Broadcom BCM4328 and ndiswrapper

[tristanlee85]

I am currently using the Fedora 11 64-bit preview and I'm having some troubles getting my wireless to be displayed.

Everything seemed to go fairly successful. I'm using ndiswrapper 1.54 and a Broadcom BCM4328 on my HP dv9000 (dv9904ca).

First, I install the wireless driver:

[root@localhost tristan]# ndiswrapper -i Download/sp41675/bcmwl6.inf 
installing bcmwl6 ...
[root@localhost tristan]#

Now I add the alias:

[root@localhost tristan]# ndiswrapper -m
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper ...
[root@localhost tristan]#

Using 'lspci' I can see my device is listed:

[root@localhost tristan]# lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 ISA Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP67 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Co-processor (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP67 IDE Controller (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP67 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP67 AHCI Controller (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7150M (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
02:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
02:05.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
02:05.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
02:05.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
02:05.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
[root@localhost tristan]#

Looking at my devices using ndiswrapper I can see my driver has been installed and the device is present:

[root@localhost tristan]# ndiswrapper -l
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, it will be ignored in a future release.
bcmwl6 : driver installed
	device (14E4:4328) present (alternate driver: ssb)
[root@localhost tristan]#

Then I run the following:

[root@localhost tristan]# modprobe ndiswrapper
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, it will be ignored in a future release.
[root@localhost tristan]#

Lastly, I look for my wireless device using 'iwlist scanning' and low and behold, my device isn't there:

[root@localhost tristan]# iwlist scanning
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

pan0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

[root@localhost tristan]#

I've read for about 3 hours last night (mainly following instructions for Ubuntu) and I can't figure this out.

Any ideas?

[reed9]

Broadcom has a proprietary linux driver that works with this card. It's available in the rpmfusion repository.

To enable in Fedora 11

su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-rawhide.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-rawhide.noarch.rpm'

Then

su -
yum install broadcom-wl

You would of course need a temporary wired connection for this.

RPM installation of Broadcom 802.11 STA wireless driver in Fedora 8/9/10 | cenolan.com

[tristanlee85]

Unbelievable... 3 hours of ndiswrapper and 3 minutes of your information and it works. Haha. It seems to work well in KDE, but I'm unable to get the wireless to work in Gnome. It can see wireless networks, just doesn't connect. Now, once I figure out how to simulate a mouse click when tapping the touch pad I'll be using KDE forever.

Thanks again!

[reed9]

Now, once I figure out how to simulate a mouse click when tapping the touch pad I'll be using KDE forever.

Hmm, I'm not so familiar with Fedora, but my impression was that it's pretty good with configuring touchpads.

Anyway, the newer xorg uses input hotplugging with HAL. So to alter settings, create a HAL policy file at /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi with your desired options.

A very basic file would look like

<match key="info.product" contains="Synaptics TouchPad">
  <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.AlwaysCore" type="string">true</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">2</merge>
  <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">3</merge>
</match>

Assuming you have SHMconfig turned on, you can use synclient to help troubleshoot problems.

To turn on, create a HAL policy at /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
 <match key="input.x11_driver" string="synaptics">
  <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">True</merge>
 </match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

Use

synclient -m 100

and you'll see as you touch your touchpad, what is registering, number of fingers, taps, etc.

EDIT: With SHMconfig on, you can also use GUI programs like gsynaptics, GPointingDeviceSettings, or ksynaptics to do some configuration.

[tristanlee85]

Very cool. You've been a great help. I'm waiting for the official Fedora 11 release before modifying anything else. At least I know all my hardware works with Fedora.