Broadcom STA Wireless drivers not working on Acer aspire 5750G, Ubuntu 12.04

[WVPARN]

By the way, it never hangs when the ethernet cord is plugged in. So I think the hanging seems related exclusively to the wireless. And it seems especially connected with actually handshaking with the router. But anyway, something to do with the wireless adapter, or driver...

[WVPARN]

I don't want you to waste time on my case if not necessary, so I'll mention that I tried the Mint distro, and it works fine, it finds the wireless, connects to it, shuts down and starts back up again normally. I'm not sure which Mint but it would be the latest I suppose, since I used Unetbootin to find it, and I have the sense that Unetbootin tries to stay up to date about versions.

I don't actually like the AO722, it is someone else's. I prefer the PXD, where I'm still using Ubuntu.

Thanks for your help.

[chili555]

Yikes! Those are some scary errors. You might check:

cat /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Does it exist? Is there a line managed=false in there? Also check:

cat /etc/network/interfaces

Hopefully, there are only lines in there related to lo or loopback. If there are others, they need to be removed so that the end result is:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

You might also reinstall Network Manager:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall network-manager

Are all these connection attempts without the ethernet attached? Network Manager will not activate wireless if wired is available.

[WVPARN]

In the Mint Julia forum, there is a discussion about this problem.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...=AO722#p529851

The AO522 and AO722 have been known to behave terribly (freezing) in Ubuntu due to an interaction between the wireless card and the wired network driver. The solution there has been to enter BIOS (F2 @ boot) and make the Network Boot option the first priority among boot devices. This might help with running Mint 11 or 12. Reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne522

Apparently they will upgrade Mint soon with the newer Ubuntu, so my problem may recur. Anyway I thought this would be a helpful lead for anyone with an Aspire.

[WVPARN]

I thought it might be helpful to mention that when I ran Mint 12 from a USB, I got the same problems. After the wireless spends a few seconds trying to connect, the computer stops being usable.

Mint 10 works fine. Mint 12 has the same problem on the AO722. Isn't Mint based on Ubuntu to some extent? So I thought it might be a helpful observation.

[chili555]

Reading the link above makes me wonder if things might improve if you made the BIOS change mentioned and blacklisted the ethernet driver. Do you use wireless exclusively?

[WVPARN]

It seems to be solved in my case.


The topic is getting the wireless to work on an AO722, an Acer Aspire One 722. The wireless card is a Broadcom. I use Ubuntu on all my other computers, but found problems in this case. I tried Mint Julia, or Mint 10, but I set Mint aside, because I didn't like it as well, and it didn't solve the problem.

Previously I did a bunch of things to try to get wireless to work on the Acer running Ubuntu 12, but now I'm trying to start from scratch, fresh install.

Fresh install begins:

download updates while installing
install this third-party software
erase disk, use whole disk
noticed a brief message about something not being ready, or mounted, swap or something.
boot with ethernet plugged in
notice the 'restricted drivers available' icon and balloon in top left area
I do not yet check for updated software, in case doing so causes problems
unplug ethernet, tap connection triangle, choose my wireless network
it asks for passphrase, I enter it
wireless connects

After the above, various diagnostic command output, including:

lspci command.
lsmod command.
dmesg command.
cat commands to syslog.
cat to NetworkManager.conf.

lspci -nn | grep 0280
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)


lsmod | grep -e wl -e bcma -e brcmsmac
wl                   2646601  0 
lib80211               14040  1 wl
bcma                   25651  0 
brcmsmac              540875  0 
mac80211              436455  1 brcmsmac
brcmutil               14675  1 brcmsmac
cfg80211              178679  2 brcmsmac,mac80211
crc8                   12781  1 brcmsmac
cordic                 12487  1 brcmsmac



