Fedora bcm 4311 ???

[buccaneere]

I been on this about 5 hours. I've tried to make sure no conflicts occurred in configuration combos, including restarting networking each config change. I've even read wireless chapter in my RHEL/FC8 Bible, and it is NO help.

Help?

Looks like the driver is not bein' used. Why could this be?

b43                   135521  0

What does this tell me?

b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 4, Type 2, Revision 9
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMLR, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]

kernel v. 2.6.26.8-57.fc8

[root@localhost ~]# dmesg|grep b43
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 4, Type 2, Revision 9
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
[root@localhost ~]#

[waterhead]

All Broadcom based wireless cards need to have fimware installed, if they use the b43 family of drivers. We should start by having you post all of the info on your wireless and system, so that there are no hidden problems. Read this thread, and provide the info that it tells how to find.

Wireless Setup - Start Here

The firmware can be a bit difficult to install in Fedora, until you understand it a bit. i see by your other post that you tried, but you had the wrong path to the file.

[root@localhost ~]# su -l -c 'b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /path/to/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o'
Cannot open input file /path/to/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o

You need to actually use the real path, not /path/to/broadcom-wl-etc. I will help you with this, but first post the info I asked for. I am especially interested in the output of this command.

dmesg | grep firmware

[buccaneere]

Thanks for takin' a look here Waterhead...

No return for dmesg | grep firmware command. ???

[chuckfc8@localhost ~]$ su -
Password: uname -r
[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep firmware
[root@localhost ~]# su
[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep firmware
[root@localhost ~]# exit
exit
[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep firmware
[root@localhost ~]# exit
logout

[chuckfc8@localhost ~]$ dmesg | grep firmware
[chuckfc8@localhost ~]$ su
Password: 
[root@localhost chuckfc8]# dmesg | grep firmware
[root@localhost chuckfc8]# su -
[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep firmware
[root@localhost ~]#

Since the firmware in installed and working for Ubuntu (this same machine), then it can be copied and pasted into FC10 here?

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/lspci -nn
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge [10de:02f0] (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 [10de:02fa] (rev a2)
00:00.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 [10de:02fe] (rev a2)
00:00.3 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 [10de:02f8] (rev a2)
00:00.4 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 [10de:02f9] (rev a2)
00:00.5 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge [10de:02ff] (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 [10de:027f] (rev a2)
00:00.7 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 [10de:027e] (rev a2)
00:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge [10de:02fc] (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge [10de:02fd] (rev a1)
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation C51 [Geforce 6150 Go] [10de:0244] (rev a2)
00:09.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge [10de:0270] (rev a2)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge [10de:0260] (rev a3)
00:0a.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus [10de:0264] (rev a3)
00:0a.3 Co-processor [0b40]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PMU [10de:0271] (rev a3)
00:0b.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller [10de:026d] (rev a3)
00:0b.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller [10de:026e] (rev a3)
00:0d.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE [10de:0265] (rev f1)
00:0e.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller [10de:0266] (rev f1)
00:0f.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller [10de:0267] (rev f1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge [10de:026f] (rev a2)
00:10.1 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio [10de:026c] (rev a2)
00:14.0 Bridge [0680]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller [10de:0269] (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI [14e4:4311] (rev 02)
07:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832]
07:05.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 19)
07:05.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller [1180:0843] (rev 0a)
07:05.3 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 05)
07:05.4 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller [1180:0852] (rev ff)
[root@localhost ~]#

Looks like I missed a few modules last night associated with the wireless card. It was quittin' time when I found your how-to there...

[root@localhost ~]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ext2                   60233  1 
fuse                   47837  6 
bridge                 45273  0 
bnep                   14657  2 
rfcomm                 32721  6 
l2cap                  21953  16 bnep,rfcomm
bluetooth              47013  5 bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
autofs4                20933  2 
sunrpc                154785  3 
nf_conntrack_ipv4      11849  2 
ipt_REJECT              6977  2 
iptable_filter          6849  1 
ip_tables              14033  1 iptable_filter
nf_conntrack_ipv6      16469  2 
xt_state                6209  4 
nf_conntrack           51221  3 nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_state
xt_tcpudp               6977  8 
ip6t_ipv6header         6209  2 
ip6t_REJECT             7617  2 
ip6table_filter         6593  1 
ip6_tables             15057  2 ip6t_ipv6header,ip6table_filter
x_tables               15557  7 ipt_REJECT,ip_tables,xt_state,xt_tcpudp,ip6t_ipv6header,ip6t_REJECT,ip6_tables
ipv6                  238405  22 nf_conntrack_ipv6,ip6t_REJECT
cpufreq_ondemand       10445  1 
powernow_k8            19269  1 
dm_mirror              19521  0 
dm_log                 12357  1 dm_mirror
dm_multipath           18505  0 
dm_mod                 48521  3 dm_mirror,dm_log,dm_multipath
snd_hda_intel         331001  2 
snd_seq_dummy           6853  0 
snd_seq_oss            29633  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      9921  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                44913  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          9933  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37441  0 
snd_mixer_oss          16705  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                61509  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
arc4                    5953  2 
snd_timer              21065  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         11337  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
ecb                     6849  2 
crypto_blkcipher       18373  1 ecb
sdhci                  17989  0 
b43                   135521  0 
video                  20817  0 
rfkill                 11481  1 b43
firewire_ohci          22469  0 
firewire_core          35553  1 firewire_ohci
snd_hwdep              10309  1 snd_hda_intel
crc_itu_t               6081  1 firewire_core
mmc_core               41565  1 sdhci
uvcvideo               50249  0 
compat_ioctl32          5313  1 uvcvideo
output                  6849  1 video
videodev               31425  1 uvcvideo
snd                    46437  13 snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore               9633  1 snd
mac80211              175669  1 b43
battery                12869  0 
cfg80211               25417  1 mac80211
input_polldev           7369  1 b43
wmi                     9961  0 
ricoh_mmc               7873  0 
k8temp                  8257  0 
i2c_nforce2             9793  0 
v4l1_compat            16325  2 uvcvideo,videodev
pcspkr                  6593  0 
joydev                 12673  0 
ac                      8005  0 
forcedeth              49745  0 
hwmon                   6493  1 k8temp
i2c_core               20949  1 i2c_nforce2
sg                     31605  0 
ssb                    37061  1 b43
sr_mod                 17541  0 
cdrom                  33249  1 sr_mod
pata_amd               13765  0 
pata_acpi               8001  0 
sata_nv                23501  6 
ata_generic             8773  0 
libata                132065  4 pata_amd,pata_acpi,sata_nv,ata_generic
sd_mod                 26329  8 
scsi_mod              123917  4 sg,sr_mod,libata,sd_mod
ext3                  110409  2 
jbd                    41045  1 ext3
mbcache                10309  2 ext2,ext3
uhci_hcd               22993  0 
ohci_hcd               22853  0 
ehci_hcd               32845  0 
[root@localhost ~]#

