Broadcom BCM94311MCG - please help

[progek]

Hello, all,

I installed Fedora 8 and am really enjoying it. I've been using Ubuntu since Breezy, but I would like a change. Everything is updated and working fine, except my wireless card. I tried this http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171660 and countless other threads with no success. When I initially ran the script from the link, my wireless light came on but scanning was failing. After I tried some other solutions the light went out again, and I have not been able to get it back on, so I'm sure that I screwed something up.

/sbin/lspci | grep Network
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)

/sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

I would appreciate your help.

[bbfuller]

Hello progek

I'm not an expert on the Dangermouse script that I assume you have run but I believe what it does requires one of the later Fedora kernels and not the kernel as installed.

Did you update your fedora installation before you attempted to install wireless?

[progek]

Hello, bbfuller,

Yes, I did a complete update before tinkering with my wireless card. It was something like 250 updates.

In case this helps:

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
driver bcmwl5 is already installed

ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: ssb)

dmesg | grep wlan0
wlan0: ethernet device 00:1a:73:10:fd:89 using NDIS driver: bcmwl5, version: 0x4640f05, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter', 14E4:4311.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready


I'm not sure why it states the link is not ready.

[bbfuller]

Hello progek

Can I assume that you ran this script from this window in the first post:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171660

That will have installed the b43 driver for controlling your 4311 card.

What you are showing me is the output from ndiswrapper which is an alternative method of controlling wireless cards.

Unfortunately, the two methods can conflict and require different parts to be "blacklisted" if you have them both in place on your computer.

Which did you try installing first?

[progek]

Yes, I believe the first attempt I made to get my wireless card working was following that first link I posted. I believe you are right, and I'm having some conflicts. Would that explain why the above script no longer works? I was trying so many solutions. I must have spent about three hours straight, so I probably have a big mess going on. Is there an easy way of resetting my configuration? Perhaps removing ndiswrapper and editing files that have blacklisted anything? I appreciate the help.

EDIT::

in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

blacklist b43
blacklist bcm43xx

[bbfuller]

Hello progek

If you have those two drivers blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist then you may well be part of the way to getting ndiswrapper working.

Let's try that first.

ndiswrapper will probably need a line in:

/etc/modprobe.conf

reading:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

You don't say where you got the ndiswrapper program from by the way. ndiswrapper can be installed from source in which case I assume you have done all the:

modprobe ndiswrapper

and:

ndiswrapper -ma

part of the installation?

The best place to get ndiswrapper from for fedora is the livna third party repository. That way when the fedora kernel changes then the kernel module part of ndiswrapper gets updated as well. The other way you have to recompile ndiswrapper.

You may need to reboot to get that recognised. Now open:

Gnome System Menu - Administration - Network

highlight your wireless card and click "Edit".

Your card should NOT be set to "Activate device when computer starts", but, if it is an option it should be set to be "Controlled by NetworkManager".

Come out of that program.

If you have NetworkManager running in the notification area of the top Gnome Panel ignore the next step.

Open:

Gnome System Menu - Administration - Services

and activate NetworkManager. Set it to start at boot time.

Reboot the machine.

If we are lucky you will have wireless networks available in NM this time round.

If not, open a full root terminal window:

su -

to get that. The space and minus sign after the su are important. Without them you get root rights within your usual user environment, with them you get root rights over the whole machine.

Then if necessary run:

iwconfig

and:

iwlist wlan0 scan

If the card is not wlan0 in the first command then substitute what it is in the second command. Copy and paste back the results.

[progek]

Hi, bbfuller,

Thanks for that. I think I am a bit closer. The light is not on, but now iwconfig shows more information then it did before. Here is the output:


iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.




iwlist wlan1 scan
wlan1 Interface doesn't support scanning.


EDIT: Sorry, wrong one:


iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results


Here is information on ndiswrapper:


ndiswrapper -v
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.24.3-50.fc8/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
version: 1.51
vermagic: 2.6.24.3-50.fc8 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS


I tried compiling it, and also grabbing it from livna.


I found these lines in /etc/modprob.conf


alias wlan0 b43
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

[archo]

I've got the same chip, and I have gotten it working with ndiswrapper in the past, but with the recent kernels, I have found it easier (but not easy) to get working using the b43 module built into the kernel. I posted some details in this thread (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showpost.php?p=980373&postcount=111). Regardless of whether you use ndiswrapper or the b43 module, you still need to deal with the fact that the firmware for the broadcom chips needs to be extracted and placed in /lib/firmware.

[bbfuller]

Hello progek

I'm going to disagree with archo here. With ndiswrapper you don't need to do anything to put files in /lib/firmware. That's only necessary with the b43 driver.

In any event, as you have tried installing both the b43 and ndiswrapper you will have the firmware in /lib/firmware so that's not an issue.

I suggest that you remove the line alias wlan0 b43 in /etc/modprobe.conf and check your configuration again in the Gnome Menu - System - Administration - Network.

If that doesn't work then we might try the b43 driver.

Problem can be when you have tried several ways of getting wireless going you have leftovers from the previous attempts that mess with all future attempts.

The 4311 should work with one driver or another, I've got a 4306 and a 4318 working OK and I've talked with others who have the 4311 running.

You might be looking at a fresh install to give yourself the best chance.

