Urgently Need Broadcom Wireless Card Compatibility Info

English Hardware
#1

As part of the wiki review process (in conjunction with moving to the new wiki instance) I’m currently helping out to rework the Wireless HCL found here:

HCL/Network Adapters (Wireless) - openSUSE

As you can see I’ve already moved Atheros, Intel, Ralink and Realtek wireless device out to their respective tables to improve readability.

However, Broadcom chipset does not seem to have an extensive representation in the HCL (only generic entry) even though we have a huge Broadcom users base out there (as seen by many complaint in the forum as well about getting this particular chipset to work).

Therefore if you own or know any Broadcom wireless card that works well / do not work with openSUSE including and above version 11.0 please post your Chipset, Standard / Band Type, Bus Type, openSUSE version, Driver used, Compatibility with WEP, WPA, and any additional remarks here (for the time being). I will get it included along with the wiki review.

Thank you very much for your help. :slight_smile:

#2

I really want to use opensuse but my current situation means i cannot download or buy the dvd so i would like anyone who has the convenience to send me the latest dvd and i would be very grateful.

Amoatey Harrison
c/o Comfort Odonkor
Ghana National Fire Service
Box 29, Akosombo
Ghana

#3

Card: BCM4328 - 802.11a/b/g/n PCI
OS version: 11.2
Driver: wl
Encryption (WEP, WPA): works

#4

I have a Broadcom BCM 4309 which works fine.

One thing I would love to see, though, is for Linux distributions to use OpenFWWF.

Fedora 12 includes this and it recognized my Broadcom wireless out of the box! From the LiveCD I could see and connect to the wireless router without having to download/install anything!

I’ve found it works better than the regular fwcutter and b43 drivers and is as good (or better?) than the Windows drivers. Consistant signal and no drop-offs.

Heck if I could find out how to install it myself, I would in a heartbeat.

#5

On 01/12/2010 08:26 AM, dragonbite wrote:
>
> I have a Broadcom BCM 4309 which works fine.
>
> One thing I would love to see, though, is for Linux distributions to
> use ‘OpenFWWF’ (http://www.ing.unibs.it/openfwwf/).
>
> Fedora 12 includes this and it recognized my Broadcom wireless out of
> the box! From the LiveCD I could see and connect to the wireless router
> without having to download/install anything!
>
> I’ve found it works better than the regular fwcutter and b43 drivers
> and is as good (or better?) than the Windows drivers. Consistant signal
> and no drop-offs.
>
> Heck if I could find out how to install it myself, I would in a
> heartbeat.

The reason that I have not recommended the openfwwf for openSUSE is that it has
a major bug. It you run repeated tcpperf runs in one session and a flood ping in
another, your caps and numb lock lights will be flashing within minutes to
hours. These light flashing means a kernel panic. My longest run with a BCM4318
has been 4 hours. It usually fails within 5 minutes.

The problem is that the firmware is dropping a packet, but the firmware authors
cannot find where it happens.

Are you sure it works better than the Broadcom firmware? After all, the driver
is the same. In addition, the openfwwf has no QOS queuing. If you were running
Skype over it, you would be most unhappy. In addition, it does not do encryption
in the hardware the way that the Broadcom firmware does. This means your CPU has
to work harder.

I agree that open firmware for the Broadcom chips is an exciting prospect, but
the current implementation still needs improvement. In addition, it covers a
very limited set of devices.

#6

What driver are u currently using? b43? and on which openSUSE version does it works well?

Thanks :slight_smile:

#7

Seriously, it has been running better than the usual firmware for me.

With the usual firmware, the connection strength keeps moving up and down, though usually stays connected.

With OpenFWWF it doesn’t fluctuate as much.

Disclaimer: I am going by the strength indicator in OS, not some real, validation.

I know with Ubuntu 9.04 there was something going on with the kernel that was making Broadcom wireless to drop off frequently. I haven’t seen that with 9.10 and OpenFWWF has never dropped me yet (knock on wood)

I’ve used Skype with it, but since I’ve had issues with my webcam being connected to Skype in all except Windows, I don’t know if I would count that as tested well enough yet.

