Please PM me with your E-mail address, and I’ll send you instructions on how to send me your sprom.dat.

Bummer that one cannot attach files to the forum items.

Larry

Sent my sprom.dat your way. Hope it is an easy fix that they accept into the current build.

How do I verify if the firmware hack is installed Larry?

I got your e-mail and did the SPROM update but still no
connection yet. I changed to ifup mode in YaST network
configuration but only thing I can get set so far is the
ESSID. I looked at ifcfg-wlan0 and it contains some of
the information that I put in but not all of the other
information seems to stay when I set the WiFi parameters
in YaST. My IWCONFIG is now as follows.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:“MY ESSID”
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Invalid
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Even though ifcfg-wlan0 has the encryption information
it isn’t being used.

reglinusr wrote:
> How do I verify if the firmware hack is installed Larry?

Read out the SPROM contents and compare them with the updated info I
sent you. The revised one should end with the string “025D”.

> -wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:“MY ESSID”
> Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Invalid
> Tx-Power=0 dBm
> Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
> Encryption key:off
> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0-

You still have not associated with the AP. What kind of encryption are
you using? If WEP, did you use a hex key or a passphrase?

Larry

OK, SPROM is the one you sent and ends with 025d.

I am using WEP 128 Open ASCII Encryption. I am
about ready to dump this internal wlan card and
get a USB or PCMCIA NIC instead! Broadcom cards
seem to be nothing but trouble. You got any good
suggestions for an a/b/g wlan card that works with
none of these problems if this thing can’t get into
a functioning state?

And, thanks again for the help!

reglinusr wrote:
> OK, SPROM is the one you sent and ends with 025d.
>
> I am using WEP 128 Open ASCII Encryption. I am
> about ready to dump this internal wlan card and
> get a USB or PCMCIA NIC instead! Broadcom cards
> seem to be nothing but trouble. You got any good
> suggestions for an a/b/g wlan card that works with
> none of these problems if this thing can’t get into
> a functioning state?

I have 9 different wifi devices - seven of them are Broadcom, and they
are less trouble than the others.

WEP is a problem. First of all, entering an incorrect key doesn’t
generate any discernible error. It just silently doesn’t work.
Secondly, there are at least two different ways to convert a WEP
passphrase to a key. If you try to use such a phrase and your AP uses
a different scheme that the driver, it will not work. If possible, you
should switch to WPA. If WEP is necessary, enter the passphrase at the
AP, but write down the key it generates and use that for all
subsequent machines.

Larry

Well, so far I have gotten to this:

iwconfig

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:“MY ESSID”
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: ##:##:##:##:##:##
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:####-####-####-####-####-####-##
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

==================================================

ifdown wlan0
wlan0

ifup wlan0
wlan0
command ‘iwconfig wlan0 nick linux’ returned
Error for wireless request “Set Nickname” (8B1C) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
interface wlan0 is not up
Checking for network time protocol daemon (NTPD): unused

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It will not accept anything for hostname. I’ve tried different names
but can’t seem to get it to accept one that doesn’t create the error.
I’ve even tried to have it set by DHCP but no go. If I leave it blank
then it automatically becomes linux.

Imaginos wrote:
>
> Sent my sprom.dat your way. Hope it is an easy fix that they accept
> into the current build.

It is literally a one line patch. It is queued for mainline, i.e.
2.6.27, with the notation that it should be sent to stable - 2.6.25
and 2.6.26. When it is included in 2.6.26.y, openSUSE should get it
into a distribution kernel.

Larry

Hi,

I’m experiencing the same difficulty with the Broadcom BCM4328 in OpenSuse 11.0, with KDE 3.5.

I copied similar information as the previous individuals posted. However, I’d prefer to send it via PM. Could you let me know how to give you the sprom.dat file. As I would be grateful for the assistance.

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Mike

mstrasko wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I’m experiencing the same difficulty with the Broadcom BCM4328 in
> OpenSuse 11.0, with KDE 3.5.
>
> I copied similar information as the previous individuals posted.
> However, I’d prefer to send it via PM. Could you let me know how to give
> you the sprom.dat file. As I would be grateful for the assistance.

For the BCM4328, it is not as simple as modifying the SPROM contents.
That model is not yet implemented in the driver, and will not be until
the reverse engineering, which has barely started, is complete.

You will need to use ndiswrapper.

Larry

Similar to the previous post: I have a Dell D800 running Suse 11.0 and KDE but cannot get the wireless to work. Under YaST it shows the card, but will not connect (i.e. reads, “BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (Not connected)”
I tried to update the FIRMWARE according to a site I found (I cannot find the link right now - sorry)…
Nothing works:(

The first few lines of mine read:
Network control [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM8306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini-PCI Card [1028:0003]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32 IRQ 5
Memory at fafec000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb


As an aside - I tried to plub in a WPC300N PCMCIA Card, and nothing happened (i.e. power light on card did not light up, machine did not recognize it, etc.)

Thoughts? I appreciate any help you can provide.[/size]

dunlaphw wrote:
> The first few lines of mine read:
> Network control [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM8306 802.11b/g
> Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
> Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini-PCI Card [1028:0003]
> Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32 IRQ 5
> Memory at fafec000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
> Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
> Kernel modules: ssb
> ************************************************************
>
> As an aside - I tried to plub in a WPC300N PCMCIA Card, and nothing
> happened (i.e. power light on card did not light up, machine did not
> recognize it, etc.)
>
> Thoughts? I appreciate any help you can provide.

Thank you for the very complete trouble report. It provides everything
I needed to know.

You are the proud owner of a card with an SPROM programming error in
the Bluetooth coexistence bit. That sounds serious and it is, but
easily fixed. Current kernels have the fix built in, but for you to
run the openSUSE kernel, we need to rewrite the SPROM.

Please run the following commands in a terminal:

SPROM=$(find /sys -name ssb_sprom)
echo $SPROM
sudo cat $SPROM

Please post the output. I will take the SPROM contents, fix the
misprogramming and send it back to you. For accuracy, I prefer to send
it back as a file. For that, I’ll need your email address. To keep it
private, send it to me in a PM.

Larry

[/size]

Hi,

I also have a broadcom chipset, which doesn´t work with suse 11 (10.3 was without trouble).
My system:

>>/sbin/lspci -nnv

00:0b.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Device [02fa:3011]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
Memory at ed800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper
Kernel modules: ssb

00:0b.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Device [02fa:3011]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
Memory at ed800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb

>>echo $SPROM
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.0/ssb_sprom

Could you please correct my SPROM.values?
How can I sent the file ‘sprom.dat’ to you, how can I be posted via PM?
It would be helpfull for others to have a short ‘how to do it’ in this posting.

Thank you in advance!![/size][/size]

fettboy wrote:
>
>>> echo $SPROM
> /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.0/ssb_sprom
>
>
> Could you please correct my SPROM.values?
> How can I sent the file ‘sprom.dat’ to you, how can I be posted via PM?
>
> It would be helpfull for others to have a short ‘how to do it’ in this
> posting.

I just posted a message on what is needed. Please try that first.

If you need to get the sprom.dat contents to me, use the command ‘cat
sprom.dat’ and copy and paste the results to the forum.

Larry

Wow, the fix to this issue still didn’t make it into the current repos?

Larry, thanks again for the help with my daughter’s laptop. Got another one I am working on and natch – it has a 4306 as well. I’ll take a closer look at it during the ALDS games tonight. If you’re up for yet another patch job, I’ll have the dat in about 6 hrs.