dmesg | grep -e brcm -e wlan
[   14.887388] brcmsmac 0000:07:00.0: bus 7 slot 0 func 0 irq 11
[   14.887516] brcmsmac 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   14.887530] brcmsmac 0000:07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   25.026114] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_config: change monitor mode: false (implement)
[   25.026130] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement)
[   25.027779] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement)
[   25.028669] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   25.030023] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  243.810470] wlan0: authenticate with 00:13:46:cf:85:e8 (try 1)
[  243.816076] wlan0: authenticated
[  243.822941] wlan0: associate with 00:13:46:cf:85:e8 (try 1)
[  243.826124] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:13:46:cf:85:e8 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=3)
[  243.826136] wlan0: associated
[  243.827400] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement)
[  243.827414] ieee80211 phy0: brcmsmac: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: associated
[  243.827434] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: arp filtering: enabled true, count 0 (implement)
[  243.827967] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[  245.954629] ieee80211 phy0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: arp filtering: enabled true, count 1 (implement)
[  256.160307] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present




cat /var/log/syslog | grep -i error
May  3 03:44:16 aopup-AO722 kernel: [   13.651499] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
May  3 03:47:59 aopup-AO722 NetworkManager[998]: get_secret_flags: assertion `is_secret_prop (setting, secret_name, error)' failed




cat /var/log/syslog | grep -i warn
May  3 03:44:21 aopup-AO722 NetworkManager[998]: <warn> failed to allocate link cache: (-10) Operation not supported
May  3 03:44:22 aopup-AO722 NetworkManager[998]: <warn> Trying to remove a non-existant call id.
May  3 03:45:47 aopup-AO722 kernel: [  110.318091] EXT4-fs (sdb1): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
May  3 03:47:42 aopup-AO722 dnsmasq[2510]: warning: no upstream servers configured

I have made no changes to BIOS.
I would like to use both ethernet and wireless, due to unpredictability of circumstances.

At this point, ethernet unplugged, wireless connected, I tell the computer to shutdown. It shuts down normally. On previous experiments it would hang while shutting down with wireless connected.

I will now turn it on, ethernet cable unplugged. Recall that at this point I have not sought any restricted drivers or new software. Everything boots, no freezing, it has found the wireless connection and connected. I see it wants me to download some packages. I will reboot first. It shuts down normally, starts normally, connects to the wireless. Now I try a Fn-Zz experiment. Press power button then, and everything seems normal.

Okay, is it time to fetch some packages? By the way that message I can never quite read on bootup is approximately "the disk drive for cryptswap is not ready yet".

Click on updates manager. There are 47. I click "install updates". Update manager asks me to restart. I click the restart button. Shuts down normally, starts normally, finds the network, no freezing.

Until further notice, I guess that's it. Solved! Unless you have comments. Thank you very kindly for your help. I guess my impression is that not getting the restricted drivers made the difference. Dare I peek in the restricted drivers settings area?? Might tempt fate to do that.

[chili555]

Dare I peek in the restricted drivers settings area??

NO! For Broadcom cards, it is broken. Whatever it suggests is wrong.

lsmod | grep -e wl -e bcma -e brcmsmac
wl 2646601 0
lib80211 14040 1 wl
bcma 25651 0
brcmsmac 540875 0
mac80211 436455 1 brcmsmac
brcmutil 14675 1 brcmsmac
cfg80211 178679 2 brcmsmac,mac80211
crc8 12781 1 brcmsmac
cordic 12487 1 brcmsmac

You have every driver there is for your device and they will, no doubt inhibit performance. I'd blacklist bcma and wl. You can check that your device works first by temporarily unloading them:

sudo modprobe -r wl
sudo modprobe -r bcma

If it works well, connects, pulls web pages, is fast enough, etc., then I'd proceed with the blacklist.

I'm glad it's solved, by whatever means.

[WVPARN]

When I did the first, the connection ended.

sudo modprobe -r wl 
sudo modprobe -r bcma

When I did the second, there seemed to be no ill effect. Does this imply a benefit to blacklisting the second?

[chili555]

It implies that wl is the correct driver for your device; a wholly unexpected result! Please try this:

sudo modprobe wl
sudo modprobe -r bcma
sudo modprobe -r brcmsmac

Now do you have a stable connection? If so, we'll blacklist bcma and brcmsmac and leave wl to run the show.

I learn something new about 14e4:4727 just about hourly!