Broadcom WL Driver

[dudude]

I have a Dell 1720 laptop with a Broadcom 4310 Rev 1 wireless card
I successfully got the card to work using ndiswrapper, but after I got an update to the linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-18-generic package, the restricted driver manager shows that a new "wl" driver can be installed.

I haven't done much with the driver, since ndiswrapper was working.

I just wanted to see if anyone knows anything about this driver, and/or why it appears after this update.

[Ayuthia]

I have a Dell 1720 laptop with a Broadcom 4310 Rev 1 wireless card
I successfully got the card to work using ndiswrapper, but after I got an update to the linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-18-generic package, the restricted driver manager shows that a new "wl" driver can be installed.

I haven't done much with the driver, since ndiswrapper was working.

I just wanted to see if anyone knows anything about this driver, and/or why it appears after this update.

I was only able to find information about this in this link:
* Add new Broadcom driver that supports only PCI ID 14e4:4315. There is no
overlap with any kernel driver, therefore no possiblity of regression.
If you type lspci -nn in the Terminal, you should see that this is your card. However, I have not heard any confirmation on whether it works or if any additional configuration is needed.

[Ayuthia]

It looks like Broadcom released a driver for the 14e4:4315 card. It is specifically for this card. Like you already know, it is the wl module. It is to be used instead of the b43 driver. What this means is that you would have to blacklist the b43 driver. You might have to add the wl module to /etc/modules so that it loads up at boot.

Here is the README.txt file from the Broadcom site:
http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

Since the module is in linux-restricted-modules, I would not follow the instructions on how to install it. I would just do the blacklisting of b43 and add wl to /etc/modules. You might also want to verify that ieee80211_crypt_tkip is loaded also (lsmod|grep ieee80211_crypt_tkip).

[punkrockguy318]

It looks like Broadcom released a driver for the 14e4:4315 card. It is specifically for this card. Like you already know, it is the wl module. It is to be used instead of the b43 driver. What this means is that you would have to blacklist the b43 driver. You might have to add the wl module to /etc/modules so that it loads up at boot.

Here is the README.txt file from the Broadcom site:
http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

Since the module is in linux-restricted-modules, I would not follow the instructions on how to install it. I would just do the blacklisting of b43 and add wl to /etc/modules. You might also want to verify that ieee80211_crypt_tkip is loaded also (lsmod|grep ieee80211_crypt_tkip).

Should a bug be filed in Ubuntu? Even with the restricted drivers manager, it requires you to disable the wl driver and enable it again for it to work properly. Only with the quoted workaround can you get the wl driver to load everytime, even after you accept to use it in restricted drivers manager

[Ayuthia]

Should a bug be filed in Ubuntu? Even with the restricted drivers manager, it requires you to disable the wl driver and enable it again for it to work properly. Only with the quoted workaround can you get the wl driver to load everytime, even after you accept to use it in restricted drivers manager

You might check and see if it is already posted as a bug, if it has not, you should create one. The driver should be able to load automatically instead of having to do a workaround.

You might also check and make sure that the following modules are not loaded when you start up: b43, b43legacy, bcm43xx, ssb (unless you have a Broadcom wired ethernet connection), and ndiswrapper. The way to check this is by doing the following:

lsmod|grep -i -e b43 -e bcm43xx -e ssb -e ndiswrapper

You don't need to add b43legacy because it will be grabbed by the b43 search. It should not return anything unless you have a Broadcom wired ethernet connection that uses the b44 driver. To see if you have this, do the following in the Terminal:

lshw -C network

It will return the information for your network cards. At the bottom of the information for each card, it will tell you what driver the card is using. If your wired card shows a b44 driver, you will then need to have ssb. I have to say that I have not seen any 4315 cards that have a b44 wired card.

[3togo]

Goto System->Administration->Hardware Drivers
1) Disable B43 and Enable Wl
2) Reboot

To the least, it works for me.

[e-square12]

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4312 802.11b/g
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 01
serial: 00:23:4e:d6:29:cf
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl1 driverversion=5.10.91.9 latency=0 module=wl multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11

It seems my computer is using the wl driver and the b43 drivers are blacklisted. My wireless is still not working. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[kngharv]

Dear all:

This is more of a "linux" question than a "Broadcom wl" question, please bear with me.

the revision my Broadcom 4312, 14e4:4315, is only "partially" supported and kept giving me DMA error, so I am forced to use the official Broadcom driver.

I have follow the instruction compiled, and installed. In my case, wl driver worked (after a long struggle cleaning up ndiswrapper and b43 driver settings, etc).

My issue is this. My driver doesn't get loaded automatically. Everytime I reboot, I need to go to the appropriate directory (/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/driver/net/wireless... something like that) and perform the following command line:

sudo insmod wl.ko


Once I done that, the driver will work like a charm.

My question to you all is, how to do so in a way that I don't have to do that everytime I reboot?

I tried "modprobe wl," but they can't find "wl." the system can only find "wl.ko" if I am in that /lib/modules/.../kernel/driver/net/wireless directory.

do I need to copy wl.o to somewhere? right now, I left it at where I compiled in the /var/tmp directory because i have no idea where to put it. is it true that if I put "wl.o" file in somewhere appropriate, i can edit /etc/modules file and add "wl?" Right now, it will say wl not found.


thanks in advance



Harvey

[Ayuthia]

Dear all:

This is more of a "linux" question than a "Broadcom wl" question, please bear with me.

the revision my Broadcom 4312, 14e4:4315, is only "partially" supported and kept giving me DMA error, so I am forced to use the official Broadcom driver.

I have follow the instruction compiled, and installed. In my case, wl driver worked (after a long struggle cleaning up ndiswrapper and b43 driver settings, etc).

My issue is this. My driver doesn't get loaded automatically. Everytime I reboot, I need to go to the appropriate directory (/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/driver/net/wireless... something like that) and perform the following command line:

sudo insmod wl.ko


Once I done that, the driver will work like a charm.

My question to you all is, how to do so in a way that I don't have to do that everytime I reboot?

I tried "modprobe wl," but they can't find "wl." the system can only find "wl.ko" if I am in that /lib/modules/.../kernel/driver/net/wireless directory.

do I need to copy wl.o to somewhere? right now, I left it at where I compiled in the /var/tmp directory because i have no idea where to put it. is it true that if I put "wl.o" file in somewhere appropriate, i can edit /etc/modules file and add "wl?" Right now, it will say wl not found.


thanks in advance



Harvey

You will need to have wl in /etc/modules. It sounds like you are missing the module update:

sudo depmod -a

This will udpate the module dependencies and rebuild the module list so that modprobe can find it.

Hope that helps.

[northd_tech]

There are more threads on the Broadcom WiFi chipsets (including a link to Broadcom's source code to build a kernel module "wl.ko") at:

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Wireless not working unless Broadcom STA driver is deactivated reactivated
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1049761

"The driver is activated but not currently in use"
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1302412

HOWTO: Use b43 driver with 14e4:4315 (Broadcom bcm4312 rev 01)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1266620&page=8