Broadcom4315 with broadcom-sta [SOLVED]

3igHankCh0w · Last edited by 3igHankCh0w on Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:33 pm; edited 2 times in total

I have just come into possession of a Dell M1730 with Dell(Broadcom 4315) wireless at first I tried b43-fwcutter because of the info
I was reading from lspci and also other info during a fresh install of gentoo (laptop previously had you know what on it M$) I then found the
information on broadcom-sta and emerged it. I now have working wireless but cannot connect with my wireless DSL access point the wireless adaptor can spot the network SSID but does not seem to pass the psk. I am using wpa_supplicant with WPA level security
it works on my other 2 laptops an HP with a broadcom 4311 using b43-fwcutter and an old compaq armada E500 with with an AirLink 101
usb wireless dongle using ndsiwrapper both use wpa_supplicant and wireless is working fine any help would be appreciated thanks to all
who look and I hope you all have a good day.
_________________
And to think my decision to get a degree in computer science started
because I wanted to build a robot to chase the cats around the house.

d2_racing · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:49 pm Post subject:

Hi, can you post this :

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:

If you want to use broadcom-sta, you have to not set up the b43 module, or the ssb module. Depending on the kernel version broadcom-sta works, or doesn't. If you are using kernel version >=.29, broadcom-sta will be buggy.

Your best bet is to set up the b43 module and be done with it.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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3igHankCh0w · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject:

I believe what you want from lspci -n is 0c:00.0 0280: 14e4:4315 (rev 01) I hope. The output of ifconfig does not show the wireless card though I can see the little blue light is on and the out put of iwconfig show this for the wireless
eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received

after I run wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ieth1-c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf I get this when I run iwconfig

eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"2WIRE437" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:18:3F:64:1B:31
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received

and my wireless appears when I run ifconfig -a

I appologize for not supplying more information but I still do not know how to output the command line data to a file ( I know I'm a GUI cripple )
if you could help with the bash command I will get you more detailed info

Also my wpa_supplicant.conf file

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
#ap_scan=0
ap_scan=1
#ap_scan=2
fast_reauth=1

network={
ssid="2WIRE437"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
#group=TKIP
psk="SecretPassCodeTenDigits"
this may be where I made my big mistake I ran wpa passphrase and got this really big number
#psk=d4d7baf7395b9b7ba23fba88e892fe49f12e47a764699cbbbcf809f22286aa47
priority=2
}

#network={
# key_mgmt=NONE
# priority=-9999999999999
#}

# End of /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

And for pappy_mcfae I have wireless working on my HP laptop but the card on my Dell XPS is a 4315 which I was led to believe was not supported by b43 or ndsiwrapper if this is wrong let me know also I am useing kernel-2.6.30-gentoo-r4 I removed b43 from my kernel but I believe
I have ssb I will look and post later Thanks to both of you for your help it is appreciated.
_________________
And to think my decision to get a degree in computer science started
because I wanted to build a robot to chase the cats around the house.

d2_racing · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:18 pm Post subject:

Weird in fact, that's not wlan0.

Can you post this :

3igHankCh0w · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject:

d2_racing here are the files you requested

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules:

# This file was automatically generated by the /lib64/udev/write_net_rules
# program, run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single
# line, and change only the value of the NAME= key.

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x1672 (tg3)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:21:9b:dc:ab:5f", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x4315 (wl)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:23:4d:36:f5:2f", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# cat /etc/conf.d/net:

# This blank configuration will automatically use DHCP for any net.*
# scripts in /etc/init.d. To create a more complete configuration,
# please review /etc/conf.d/net.example and save your configuration
# in /etc/conf.d/net (this file :]!).

# For wpa_supplicant
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_eth1="-Dwext"
dhcpcd_eth1="-t 10"

# End of /etc/conf.d/net
_________________
And to think my decision to get a degree in computer science started
because I wanted to build a robot to chase the cats around the house.

d2_racing · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:41 pm Post subject:

I tought that the new driver would still use the wlan0 and wmaster0 standard.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:26 am Post subject:

Actually, let me rephrase that. I've been acid testing the broadcom-sta on this machine all day. It's running with a 2.6.30-zen4 kernel, and the only issue I had is I forgot to turn off the ssb module. Things still worked, but it was herky-jerky. NFS refused to start until I started Firefox.

