Broadcom Wifi card shows up as eth0, not solved by instructions from ubuntuforums

[Hadaka]

Hi, whew..finally Glad its working !
Yes there is always alot to learn about the operating system.
do this code:lsmod...(which is list-modules) you will see modules
for video,wireless,wired and many other devices and cards within
the computer. these modules are a set of instructions they tell the
code:lspci..(list pci's) those are the hardware items that the modules
control.what to do and of course the modules must be compatable with the hardware
and they must also be able to give and pass information to the kernel
which is the heart of the system.Everything the system does and what it can do
is based on the kernel. Do a search on "How linux works" start small and simple
and build from there.There are also sections on this forum to discuss the how's
and why's. Good luck in continuing your knowledge. and PLEASE, mark this thread
SOLVED.
thanks.

[chili555]

Also, am I correct in thinking that the problem with my wifi boiled down to the fact that a module had been programmed to load a driver that does not work with the broadcom 4313, and that reprogramming the module to load the lp driver in place of the b43 was what got the wifi working again?

Almost. Your device, 14e4:4727, is claimed by two different drivers, also known in Linux as modules. Fun, fun, fun, eh?

The trick is to find out which module; wl or b43, drives your device correctly. Hadaka and I know from many years and many posts of experience, that it's wl. The problem is made tougher because the sharp guys and gals generally have tried a few things and made the process worse because we have to diagnose and fix the previous attempts. Your problem was two-fold. Your /etc/modules file loaded the wrong driver, b43 and your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf attempted to blacklist it to never load! Very confusing! Once Hadaka and you discovered and corrected it, everything started working smoothly.

Imagine Mrs. Chili and I standing in the grocery aisle and her saying that we will NEVER get any chocolate cookies and me saying we will ALWAYS get chocolate cookies. We are arguing and, meanwhile, the bananas and milk and cereal aren't being purchased and taken home. We are simply spinning our wheels. In your system, b43 and wl were arguing and meanwhile, the mp3s and emails to Mom and Youtube videos are not being accessed.

I'm glad it's working. We knew you could do it!

[KittyCatHerder]

Almost. Your device, 14e4:4727, is claimed by two different drivers, also known in Linux as modules. Fun, fun, fun, eh?

The trick is to find out which module; wl or b43, drives your device correctly. Hadaka and I know from many years and many posts of experience, that it's wl. The problem is made tougher because the sharp guys and gals generally have tried a few things and made the process worse because we have to diagnose and fix the previous attempts. Your problem was two-fold. Your /etc/modules file loaded the wrong driver, b43 and your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf attempted to blacklist it to never load! Very confusing! Once Hadaka and you discovered and corrected it, everything started working smoothly.

I'm glad it's working. We knew you could do it!

That's a good way to explain what was happening. I understand the concept pretty well now, I think. I'm afraid I couldn't do it as you suggest though. I had very little idea of what was happening. I get it now though and I've already learned quite a lot about the way this part of the OS works.

Does the /etc/modules file contain every module that gets loaded on boot?

As I understand, the wl driver causes the (this) WiFi card to be identified as "eth" instead of "wlan". I am quite OCD about my computers and I would really like to have the wlan card show up as wlan. If wlan shows up as eth by design, and it is not a flaw of some sort, it wouldn't be a big deal but I would like to understand why it happens that way.

Thanks a lot for helping with (solving) my WiFi problem. I've learned quite a lot already and I feel like this is the kind of place I can learn as much as I want. I will be looking for answers to several other issues I'm having in the next day or two and if I can't find solutions already posted here I hope you and Hadaka can help me with those as well.

[KittyCatHerder]

I've been trying to figure out hwo to mark this thread as solved for 6 or 7 minutes. Can someone please tell me how to do that?

[chili555]

Does the /etc/modules file contain every module that gets loaded on boot?

No, it contains those that are lazy or troublesome and for which we wish to demand that they load no matter what.

If wlan shows up as eth by design, and it is not a flaw of some sort,

It is exactly that; by design. It is hard-coded somewhere in the module by the author, Broadcom. This has been a tug of war for years in Linux. When I first started, all wireless was eth1. Then it became wlan0 and in some cases wifi0. Sadly, for those of us that prize uniformity and order in our lives, it is anything but!

There is a mysterious parameter available in wl and I have been looking for a tester. Are you game?

chili@Think60:~$ modinfo wl
filename:       /lib/modules/3.5.0-26-generic/updates/dkms/wl.ko
license:        MIXED/Proprietary
srcversion:     1C6A0B8B0000A8D58131D83
<snip>
parm:           oneonly:int
parm:           piomode:int
parm:           instance_base:int
parm:           nompc:int
parm:           name:string

Intriguing, isn't it??

