[SOLVED] Broadcom 4312 (BCM4312) 14e4:4315 STA Binary Driver HELP

[jron]

The Lenovo S10 netbook comes equipped with the following Broadcom chipset:

lspci | grep Broadcom
05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)

The above output fooled me into believing this card was supported by b43xx/b43; however lspci -nn reveals that this card is NOT supported by the b43 drivers.

lspci -nn | grep Broadcom
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g 14e4:4315 (rev 01)

Note the 14e4:4315.

Does anyone have this card working on 8.10 / 2.6.27.9? I attempted to compile the loadable kernel module from: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

The above driver will not compile on 2.6.27.9 without a patch found here: http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/sh...3&postcount=10

Still, after loading the module, my card still fails to detect any access points.

Any information about the binary driver would be appreciated.

Thank you!

[Ayuthia]

Did the wl module from Ubuntu work on your computer?

How did you activate the compiled wl module? It could be possible that you might be using the wrong wl module since there is one supplied by Ubuntu and another that you compiled. So if you used/were using the original version, you will have to remove it first:

sudo modprobe -r wl

Then insert the module afterwards:

sudo modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
sudo insmod wl
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
sudo iwlist scan

The set of commands above is assuming that you are in the directory where you compiled the wl module.

[jron]

Ayuthia, thank you for the reply. I've removed the Ubuntu's default wl module and inserted my newly compiled / patched binary blob. insmod wl.ko

islist scan gives the following output: eth1 Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

iwconfig output:

eth1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:off
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

[Ayuthia]

Can you post the results of:

lsmod|grep -e b43 -e ssb -e wl -e ndiswrapper
lshw -C network

Do you have encryption set on your router? I am thinking that if it is not encrypted, we could just try and see if we can connect to the router manually. It does not solve the problem with the scanning, but it will help us see if the module works.

[jron]

lsmod|grep -e b43 -e ssb -e wl -e ndiswrapper
wl 1080068 0
ieee80211_crypt 13572 2 wl,ieee80211_crypt_tkip

lshw -C Network (just the wifi output)

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4312 802.11b/g
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 01
serial: 00:21:00:65:07:7b
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl latency=0 module=wl multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg


My attempt to set the ESSID:

root@jron-laptop:/home/jron/Desktop/wifi# iwconfig eth1 essid test
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.

[Ayuthia]

The module does not seem happy. Can you check dmesg to see if there are any messages out there for it:

dmesg|grep wl

[jron]

jron@jron-laptop:~$ dmesg|grep wl
[ 15.608596] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ 15.780460] wl 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 15.780484] wl 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 793.161821] wl 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 855.117942] wl 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 855.117987] wl 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

Ayuthia, I forgot to respond to your question about using the original wl driver provided by Ubuntu.

My laptop would almost instantly freeze when using the provided wl driver. I would watch network mangler attempt to bring the interface up and 3-5 seconds later the laptop would lock up.

[Ayuthia]

I just recompiled this in Jaunty and it was able to compile. I did initially get the same message as you when I tried scan for wireless sites. However, I was able to connect via iwconfig. I removed the driver and reloaded it and it had no problems.

I have seen this happen to be before with the wl driver (through the Ubuntu version). I can't remember if it was a conflict with network manager or not.

Sorry. I don't really have any idea on what is happening. Can you post your lspci -nnm info? I am guessing that this driver has been tested with Dell laptops, but not with Lenovo.

You might have to try ndiswrapper if you cannot get a wl driver to work:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...eisty_No-Fluff

I did check my dmesg info and I have the same info as yours.

[jron]

jron@jron-laptop:~$ lspci -nnm
00:00.0 "Host bridge [0600]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub [27ac]" -r03 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [386f]"
00:02.0 "VGA compatible controller [0300]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [27ae]" -r03 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3870]"
00:02.1 "Display controller [0380]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [27a6]" -r03 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3870]"
00:1b.0 "Audio device [0403]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [27d8]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3bf8]"
00:1c.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [27d0]" -r02 "" ""
00:1c.1 "PCI bridge [0604]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [27d2]" -r02 "" ""
00:1c.2 "PCI bridge [0604]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [27d4]" -r02 "" ""
00:1d.0 "USB Controller [0c03]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [27c8]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3807]"
00:1d.1 "USB Controller [0c03]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [27c9]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3808]"
00:1d.2 "USB Controller [0c03]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [27ca]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3809]"
00:1d.3 "USB Controller [0c03]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [27cb]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [380a]"
00:1d.7 "USB Controller [0c03]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [27cc]" -r02 -p20 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [380b]"
00:1e.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [2448]" -re2 -p01 "" ""
00:1f.0 "ISA bridge [0601]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [27b9]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [380d]"
00:1f.1 "IDE interface [0101]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [27df]" -r02 -p8a "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3810]"
00:1f.2 "IDE interface [0101]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller [27c4]" -r02 -p8f "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3835]"
00:1f.3 "SMBus [0c05]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller [27da]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [380f]"
02:00.0 "Ethernet controller [0200]" "Broadcom Corporation [14e4]" "NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express [1713]" -r02 "Lenovo [17aa]" "Device [3a23]"
05:00.0 "Network controller [0280]" "Broadcom Corporation [14e4]" "BCM4312 802.11b/g [4315]" -r01 "Broadcom Corporation [14e4]" "Device [04b5]"

I hope to avoid NDISwrapper if at all possible. I'll keep messing with it and post any results.

[james_xxx]

I have already made posts on a few other related threads in the forums, but I thought I would just mention that I believe most people are having problems with bcm4312 in Intrepid, not to mention a few other cards, especially when it comes to attempting to connect to most networks using wpa or wpa2.

I am no expert, but it is starting to sound like more of a problem with network-manager than anything else. Additionally, as I understand it, this particular problem did not exist in Hardy. If you are using Intrepid, switching back to Hardy may be one option. That is one of a few options I am considering.

There is another possible solution mentioned in this thread, if I could only figure out how to implement it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...38#post6370738


As I have mentioned in that thread, I cannot figure out how to use gconf-editor to edit the necessary file, and even if I get that figured out, I am not sure exactly what I would need to put in the specified config file to possibly enable it to work on the network at my university.

Ndiswrapper, as already mentioned, using the Windows driver is a third possibility.

If you get something to work for you, please post your solution to the thread!

(Btw, these repeated hard lockups upon trying to connect to wireless networks really do suck.)