That's all fixed now. I have it running just fine. Speed is good, and it hasn't tried to throw a kernel panic as of yet. That's really good because the last time I tried it, it would kernel panic if I scanned via wpa_supplicant's GUI. It is faster than the b43 driver as well.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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vincent- · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:05 am Post subject:

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject:

You should post the settings that you need to enable the driver just in case, someone wants to use this driver instead of the B43.

vincent- · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:24 pm Post subject:

Ok, I'll do it in few minutes. I use this driver in my laptop and now I'm in my house, sorry

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject:

No problem

3igHankCh0w · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:32 pm Post subject:

I have just been successful in making my wireless connection I disabled ssb as pappy_mcfae suggested in his post and I now have a working wireless connection that I am useing to post this reply I would like to thank everyone for their help and I would like to add this is why I have stuck with gentoo
over the past few years because of the great community of users that are eager to help again I disabled the loading of the ssb module in my /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 file rebooted disconnected my eth0 wired connection brought up my wireless connection with
the command : wpa_supplicant -b -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -ieth1 -Dwext
Then the command : dhcpcd eth1
and success a wireless connection now all that is left is to get it to start at boot but that is for later again thank you all
_________________
And to think my decision to get a degree in computer science started
because I wanted to build a robot to chase the cats around the house.

vincent- · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:42 pm Post subject:

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject:

And then you installed the net-wireless/broadcom-sta package.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject:

Yes, once you get the proper kernel settings, it's a simple emerge -av broadcom-sta. As long as you are running ~arch, or if you keyword unmask it, you should get the latest version, which has been working fairly well for it's second day under testing.

However, you don't need to have the mac80211 option set on the kernel. Because of the nature of the broadcom-sta, all you need is the basic wireless settings (everything above the mac80211 option).

I believe that there are different kernel settings for older kernels. I haven't had a chance to test that theory yet. However, it is on my list of things to do for the day. I'll see what I can see, and report back here.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:36 pm Post subject:

Yes, I was right. There are two different needed settings, depending upon the kernel version against which you plan to compile broadcom-sta. If you are using a .28 kernel, or lower, you want to set the following in the kernel:

vincent- · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:02 am Post subject:

Thank you, I will change it.

d2_racing · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:34 am Post subject:

@Pappy, are you sure about that : <*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (DEPRECATED)

That driver use the old stack for IEEE 802.11, that's weird because I think that the last driver that used that option was ipw2200.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:55 pm Post subject:

Yes, I am sure. I set up the kernel incorrectly, and kept adding options until broadcom-sta compiled. The kernel settings I offered are the bare minimum. The bits I show are entirely correct.

Never let it be said that Broadcom has been cooperative with or sensitive of the needs and whiles the Linux community. If they had, they would have known that those settings were destined to be deleted. That's why the broadcom-sta ebuild patches any kernel greater than or equal to 2.6.29; the kernel which did delete that stuff.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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d2_racing · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:39 pm Post subject:

So if you use a kernel 2.6.30 or higher, then you need to use the b43 driver then.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:39 am Post subject:

Not at all. I'm using 2.6.30-zen4 with broadcom-sta. They finally got the patch to work properly, so that is no longer an issue. The ebuild detects the kernel version and patches, if need be.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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d2_racing · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:07 pm Post subject:

Nice

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:33 pm Post subject:

Yes, it is. I've changed to broadcom-sta because it's faster. Who'd have thunk it?

Blessed be!
Pappy
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wormite · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2010 Posts: 19

Interesting discussion, as of now, 2.6.31 has cut out the support of old net_device. The broadcom-sta kernel module around 5.10.XX won't be compiled anymore.
It seems that the driver has serious problem with supporting the 802.11n card. Resulting in disconnection of the card from TKIP setup modules from time to time.
I looked into the kernel module source, compared the 5.10.xx with 5.60.xx, they changed several places regarding net_device and TKIP broadcasting, but not too much,
and obviously the new one does not work very well with the tkip in 802.11n card.
I'll test the wl.ko of my patched 5.10.xx and 5.60.xx on the kernel 2.6.31 and get back.
I don't know how the ubuntu people got around this, the 5.10.xx was able to be compiled on their distributed 2.6.31 kernel, it has been working for me. But once you use
the typical home wlan with TKIP encryption, it hangs every several minutes.

It's all about the linux driver support, funny news is, the iPad, iPod and Nexus are getting the same problems since they are using Broadcom4329. Haha.
Steve Jobs got someone to talk to now.