[KittyCatHerder]

Hi, whew..finally Glad its working !
Yes there is always alot to learn about the operating system.
do this code:lsmod...(which is list-modules) you will see modules
for video,wireless,wired and many other devices and cards within
the computer. these modules are a set of instructions they tell the
code:lspci..(list pci's) those are the hardware items that the modules
control.what to do and of course the modules must be compatable with the hardware
and they must also be able to give and pass information to the kernel
which is the heart of the system.Everything the system does and what it can do
is based on the kernel. Do a search on "How linux works" start small and simple
and build from there.There are also sections on this forum to discuss the how's
and why's. Good luck in continuing your knowledge. and PLEASE, mark this thread
SOLVED.
thanks.

Before yesterday or the day before I wasn't aware that the ls command could be used to list hardware and software. I thought it was only used for files and directories. I'll be using ls quite frequently over the next few days and probably into the future now that I understand it a little more completely.

Thanks for all the help and input so far. I hope you can join in on my future threads!

[Hadaka]

Hi,just to unwind a possible future confusion for you,
the command lspci (list pci;s) doesnt list the actual
hardware but rather the hardware's interface. as in
you can have a pci with no hardware attached to it
but it can accept an appropiate piece of hardware.
for example..lspci lists usb ports,yet no usb is plugged
in. It means the pci accepts usb type equipment-hardware
ls (list ) pci (peripheral Complex interfaces). Then when
a device,card is plugged in,it will pass information about
its self with the lspci query.
hope that helps.
also chili invited you to play with an entry for the wl module
so both you and he learn something new...you game?
and lastly ..to mark SOLVED ,sign in ..this thread...click edit
then thread tools...thread tools is in the upper right corner...i think.
have fun !

[KittyCatHerder]

No, it contains those that are lazy or troublesome and for which we wish to demand that they load no matter what. It is exactly that; by design. It is hard-coded somewhere in the module by the author, Broadcom. This has been a tug of war for years in Linux. When I first started, all wireless was eth1. Then it became wlan0 and in some cases wifi0. Sadly, for those of us that prize uniformity and order in our lives, it is anything but!

There is a mysterious parameter available in wl and I have been looking for a tester. Are you game?

chili@Think60:~$ modinfo wl
filename:       /lib/modules/3.5.0-26-generic/updates/dkms/wl.ko
license:        MIXED/Proprietary
srcversion:     1C6A0B8B0000A8D58131D83
<snip>
parm:           oneonly:int
parm:           piomode:int
parm:           instance_base:int
parm:           nompc:int
parm:           name:string

Intriguing, isn't it??

I would love to do any kind of testing related to Linux! I can't say I understand the output of modinfo wl but I am with the Linux community when it comes to this kind of issue. If a hardware company can't open source the driver software for use in open source operating systems then I am all for helping out with trying to find a better way than using their proprietary software. Let me knwo what I can do to help/test.

[KittyCatHerder]

Hi,just to unwind a possible future confusion for you,
the command lspci (list pci;s) doesnt list the actual
hardware but rather the hardware's interface. as in
you can have a pci with no hardware attached to it
but it can accept an appropiate piece of hardware.
for example..lspci lists usb ports,yet no usb is plugged
in. It means the pci accepts usb type equipment-hardware
ls (list ) pci (peripheral Complex interfaces). Then when
a device,card is plugged in,it will pass information about
its self with the lspci query.
hope that helps.
also chili invited you to play with an entry for the wl module
so both you and he learn something new...you game?
and lastly ..to mark SOLVED ,sign in ..this thread...click edit
then thread tools...thread tools is in the upper right corner...i think.
have fun !

So listing pci shows all the pci's, not the hardware that is attached to the pci's, is there an option to list the hardware interfaced through the pci? Or does lspci list all pci interfaces as well as their connected hardware?

I have responded to Chilis post about the wl module. This is just the kind of thing I am trying to get into by using Ubuntu/Linux. I ran modinfo wl and got a parm: intf_name:string which is a little different than his output. I'm waiting on some instructions from him to find out what to do to test the wl module.

[KittyCatHerder]

I guess no one is reading this thread any more. When a thread is marked as solved, does something happen that causes it to not be as visible, or do the contributors to the thread stop getting notifications that there are new posts in the thread?