For dmesg info, I had to set the CLI window to 1000 lines/600k to capture all info. Is it possible to filter the request? Here's a little of it... (in reversed order 'segments')

b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 4, Type 2, Revision 9
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMLR, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]

forcedeth 0000:00:14.0: ifname eth0, PHY OUI 0x732 @ 1, addr 00:1b:24:47:7a:0e
forcedeth 0000:00:14.0: highdma pwrctl timirq lnktim desc-v3

dmesg
Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Linux version 2.6.26.8-57.fc8 (mockbuild@x86-3.fedora.phx.redhat.com) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)) #1 SMP Thu Dec 18 19:19:45 EST 2008

[buccaneere]

It's just gettin' uglier and uglier here...

[waterhead]

I wasn't aware of any packages available with the firmware. I looked in my Add/Remove Software application, and there they are! It looks like they are provided by the RPMFusion repository, so they should be good. If you have a lot of different repositories, that could be causing some problems. This is something that I'll have to look into.

If you just want to install the firmware, the manual way will still work. Here are some instructions:

b43 - Linux Wireless

You won't need to follow those instruction exactly, as you can install b43-fwcutter with yum. Then, based on your kernel version, you should download this file, using wget.

wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

This is a compressed file package. The package contains a binary file, from which the firmware is extracted. So, first unpack the files.

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

This will create a folder containing many files. You want a file in the /driver folder, so use this command.

cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver

Now is when you use b43-fwcutter. I strongly suggest you read the manual page for b43-fwcutter.

man b43-fwcutter

And similar info can be found using the --help option.

b43-fwcutter --help

As you can see, using the -w option will extract the firmware to any place you want it. The /lib/firmware folder should work, so that is where I would put it. If your terminal is not already "in" the /driver folder, you would need to include the path to that folder/file in the command. Since you already moved to that folder, with the "cd" command, you don't need to do this.

Now, you need to do this with root privileges, so get them by using the su command. Then extract the firmware to the /lib/firmware folder with this command.

 b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

This should do it. I will explain that command , breaking it down into it's seperate parts.

b43-fwcutter: The actual application that extracts the firmware
-w: The option to put the firmware in a certain folder, that you can select.
/lib/firmware: The folder to put the firmware in, used with the -w option above
wl_apsta_mimo.o: The binary file that contains the firmware. This name MAY change, depending on the firmware version you use. You also may need to use the entire path to this file. If I had it in my home folder, the command would look like this:

 b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /home/waterhead/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o

I think this should work. Meanwhile, I'll look into the packages that you found.

[waterhead]

I installed the broadcom-wl package, so that I could see what it was. It is not a firmware package. In fact, it is a completely different driver. It seems to be the proprietary driver that is released by Broadcom. When installed, it actually disables the b43 driver. It then installs a kernel module, and in my case, a completely new kernel!

I cannot recommend this driver, at this time. Just installing the firmware is a lot less intrusive to your system.

[buccaneere]

Thanks for the info there Waterhead... looks like you put some work into it there!

Copy on the broadcom-WL package.

So lemme' see what I can get connected here; cross your fingers!

EDIT:
Oops... Repo conflict is something DCasper mentioned for dependency resolution errors; I'm workin' on that first, with his help (unless you can see conflict here):
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ins...tml#post672719

[buccaneere]

So updates are now on, some dependencies resolved.

I got this when restarting networking:

[root@localhost chuckfc8]# /etc/init.d/network restart
Shutting down loopback interface:                          [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                            [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface cobweb:  Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

Determining IP information for wlan0... failed.

Then it started ethernet connection.

I'll start at the beginning again and post up, unless you see somethin' right off-hand here...

[waterhead]

Did you ever get around to installing the firmware? I described how to do it in my first post. You will still need to install this to get your wireless to work.

A little tip, if you plan on installing a different Linux distro in the future. To avoid having to go through the extraction process again, you can extract the firmware to a different folder. Then save the extracted firmware to a USB stick or copy to a CD. I would first create a folder named "firmware" in my home directory.

mkdir ~/firmware

I would then change my original command:

b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /home/waterhead/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o

To this:

b43-fwcutter -w /home/waterhead/firmware /home/waterhead/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o

To copy the firmware to the /lib/firmware folder, I then would use this command, first using su to gain root priviledges.

cp -R ~/firmware/* /lib/firmware

The ~/ is a shortcut for your home folder.

[waterhead]

OOPS!

I was pointing it at the wrong file!

Instead of using this file:
wl_apsta.o

I should be using this file:
wl_apsta_mimo.o

I will change my original posts to correct this.