[solved] BCM4352 wifi not working

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Edit - jump to my attempt to summarize, at the "bottom" of this thread -- https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8807393.html#8807393
Note however that there are many very useful resources suggested in posts below, by those who helped, particularly pietinger and pingtoo. Thanks again.

Original post 30 October 2023: I'm struggling with the bcm4352 wifi adapter built into an ASUS P97 Pro (WiFi ac) motherboard that I am currently converting from its former role as a Windows desktop to a new role as a gentoo box. I think this subject was covered (and evidently addressed successfully) by pranavpalliyil in this post a couple years ago, but I don't fully understand what the solution was...

usr99 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:42 pm Post subject:

EDITED

do you have the proprietary firmware files installed in modules folder?

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Hi, usr99. Like I said, I'm somewhat confused about references to "firmware" "kernel module" and "driver" and which of these comes from kernel settings vs emerging external packages...

The answer is "Yes," if you are talking about wl.ko

usr99 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:01 pm Post subject:

pietinger · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:16 pm Post subject:

brendlefly62,

Have you emerged package "net-wireless/broadcom-sta" ?

If not please do.

Have a configured in your kernel the Broadcom driver as <M>odule ?

If not please do.

The difference between firmware and kernel module is:

A kernel module is part of the kernel ... and can be an external module (you will find in /lib/modules) ... or it can be included in the kernel (when you configure a kernel option with <*>). Some of these modules are just driver-modules for some hardware. Yes, every driver is a module.

Some drivers / modules need an additional software from the manufactor - the firmware (you will find in /lib/firmware). Yes, every kernel module which needs a firmware MUST have access to /lib/firmware ... please read this short chapter: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Pietinger/Tutorials/Manual_kernel_configuration#Driver_needs_Firmware

P.S.: This link is outdated - please dont use it: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/b43#Supported_devices

pietinger · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:31 pm Post subject:

P.S. Kernel config ...

If you have enabled this (maybe also as <M>odule):

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Thanks, usr99 and pietinger. To clarify my current status, I re-started the broadcom-sta approach that had worked for pranavpalliyil. I also emerged b43-firmware.

Thank you pietinger, for the tutorial on kernel modules and drivers - it is excellent, and I will definitely study it further.

usr99 asked

pietinger · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:42 am Post subject:

brendlefly62,

maybe some informations you have read are outdated (please note that the thread of your first post: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1143777.html is two years old). Also this article: https://jimbob88.github.io/gentoo/broadcom_wifi_drivers.html is one year old (Kernel 5.16). If you read the <Help> of "Broadcom 43xx wireless support (mac80211 stack)" it says today (kernel 6.1):

usr99 · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 5:00 pm Post subject:

so, b43fwcutter is just a command line file extraction tool, you can remove it afterwardsand don't need it for wireless function.
you need the BCM4352 windows driver, which contains the firmware files, and extract these with fwcutter, then place them in modules dir.
and see what the output of the linux driver shows.
the linux driver uses the firmware files to function, that's how it works.
you said it's an ASUS, so look into the asus provided cd or their website if you can't find an original copy of the driver. or look into other oem like DeLL or others.
Or kindly ask Broadcom to provide either the windows drivers or the files, give them the serial number of the chip or card

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Thanks, pietinger. OK - I have rebuilt my kernel according to your advice --

pietinger · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2023 12:42 pm Post subject:

brendlefly62,

I would like to ask if you have extracted the files into /lib/firmware ? (*)

I ask because

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Hi, pietinger. Yes. According to b43-fwcutter, "-w" identifies the target directory. I checked in /lib/firmware/b43 -- and I found many files freshly extracted there. I also re-ran the procedure to verify these files came from fwcutter and not from net-wireless/b43-firmware...

pietinger · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 3:12 am Post subject:

It could be possible that the information for Broadcom in our https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Wi-Fi is incomplete. You have done a lot of research and probably know more than I do by now, so unfortunately I can only refer you to the Broadcom experts. I have found this information:

logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2683

Strange. Only a couple of years ago I was able to setup a very old bcm43xx adapter with b43legacy driver and b43-firmware. I don't remember any issues. This wl driver is listed as proprietary, doesn't provide AP or monitor modes and frankly there's no reason it should be used.

I'd suggest drop it altogether with any manually extracted firmware files and start from scratch with b43.

On another note, Arch Wiki suggests BRCMSMAC be enabled as well.

Best Regards,
Georgi

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Thanks for your help, pietinger; I learned a lot following your leads.

Thanks also, logrusx. I have just finished dropping the wl driver (net-wireless/broadcom-sta) and completely cleaned out /lib/firmware/b43 - then started from scratch with b43 as you suggest--

logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2683

pingtoo · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 10:14 pm Post subject:

brendlefly62,

You work intrinsic me, So I did some research on the topic of BCM4352.

