Kernel 2.6.25.9-40 breaks wireless networking

[mmiller2]

I have been running Fedora 8 on my Dell Inspiron 640m laptop which has a Broadcom 4311 wireless network card. Everything has been working fine for about a year now using the firmware files extracted using b43-fwcutter. However, the latest kernel update seems to have borked my ability to connect to a wireless network that uses WPA-PSK encryption. I was able to connect to an open network - courtesy of my neighbor - lol. Any help on patching this kernel or updating my wpa-supplicant would be greatly appreciated.

[bbfuller]

Hello mmiller2

Welcome to the forum.

You might check:

dmesg | grep b43

on your machine.

The last time I looked it said that the firmware cut with the 008 b43-fwcutter would soon not work with the newer b43 driver.

I believe it indicated a source for the new firmware but I'm not on a broadcom machine at the moment to check.

Post back if you need more details.

It might just be a problem with the particular kernel of course, have you checked by booting the previous kernel from the grub boot menu?

[giulianobr]

this issue is occurring with my Dell Vostro 1000. My solution is use the old kernel.

[mmiller2]

I upgraded to the latest (version 4 firmware) - the broadcom 4311 still doesn't work with WPA-PSK. It works fine with the old kernel, but that's not really a solution to this problem.

[bbfuller]

Hello mmiller2

Fedora updates its kernels frequently and breaks wireless now and again.

If your machine works with the earlier kernel probably easiest to set the old kernel to be the boot default and wait for a new one.

The other choice is to go looking in updates-testing and see if there is a newer kernel that doesn't exhibt the problem.

Before you tried that though it would be best to set yum to retain more than the two kernels that is default or you risk loosing the one that is working now.

[maladeus]

Also breaks iwl4965 :( Is there a bugzilla for this?

[soggyoreo]

I can confirm this as well

Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) = no workie

[hyperspace]

Doesn't happen to all of us. My 3945 works fine.

[soggyoreo]

Forgive me, my wired connection is working I simply gave the wrong one.

[hyperspace]

To anyone having problems with the new kernel in this thread, are you using DHCP or static?

[mmiller2]

I am able to use both DHCP and static, so long as the network isn't using WPA-PSK encryption. Once WPA-PSK encryption is turned on - neither works.

[Kamisamanou]

I am able to use both DHCP and static, so long as the network isn't using WPA-PSK encryption. Once WPA-PSK encryption is turned on - neither works.

I second that. I've switched back to 2.6.25.6-27.fc8 kernel.(Well, I switch to it at boot)

[bbfuller]

Hello Kamisamanou

It is also possible to set that kernel to be the default at boot time if you wish to save selecting it each time.

Also, with one non-wireless kernel on your system, if the next one is broken also, Fedora will have deleted the only one that works in the update process.

It is also possible to set Fedora to retain more than the two kernels on the system and a lot of people do that.

If you want any pointers to doing that, post back.

[hyperspace]

Have either of you considered going with a newer kernel from the koji web site?

kernel-2.6.25.10-85.fc9.i686 from http://koji.fedoraproject.org

Information from this thread seems to indicate that using the kernel listed above, will correct the WPA issue.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=193296&page=1&pp=15&highlight=koji

[Kamisamanou]

Hello Kamisamanou

It is also possible to set that kernel to be the default at boot time if you wish to save selecting it each time.

Also, with one non-wireless kernel on your system, if the next one is broken also, Fedora will have deleted the only one that works in the update process.

It is also possible to set Fedora to retain more than the two kernels on the system and a lot of people do that.

If you want any pointers to doing that, post back.

Sure, I'd like to know how to set that one as default and to retain more than two.

[bbfuller]

Hello Kamisamanou

These behaviours are governed by a pair of files. As a normal user you won't be able to read either of them, let alone make changes to them. So you will need a root text editor.

In a terminal window:

su -

and then when you have given your root password:

gedit

Be careful from now on, if you make the wrong changes to these files you could make your system very difficult to recover.

Open the file "/boot/grub/menu.lst". In that you will see a line:

default=0

and below that a list of "titles" that represent the boot menu entries. Default of zero means the first entry, the second in the list would be one and so on. Edit the default line to your convenience.

Be aware that when you update a kernel, if you have set the default entry to other than 0 you can end up with odd default booting behaviour or that the entry may be set back to 0 automatically. I've been spelling out the values for clarity. The entry after "default=" is numeric.

The default for the number of kernels is in "/etc/yum.conf". There is a line in that:

installonly_limit=2

Change the "2" to whatever figure you need.

[mmiller2]

The koji kernel that I tried - kernel-2.6.25.10-43.fc8.i686.rpm exhibited the same problem. Also, after today's round of updates, NetworkManager seems to be kind of flakey. It is ignoring my default wireless access point and asking for the passphrase for another. When I click cancel, it connects to the default. Is it just me, or are the Fedora updates not being tested as thoroughly as the have been in the past? I've never had this many issues on 2 consecutive updates and I've been running Fedora/RedHat since 2000.