I have the very same problem with the b43 driver from OSuSE 12.1 (the OSuSE 12.1 wl driver does not work for my Dell Broadcom 4312 wireless card). Since the same Dell wireless card/laptop worked perfectly with Suse 11.2, it would seem to point to issues/bugs with OSuSE version of the b43 driver; the random instability I am experiencing came after the upgrade to SuSE 12.1, and I have also used the broadcom drivers from Packman, with no success (yet).
By “random instability”, I mean the following:
- My wlan SSID is sometimes but not always revealed by the NetworkManager scan. This applies to some neighbours’ wlans that are discovered during the scan, too. However, some SSIDs do always seem to appear (sadly not mine)!
- When my SSID does appear in the list of discovered SSIDs, clicking it in the NetworkManager application causes it to disappear with the message “[15313.539333] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 timed out”. (See below for dmesg output).
- When NetworkManager does manage to discover my SSID, it displays wildly varying Wlan strength (from 0-100%) even with the laptop next to the router.
- Connection to my SSID does very occasionally succeed. However, after the first network request (e.g. an external lookup for ftp/http etc) the connection stalls (no route even to the router) and then drops.
- NetworkManager occasionally (but not always) has problems “configuring” the Wlan0 interface
- If NetworkManager succeeds in configuring the wlan0 interface, it fails to get an IP address from the router.
- NetworkManager does not seem to be able to save/remember details of manually
NOTE: These problems are reproducable on other wireless networks, not just mine.
I could not get the wireless card to work either with the old wl driver or by configuring it in YaST with the traditional (ifup) method.
The card works flawlessly with Windows 7.
I would be very happy to hear about possible workarounds and/or updates to the drivers.
Best regards
Gee
Here is some additional information concerning the card, which as I say worked flawlessly with OSuSE 11.2 and is in the list of supported Broadcom chips on b43 - Linux Wireless.
# tamale:~ # lspci -nnk
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000c]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
#tamale:~ # dmesg | grep cfg802
14.464281] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
14.475720] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
14.485300] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
14.485304] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
14.485307] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
14.485310] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
14.485313] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
14.485316] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
14.485318] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
14.504034] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
14.504832] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
14.504852] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
14.504869] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
14.504885] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded Features: PMNLS, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]
tamale:~ # lsmod | grep b43
b43 363772 0
mac80211 332546 1 b43
cfg80211 210325 2 b43,mac80211
bcma 29583 1 b43
ssb 67780 1 b43
mmc_core 108074 2 b43,ssb
When NetworkManager fails in its attempt to configure the wlan0 interface when trying to connect to the SSID, dmesg displays the following information:
[15292.200725] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1/3)
[15292.400174] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 2/3)
[15292.599820] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 3/3)
[15292.799458] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 timed out
[15299.114965] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1/3)
[15299.314512] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 2/3)
[15299.514074] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 3/3)
[15299.713687] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 timed out
[15306.028346] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1/3)
[15306.227817] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 2/3)
[15306.427414] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 3/3)
[15306.627027] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 timed out
[15312.940603] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1/3)
[15313.140162] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 2/3)
[15313.339693] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 3/3)
[15313.539333] wlan0: direct probe to c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 timed out
Successfull wlan connection (dmesg):
482.838290] r8169 0000:05:00.0: eth0: link up
482.838813] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
499.679540] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=b8:ac:6f:54:cf:88:c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88:08:00 SRC=192.168.1.1 DST=192.168.1.10 LEN=78 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=1957 DF PROTO=UDP SPT=1025 DPT=137 LEN=58
1080.185725] wlan0: authenticate with c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1)
1080.187531] wlan0: authenticated
1080.189436] wlan0: associate with c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (try 1)
1080.192123] wlan0: RX AssocResp from c0:3f:0e:7a:a0:88 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
1080.192127] wlan0: associated
1080.193959] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
1088.193802] martian source 255.255.255.255 from 192.168.1.101, on dev wlan0
1088.193807] ll header: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:00:24:21:dd:19:37:08:00
At least I can find out why NetworkManager is discarding “saved” settings, even if it does not help me with the core problem of network connectivity.