bcm4309 terrible throughput/performance

ken_z · #1 2nd February 2009, 07:44 PM

Hi,

I have searched prior posts/faqs and hae been unable to find a solution to my problem
with poor performance and a bcm4309 wireless card.

I have a dell d600 with built in true mobile 1400 (bcm4309). The laptop is configured to dual
boot winxp or fedora 10. when winxp is used wireless performance is great. so i am assuming
the hardware is OK.

uname -a
Linux dilligas 2.6.27.9-159.fc10.i686 #1 SMP Tue Dec 16 15:12:04 EST 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

The card is:
lspci
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g (rev 02)

seeing as it's rev02, I am using b43legacy from:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...3#fw-b43legacy

Also running wpa_supplicant (wpa_supplicant-0.6.4-2.fc10.i386).

I can connect just fine, but web browsing, etc is horrible. iwscan gives me:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"XXX"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:B5:AE:47:A0
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality=90/100 Signal level:-43 dBm Noise level=-69 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

forcing the rate higher does not work.

I am also assuming my networking is setup OK, since if I install a Belkin F5D701 pcmcia card with:
lspci
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

this card is using b43 driver from the same place I got the b43legacy driver.

I get much better performance:

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"XXX"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:B5:AE:47:A0
Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality=65/100 Signal level:-49 dBm Noise level=-69 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Even better yet installing a netgear wg511t with atheros 5212:
lspci

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

gives me good performance
wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"XXX"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:B5:AE:47:A0
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality=75/100 Signal level:-37 dBm Noise level=-85 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

I swapped out the cards as I was entering this, so distance from the wireless router, etc
has remained constant.

I would really like to get te bcm4309 running as well as the netgear card. I borrowed the
two pcmcia cards for testing.

thoughts/comments/etc are appreciated.

thanks
ken

stoat · #2 3rd February 2009, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken_z

seeing as it's rev02, I am using b43legacy from:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...3#fw-b43legacy

Hello ken_z,

Okay.

First, I'm not convinced that the revision number that you see for your wireless card in the lspci report is its MAC core revision number. Maybe it is. I'm just not convinced of that yet.

Second, I currently use b43 and firmware extracted from wl_apsta_mimo.o in the latest Broadcom tarball version at openwrt.org for the following wireless card with a BCM4306 chipset...

02:04.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

Third, before Fedora 7 there was no b43. Back then I used bcm43xx and that same old driver file of yours for the firmware for that same old BCM4306 wireless card above. All was good. Then came Fedora 7 and b43. I had no choice but to move up the b43 because bcm43xx went away. I also started using the later versions of the Broadcom driver file from openwrt.org. Guess what. It all worked fine (and still does right now). See what I'm getting at?

So why not just try the firmware extracted from wl_apsta_mimo.o in the current Broadcom driver tarball instead of that old wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o file? Maybe it will help your situation regarding the rate. Anyway, it won't hurt a thing. Even Linux Wireless says to install both (b43legacy and b43 and their firmware if you're not sure) because the kernel will do the right thing (read it again for yourself). It does no harm to extract both sets of firmware files. Besides, all b43-fwcutter does is extract the firmware files to the directory /lib/firmware/b43. If my idea doesn't work or help, then simply clear out that folder and re-extract the firmware from your old file again. No harm done to try.

No promises, of course. It was just an idea for you to consider. Anyway, you should do whatever you want.

P.S.: My BCM4306 card (the same old card above that used to work with your old driver file and bcm43xx) works perfectly these days with b43 and wl_apsta_mimo.o. Example iwconfig at 60 feet and four walls away from the router:

Code:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"go_away"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:12:17:C9:C3:06   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/100  Signal level:-64 dBm  Noise level=-72 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

P.P.S.:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken_z

forcing the rate higher does not work

If that means you are doing things in the old Network Configuration utility (system-config-network), then I recommend that you stop it and use only NetworkManager (unless you have some good reason to continue to use that). I no longer use the Network Configuration utility for anything. I have no wireless connection established in that. I have no file named /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/wlan0. And while I'm at it, I'll mention that I no longer create a wpa_supplicant.conf file or have any entries in /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant. NetworkManager will handle all of that. Sometimes all of that stuff can even impede NetworkManager from doing it's job.

ken_z · #3 3rd February 2009, 05:58 AM

Hi,

Appreciate the response.

Actually I had already installed/extracted via b43-fwcutter /lib/firmware/b43 and b43legacy.
I initially only had b43 and the wireless card was not working. dmesg told me the 4309 wanted
b43legacy.

here is a snippit from the last reboot: I am letting the kernel choose :-)

[root@dilligas ken]# dmesg|grep b43
b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
b43legacy-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 1, Type 2, Revision 1
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Radio initialized
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Ignoring unconnected 802.11 core
input: b43legacy-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input10
firmware: requesting b43legacy/ucode4.fw
firmware: requesting b43legacy/pcm4.fw
firmware: requesting b43legacy/b0g0initvals2.fw
b43legacy-phy0: Loading firmware version 0x127, patch level 14 (2005-04-18 02:36:27)
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
b43legacy-phy0 debug: 30-bit DMA initialized
Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:tx
Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:rx
Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:radio
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
b43legacy-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2

plugging in the belkin card the kernel chooses b43.

I was attempting to force the rate via iwconfig, ie iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M,

also tried service dnsmasq start afer creating the proper files in /etc according to the faq.
still slow browsing. ipv6 is off in firefox and the system. still slow.

upgraded to latest kernel Linux dilligas 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686 still slow.

oh well.

I have no doubt your card is working fine, but it appears to be a different rev.

again. i do appreciate the response.

thanks
ken

stoat · #4 3rd February 2009, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken_z

I have no doubt your card is working fine, but it appears to be a different rev

Well, it's also not the same chipset either. But to me, the analogy between our two situations was valid enough to try it anyway. I would also try it with only b43 by blacklisting b43legacy. And use the lastest Broadcom driver, too. Again, it won't hurt anything to try. Try ndiswrapper and the card's XP driver (or W2K, or W98) from its CD, the Internet, or your Windows system folders. My BCM4306 cards work just as well with ndiswrapper. I just happen to prefer b43.