First of all my compliment to your detail posts in this thread, they make research much easier.
And It seems to me there are too much noises that muddy this topic make it a bit of confusion.
Finally I believe your post is the right answer based on my research.

disclaimer, I am no expert in wireless setting and myself don't use wireless on my desktop computer.

My search start from "b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY" which lead me to https://askubuntu.com/questions/592191/error-during-startup-b43-phy0-unsupported-phy (please see the last answer)

IMHO it match your situation very well, so follow up and look into all the details where the reference to "broadcpm-wl" external kernel module. Which in turn lead to gentoo's net-wireless/broadcom-sta from there I look into what is difference between using "wext" vs "nl80211" so I think the reason your use of wpa_supplicant need -Dwext is because you miss enable "CONFIG_NL80211_TESTMODE=y", I am not sure if both CONFIG_NL80211_TESTMODE=y and CFG80211_WEXT can coexist, but my guess is they can, From the linux/net/wireless/Kconfig point of view.

I think the broadcom-sta by default not need any firmware so I suggest you remove all the firmware that you installed because the testing of b43 module

I suggest the approach for doing this,
1. clean up everything, so can start from scratch (I mean the portion about wireless, not rebuild entire gentoo)
2. configure kernel to only support broadcom-wl (more specific net-wireless/boradcom-sta)
3. keep the /etc/modprobe.d/wl.conf as is without comment out the wlan0 alias setting. The wlan0 name should be rename by udev rule to something more modern name

In summary your kernel configure should be at least,
CONFIG_B43=n
CONFIG_CFG80211=m
CONFIG_NL80211_TESTMODE=y
CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT=y (I am not sure if you need this if NL80211 enable lead to wpa_supplicant working without -Dwext)
CONFIG_LIB80211=m
CONFIG_LUB80211_CRYPT_*=m
CONFIG_MAC80211=m

See more detail in Gentoo wiki Wi-Fi
: broadcom-wl github source code here

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Hi, pingtoo. Because the b43 driver will not work with the bcm4352 and the broadcom-sta driver will not support access point (AP) mode, I have already moved on and completed my project after I installed a TP-Link PCIe wifi adapter that does support AP mode. That project is running smoothly. However, I still have the (unused) bcm4352 chip on the motherboard... So, I'm still interested, too - but my interest is now purely academic.

I agree - that post matches my situation quite closely. I have followed your direction and made a clean start with the broadcom-sta driver. I un-merged b43-firmware, b43legacy-firmware, b43-fwcutter, and inspected to verify that there is no /lib/firmware/b43 directory anymore.

logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2683

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Hi, logrusx. On this system, there are [51] files in /lib/firmware/brcm/ (no subdirectories). The files are all claimed by sys-kernel/linux-firmware...

pingtoo · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2023 8:22 pm Post subject:

brendlefly62,

Thank you for taking time to test out my suggestion.
Because I don't have the equipment I really don't have way to test my idea.
But I will share my research on this topic.

my objective are to figure out automate bcm4352 device boot sequence so it can work out of box.
There is no obligation to do anything because my post, this is just as you said, academic, just try to learn for fun

The NL80211_TESTMODE is something I too have some doubt. but from this article it seems to indicate NL80211 is necessary extension to support wifi configuration and NL80211_TESTMODE is the only CONFIG that reference to NL80211 so I assume that is the one that need to enable. So if the nl80211_testmode config is off and it is still working than leave it off.

I am not sure why eth3 name, according to the source code the name should be "wlan%d".

list of know facts:

wl is the correct module for BCM435
using wl can get IPv4 address but currently require manual work.
wpa_supplicant-2.8 work
no automatically load wl module after reboot

Confusing point

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Thanks pingtoo. Here are the results of further checks you requested ---

pingtoo · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2023 10:18 pm Post subject:

brendlefly62,

Thanks for testing.

I am sorry I did not made it clear, I am assuming wpa_supplicant always running from your rc setup. my assumption is because you have AP setup so I assume you need wpa_supplicant in order to setup AP.

wpa_cli work with wpa_supplicant. The -B option put wpa_supplicant in to daemon mode, so it will stay in the background establish link level connection.

Can you share following files so we can get in sync with how your system configuration,

/etc/conf.d/net
/etc/conf.d/wpa_supplicant
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf (please mask out sensitive data)

Did you place my post's appendix A:/etc/modprobe.d/wl.conf? If you did I expoect lib80211 and lib80211_crypt_tkip also will be loaded.

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

Hi, pingtoo. I have gone back to implement your Appendix A, with some success. More detail to follow. Meanwhile, on my system wpa_supplicant runs only after it is invoked by a wifi interface in sta mode, started by the rc system in default run level. That is not the case now because I have not added eth3 to rc-update (yet)

AP mode does not use wpa_supplicant; it uses hostapd

More to follow...

brendlefly62 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 156

pingtoo -- As mentioned, I went back, to implement your Appendix A