Now, I am thinking of setting up a dual-boot Windows XP and openSUSE (currently do not have openSUSE on this particular machine with the Broadcom). While I doubt it, hopefully the webcam works better with openSUSE than it has with the other systems.

If there are any tests you want me to run, let me know. I’m using a Dell Latitude D400 and I have multiple hard drive trays. So with the same exact equipment, I can run a test with one system (like Ubuntu or openSUSE) and then pull out that hard drive and swap it (like a game cartridge) with the Fedora 12 and OpenFWWF and run the same tests so you can have a comparison with different systems on the same hardware if you would like. Just let me know in details what you want me to do.

I can even change the wireless router’s security if that would help.

#8

On 01/12/2010 12:46 PM, dragonbite wrote:
> Seriously, it has been running better than the usual firmware for me.
>
> With the usual firmware, the connection strength keeps moving up and
> down, though usually stays connected.
>
> With OpenFWWF it doesn’t fluctuate as much.
>
> Disclaimer: I am going by the strength indicator in OS, not some real,
> validation.

That is total fiction - I wrote a lot of the code that passes that signal
through to the upper layers. The only way to test the connection is via data
throughput. As most driver/card combinations are faster than the external link,
you also need a local server running iperf or tcpperf.

> I know with Ubuntu 9.04 there was something going on with the kernel
> that was making Broadcom wireless to drop off frequently. I haven’t seen
> that with 9.10 and OpenFWWF has never dropped me yet (knock on wood)

You are comparing different kernels. The driver is better with time.

> I’ve used Skype with it, but since I’ve had issues with my webcam being
> connected to Skype in all except Windows, I don’t know if I would count
> that as tested well enough yet.

If you were running a full upload while trying to use Skype or any other VOIP
application, you would experience delays. With the openfwwf, all transmits use a
single hardware queue, whereas the proprietary firmware uses all 4 of the
hardware queues with the high-priority one reserved for time-critical applications.

> Now, I am thinking of setting up a dual-boot Windows XP and openSUSE
> (currently do not have openSUSE on this particular machine with the
> Broadcom). While I doubt it, hopefully the webcam works better with
> openSUSE than it has with the other systems.
>
> If there are any tests you want me to run, let me know. I’m using a
> Dell Latitude D400 and I have multiple hard drive trays. So with the
> same exact equipment, I can run a test with one system (like Ubuntu or
> openSUSE) and then pull out that hard drive and swap it (like a game
> cartridge) with the Fedora 12 and OpenFWWF and run the same tests so you
> can have a comparison with different systems on the same hardware if you
> would like. Just let me know in details what you want me to do.
>
> I can even change the wireless router’s security if that would help.

Thanks for the offer, but we have provided lots of driver dumps to the
open-firmware group. They are still looking for the bug.

#9

It is the b43 driver, not the b43-legacy.

I’ll be doing an openSUSE 11.2 Gnome)installation on that machine soon I hope (dual-boot with Windows XP), currently I have WinXP, Ubuntu 9.10 (b43) and Fedora 12 (OpenFWWF) on 3 hard drives (in the cases so I can swap one out and put another in very easily).

I’m just going by “touch and feel”, no hard facts.

