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Wifi problems - bcm4312


Urza9814
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Alright, I've got a Broadcom BCM4312 that I can't get working on Mandriva 2010. Worked great on 2009 Spring, but not anymore. The strange thing is, it works absolutely perfectly when I'm running from the LiveCD, but when I actually install to disk it doesn't. When I try to configure it, it says 'unable to find network interface for selected device (using wl driver).' It did randomly start working once, but after rebooting it failed again and hasn't worked since.

 

I've also attempted to use NDiswrapper instead of the wl driver, but it just says 'cannot connect to ndiswrapper interface' or something along those lines - I've done another (my fourth) fresh install since then, still no luck. Any suggestions? I just don't understand how it could work on the LiveCD but not on install. I have even tried unchecking the box during install that removes unused hardware support.

 

Here's (I believe) the relevant portions of /var/log/messages:

Jan 16 17:56:29 localhost net_applet[3088]: running: /usr/bin/draknetcenter
Jan 16 17:56:29 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: ### Program is starting ###
Jan 16 17:56:32 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: running: /bin/rpm -q --qf %{name}  wireless-tools
Jan 16 17:56:32 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: running: dmidecode
Jan 16 17:56:32 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: Found settings for driver "wl" in category "network::connection::wireless"
Jan 16 17:56:33 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: Required kernel_module package for module "wl" is already installed, skipping
Jan 16 17:56:33 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: No tools package for module "wl" is required, skipping
Jan 16 17:56:33 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: No firmware package for module "wl" is required, skipping
Jan 16 17:56:33 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: Loading module wl
Jan 16 17:56:33 localhost draknetcenter[5401]: Settings for driver "wl" applied
Jan 16 17:57:01 localhost CROND[5536]: (root) CMD (   /usr/share/msec/promisc_check.sh)

Edited by Urza9814
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Ok, one other addition - I seem to have figured out how to make it work, it's just a huge pain.

 

I set it up to use ndiswrapper, then I start the network manager and hit configure. It says it's currently being managed by ssb and asks if I want to switch to manage it with ndiswrapper. Before I click anything, I open up konsole and run:

rmmod b43
rmmod b44
rmmod ssb

Usually I have to attempt this several times, as b44 automatically restarts itself less than a second after it stops, and ssb can't be stopped if b44 is running. And sometimes after stopping ssb all three of them will restart. But anyway, if I do it just right, after stopping all three of those I can then hit 'yes' to have ndiswrapper manage my wifi card rather than ssb, and then it'll work. Usually. Sometimes it'll just time out trying to connect to networks and I have to reboot and go through all this again. I've tried blacklisting the b43, b44, and ssb modules, but that doesn't work - ndiswrapper still tells me my card is being managed by ssb, even though ssb is not running. Also, b44 is used for my wired card, so removing b44 causes me to then have no ethernet drivers - and I use those more than I use the wifi.

Edited by Urza9814
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Hi,

 

Have that wifi chip on a laptop here and just needed to install the broadcom-wl-kernel-desktop-latest package to get it working. Your /var/log/messages seems to suggest it's installed but the network config tool didn't install it automatically for me. So perhaps check it's actually installed and is the right version for your kernel. If you have installed it this isn't very helpful :)

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Thank you! It seems to be working, finally. I'm not sure if I had that package installed or not actually, as when I did 'latest' it upgraded my kernel (from 2.6.31.2 to 2.6.31.6) and installed for the newer kernel. It did get a bit screwy - it said it was disconnecting and reconnecting about 5 times when I first started the connection, but everything seems good right now.

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So it turns out I'm still having some trouble. Not _too_ terrible, but annoying. When I first boot up it gives me the same error. I run the following commands:

rmmod wl
rmmod b44
rmmod ssb
modprobe wl

 

And after that it works fine, and after a couple seconds ssb and b44 start back up, and everything's great. So it seems that wl won't start if ssb is already running, but as long as wl is started before ssb starts there isn't a problem. Anyone have any thoughts on why this is happening, or some way I could change the order that they start on boot and see if that fixes it?

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So it seems that wl won't start if ssb is already running, but as long as wl is started before ssb starts there isn't a problem.

 

Had a look at the laptop again and it's running wl & ssb (doesn't use b44) happily so I think b44 is your problem. b44 is for your ethernet card while ssb has something to do with pcmcia. b44 depends on ssb (modinfo b44 as root) so that might be your problem. Wouldn't know how to fix it but there's bound to be a way :)

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