[archo]

bbfuller is right! I misspoke: with ndiswrapper, the firmware (the windows driver files, actually) get placed in /etc/ndiswrapper, not /lib/firmware. At any rate you don't have to worry because 'ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf' puts it there for you.

Anyway, ndiswrapper is harder to get working with the newer kernels because it conflicts with the ssb module.

You don't want the b43 module loaded if you are using ndiswrapper. You'll need to put it in the blacklist and get it out of your modprobe.conf file.

Run the command ndiswrapper -l to see what you get as output. . If it lists an alternate driver ssb, then you need to rmmod ssb as well before you can load ndiswrapper. In my case I also had to rmmod b44 (the module for the wired ethernet adapter chip) before I could get ssb unloaded. It eventually boiled down to needing to follow this sequence:

/sbin/rmmod b44
/sbin/rmmod ssb
/sbin/rmmod ohci_hcd
/sbin/rmmod ndiswrapper
/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

I think I was able to modprobe b44 after all this was done and get the wired ethernet working too, but I don't recall. Like I said before, I gave up on ndiswrapper and went with the b43 module instead,

[progek]

Thanks for the help. When I get home tonight I'm going to try the suggestions and will post the results.

[progek]

Thanks, but unfortunately the solutions did not work. I decided to reinstall Fedora 8 since I messed up the configuration so badly. At the moment, I am updating Fedora from a fresh install.

How should I go about setting up my wireless?

[Bslagowski]

I would use Dangermouse's script. I've found it's by far the easiest way. Not to mention it keeps you from polluting your system with Ndiswrapper. http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171660

[bbfuller]

Hello progek

There are three ways you can work towards your wireless connection.

The Dangermouse script which installs the necessary for the b43 built in driver.

b43 driver manually.

ndiswrapper.

Personally I'd take one of the b43 methods first. Which one you take depends on if you just want it to work or if you want to understand more about what is going on.

Reading the Dangermouse script and what it calls in though I believe you will need to have a fully updated system to give it best chance of working. The script accesses the internet to bring in the firmware required for the card and brings in firmware that became the recommended for the recent update of the b43-fwcutter program. I'm not sure how it would react to the earlier b43-fwcutter that you install from the original DVD.

The system update requirement would in any case apply if you were doing b43 manually. As I mentioned, I've a 4306 and a 4318 to experiment with and the 4318 worked from the beginning of Fedora 8, I only managed to get the 4306 running after the updates to b43 in January/February.

If you choose ndiswrapper, install it from Livna it's the most likely to work - and keep working - with Fedora.

All of that said, wireless can still be the very frontier of Linux. When it works it's brilliant, when it doesn't you just go round in circles.

Post back if there are any questions.

[Dangermouse]

Hi i just noticed this thread, the b43 cutter and firmware changed about a month ago, what firmware worked before doesnt work now with the new updates, the script will work wether you have a updated system or not, as it updates the b43-cutter to suit the new firmware, you should never need to blacklist any driver to get broadcom working, in the past you did but not now with the newer firmware etc, aslo
i always found it best to use b43 as it will work with any kernel update or if you need to boot to a previous kernel wireless will will still work, with ndiswrapper it only works for one kernel, hope this helps.
Dave

[progek]

Thanks everyone for your time in helping me out. I decided to go with dangermouse's script. Before I ran this script, the only changes I made after the update were installing the nvidia driver and livna repos. Here is the output from the script.

Before I ran this-> su -

[root@localhost erick]# sh dangermouse
Running Choice Menu...

Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Package wget - 1.10.2-16.fc8.i386 is already installed.
Nothing to do
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Package b43-fwcutter - 011-3.fc8.i386 is already installed.
Nothing to do
Setting up Update Process
Could not find update match for b43-fwcutter
No Packages marked for Update
--06:33:27-- http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
=> `broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2'
Resolving mirror2.openwrt.org... 88.198.39.176
Connecting to mirror2.openwrt.org|88.198.39.176|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3,888,794 (3.7M) [application/x-tar]

100%[====================================>] 3,888,794 720.16K/s ETA 00:00

06:33:37 (475.43 KB/s) - `broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2' saved [3888794/3888794]

This file is recognised as:
ID : FW13
filename : wl_apsta_mimo.o
version : 410.2160
MD5 : cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c
Extracting b43/pcm5.fw
Extracting b43/pcm4.fw
Extracting b43/ucode15.fw
Extracting b43/ucode14.fw
Extracting b43/ucode13.fw
Extracting b43/ucode11.fw
Extracting b43/ucode9.fw
Extracting b43/ucode5.fw
Extracting b43/ucode4.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals15.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals15.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals14.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals14.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/n0absinitvals11.fw
Extracting b43/n0bsinitvals11.fw
Extracting b43/n0initvals11.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals4.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals4.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals4.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals4.fw

################################################## ###########################
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
## ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED***ALL FINISHED##
################################################## ###########################




My wifi light is back on! But I cannot connect to anything.


/sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0




/sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results




I installed wifi-radar to see if it would show any access points. It will not show anything. If I try to manually connect via 'connect to other wireless networks', then the progress gets about 50% there but stops.

[Dangermouse]

Hi looks like its installed ok, a common thing that happens is check the wireless switch is on (Laptop) if you have
one.

[progek]

Hi, Dangermouse, the switch is on. I noticed that if I go to System->Administration->Network, my wireless does not show under the devices.