HOWTO: Use b43 driver with 14e4:4315 (Broadcom bcm4312 rev 01)

[chenxiaolong]

I've never tried b43 with Wicd, but I don't even want to think about the experience I had with wl and Wicd...ugh.... Anyway, with kernel 2.6.34-RC5, I have periodic disconnects when uploading. It never happens when I download. Hmm...

[slobeech]

hello all
completely new here - for now juat one question: i have somehow (played around with different distros and livecds and win7) managed to "brake" the wifi.
i can still "find" and "see" - broadcom bcm4312 - but can't make it work. i formated whole disk. fresh ubuntu instalation 09.10 - nothing.
i have tried probably at least 5 livecds ubuntu, pclinuxos, crunchbang, elive, mandriva,... but it doesn't work anywhere. ...
oh yes - the question: if i "see" the wifi card - is it still possible that it is broken (hardware failure")? .. or must i just "play" around with it some more (maybe one of distribution installed wrong firmware??)

thanks!

[chenxiaolong]

This isn't a software problem. Hopefully reinstalling Ubuntu didn't cause you to waste too much of your time . All you have to do is:

1) Physically take the wireless card out from your laptop.

2) Touch all the pins on the wireless card to drain the electricity from it, thereby resetting the card's RAM (tells the card what state it's in).

[piratesmack]

Turning my laptop off and taking the battery out for a couple seconds always works for me when that happens. I've never actually had to remove the wireless card.

[chenxiaolong]

That doesn't work for me . I guess it's different on every laptop.

[slobeech]

it seemed strange to be software yes...
thank you both!! will try as soon as i get home. (alhtough physicaly taking card out - would probably void warranty - will have to check)

thanks again!!

[chenxiaolong]

Mine is under my RAM/Hard drive cover, so it doesn't void my warranty (not that I would ever need it ). I'm pretty sure all Dell laptops are like that.

[KMcC]

Chenxaiolong,

You've done a fantastic job with this forum! Can you summarize the steps those of us running Karmic with wl need to do to move to b43 when we get our lucid upgrade in the next few days?

My computer is HP mini 110; I have the version with Bluetooth, so I'm particularly interested in finally getting both kinds of wireless to work together!

[piratesmack]

Just compiled 2.6.33.3

b43 is working without compat-wireless, but still needs these options

options b43 pio=1 qos=0

[chenxiaolong]

KMcC: I'll put together a guide tomorrow after Lucid is out. I highly recommend that you do a fresh install of Lucid, instead of upgrading Karmic. The last time I upgraded Ubuntu (9.04 --> 9.10), a lot of my hardware stopped working (like sound and graphics).

piratesmack: Thanks for the info, but PIO mode under kernel 2.6.33.3 only connects to one of my routers. I don't know why . I'll test again tomorrow, when Lucid is out.

EDIT: Kernel 2.6.33.3 -- "pio=1 qos=0" (PIO on, QOS off) AND "pio=0 qos=1" (DMA mode, QOS off) both work fine.

EDIT2: Connects to both of my routers perfectly.