#10

Good morning. I installed the b43 driver on openSUSE 11.2

**sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

syslog text

avahi-daemon[3754]: Server startup complete. Host name is linux-pj8b.local. Local service cookie is 3449050144.
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b ifup: wlan0 name: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b ifup-wireless: wlan0 starting wpa_supplicant
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.658080] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.669431] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b smartd[3848]: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], SMART Prefailure Attribute: 3 Spin_Up_Time changed from 189 to 188
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b smartd[3848]: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 104 to 103
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.682374] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b smartd[3848]: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], state written to /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.WDC_WD1200VE_22KWT0-WD_WXEX06479986.ata.state
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b smartd[4121]: smartd has fork()ed into background mode. New PID=4121.
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.709943] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.848087] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.890155] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.890713] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.891149] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
Jan 16 07:25:16 linux-pj8b kernel: 49.913439] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Jan 16 07:25:17 linux-pj8b /usr/sbin/cron[4207]: (CRON) STARTUP (V5.0)
Jan 16 07:25:17 linux-pj8b avahi-daemon[3754]: Service “linux-pj8b” (/etc/avahi/services/ssh.service) successfully established.
Jan 16 07:25:17 linux-pj8b avahi-daemon[3754]: Service “SFTP File Transfer on linux-pj8b” (/etc/avahi/services/sftp-ssh.service) successfully established.
Jan 16 07:25:18 linux-pj8b ifup-dhcp: wlan0 Starting DHCP4 client
Jan 16 07:25:18 linux-pj8b dhcpcd[4256]: wlan0: dhcpcd 3.2.3 starting
Jan 16 07:25:18 linux-pj8b dhcpcd[4256]: wlan0: hardware address = 00:1a:73:28:01:50
Jan 16 07:25:18 linux-pj8b dhcpcd[4256]: wlan0: broadcasting for a lease
Jan 16 07:25:18 linux-pj8b ifup-dhcp: .
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.446571] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1c:10:49:91:0a
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.448153] wlan0: authenticated
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.448161] wlan0: associate with AP 00:1c:10:49:91:0a
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.450384] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1c:10:49:91:0a (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.450394] wlan0: associated
Jan 16 07:25:19 linux-pj8b kernel: 52.452196] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
Jan 16 07:25:20

There is no access to the Internet through the browser
**

#11

Does ifconfig show any IP address, wlan0 or wlan1 probably?

#12

linux-pj8b:/home/craven # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:B8:D3:8E:D7
inet addr:192.168.1.101 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:12271 (11.9 Kb) TX bytes:12271 (11.9 Kb)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1A:73:28:01:50
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21a:73ff:fe28:150/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:26 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:26 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:9119 (8.9 Kb) TX bytes:6085 (5.9 Kb)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-1A-73-28-01-50-32-38-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP RUNNING MTU:0 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

#13

So it looks like you have an IP address, so you’re getting somewhere to get that IP .The router most likely, unless you’ve set up your own server(s).

That makes it sound less like your wireless and more like something between your router (passing your requests) and the internet.

Do you have internet access when wired?

#14

Yes I am currently plugged into my CISCO linksys wireless router to my laptop that has openSUSE 11.2 installed. I also have a desktop that is always plugged into the same router running Fedora 10. I use the wired ethernet connection to continue my post install work until I can get the wireless connection to work.

#15

When I set up wireless network card in YAST, I noticed that I did not have the WPA-personal choice - so I used WPA-PSK (WPA version 1 or 2).I was able to supply the passphrase key but I did not find where I supplied the encryption of TKIP?

#16

I should have mentioned that I did a SCAN NETWORK & found my router ESSID - so I knew I was getting to my router without a wire connection - i.e. I was going wireless

#17

On 01/17/2010 08:16 AM, lcraven wrote:
>
> When I set up wireless network card in YAST, I noticed that I did not
> have the WPA-personal choice - so I used WPA-PSK (WPA version 1 or 2).I
> was able to supply the passphrase key but I did not find where I
> supplied the encryption of TKIP?

WPA-PSK IS TKIP.

#18

Thanks for the feedback

#19

I have a laptop with the BCM4311 chipset. I have used it successfully with WEP secured networks, but am not sure about WPA. I installed it with this guide (minus compiling a new kernel): Get the Broadcom BCM4311 to work in Linux (My Random Blog)

#20

Good morning & thanks for your note. My radio light IS on & when I was defining the wireless network card configuration in YAST, I pushed the Scan Network button & my ESSID for my CISCO LINKSYS wireless router appeared in the Network Name (ESSID) - i.e. my laptop DID reach my wireless router. My point is that I am going wireless but any address I put in my browser does not work.