Fedora an BCM4318

dragon001 · #1 2009-11-01, 01:21 PM CST

I have a notebook with the above mentioned WLAN Chipset from Broadcom.
I am trying to bring it up since 4 hourse.
tested almost every hack.
But first here some details on the hardware:

uname -a

Code:

uname -a
Linux xxx 2.6.31.5-96.fc12.i686.PAE #1 SMP Fri Oct 23 19:39:36 EDT 2009 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

lspci

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 11)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
02:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
02:09.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
02:09.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller

dmesg | grep b43

Code:

b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:05.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED

The driver is up an running,
but i can not switch the card on.
The Hardware buttons are not working.
Everything else works really good.
But not wlan

thx in advanced

chris

**stoat** · #2 2009-11-01, 02:22 PM CST

Hello dragon001,

The BCM4318 chipset is known to work with the b43 driver that comes with the Fedora kernel. But it needs firmware. To me, you post suggests that you have not done that step. Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, if you do need to do that, here is another thread with the steps...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=211984

P.S.: Nah, on second thought, I think you do have the firmware installed. What about this idea... Is Windows installed? Sometimes Windows can disable some wireless cards when it shuts down making it not work when rebooted into Linux. Is that possible in your case? If maybe so, try powering up directly into Fedora and see if the wireless card works. If it does, you can disable Windows from doing that to the card.

dragon001 · #3 2009-11-02, 02:04 AM CST

I installed the firmware:

Code:

b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)

Windows is not installed since an age (i think about 1 or 2 years)
I used the laptop eversince as server.
But meanwhile i need it for a new member of my family.

I tried so many things.

What iritats me is:
In the Bios it is turned on.
Linux turns it off.
Is there a command to just turn iut on with setpci?

Grizzledude · #4 2009-11-02, 11:27 AM CST

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=228418

I know for a fact that this works, I just installed F11 on my Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop which uses the BCM4318 chipset for the wireless card. I just followed the instructions on installing, rebooted, and it came up after I had set the WPA keys.

**stoat** · #5 2009-11-02, 11:51 AM CST

Okay, here is something else to think about. You installed Fedora 12. That thing is still testing. It's practically normal for stuff to be busted. B43 is a kernel module so it wouldn't exactly make the front pages to discover something about it is busted at this point in Fedora 12's life. Why not install Fedora 11? It's in the middle of its life cycle and has matured into the best Fedora ever for me. I use b43 with it, too. I would consider that. Especially if this rig is for somebody else to use.

bbfuller · #6 2009-11-02, 01:19 PM CST

Interestingly, I installed F12 on my laptop with a broadcom 4318 last evening and the wireless just worked.

It appears that the new open source firmware is included as default in F12, and although it appears only to be reckoned to work on 4306 and 4318 chipsets, for me it's doing very well. Signal strength reported the same as cutting the old b43 firmware.

**stoat** · #7 2009-11-02, 01:33 PM CST

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbfuller

It appears that the new open source firmware is included as default in F12, and although it appears only to be reckoned to work on 4306 and 4318 chipsets, for me it's doing very well.

I read a recent post where AdamW mentioned that, but it didn't register in me what he meant til now. So good. A couple more chipsets in the "just works" collection. Maybe. And one of them is mine. Even better.

Maybe dragon001 installed the "classic" firmware (I think that was implied), and now that sets up a conflict with that new OpenFWWF stuff. I don't even know where OpenFWWF files go, or what to do about them if you don't want to use it.

bbfuller · #8 2009-11-02, 02:09 PM CST

As I see it, the new open firmware files are in the same:

/lib/firmware/b43

folder.

There are 3 files listed below:

Quote:

b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
b0g0initvals5.fw
ucode5.fw

If you have an ordinary b43 machine on 'Stoat' it would be interesting to see if you have the exact same files and therfore if they would be overwritten if you cut the old b43 firmware.

**stoat** · #9 2009-11-02, 02:19 PM CST

These were extracted from wl_apsta_mimo.o in broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2. I've been using this set since Fedora 9 and have been just copying the b43 folder over to new Fedoras.

Code:

$ ls /lib/firmware/b43
a0g0bsinitvals4.fw   a0g1initvals5.fw     lp0bsinitvals13.fw  pcm5.fw
a0g0bsinitvals5.fw   a0g1initvals9.fw     lp0bsinitvals14.fw  ucode11.fw
a0g0bsinitvals9.fw   b0g0bsinitvals13.fw  lp0bsinitvals15.fw  ucode13.fw
a0g0initvals4.fw     b0g0bsinitvals4.fw   lp0initvals13.fw    ucode14.fw
a0g0initvals5.fw     b0g0bsinitvals5.fw   lp0initvals14.fw    ucode15.fw
a0g0initvals9.fw     b0g0bsinitvals9.fw   lp0initvals15.fw    ucode4.fw
a0g1bsinitvals13.fw  b0g0initvals13.fw    n0absinitvals11.fw  ucode5.fw
a0g1bsinitvals5.fw   b0g0initvals4.fw     n0bsinitvals11.fw   ucode9.fw
a0g1bsinitvals9.fw   b0g0initvals5.fw     n0initvals11.fw
a0g1initvals13.fw    b0g0initvals9.fw     pcm4.fw

So I guess the old way knocks the slats out of the new way. But I still would have expected it to work unless something has changed in the b43 module in Fedora 12.

I think this current problem is somehow related to a hardware radio kill switch. Usually people can turn that on and things start working. Apparently, this time the hardware switch is not working.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragon001

The Hardware buttons are not working.

I wonder if ndiswrapper has been tried and is still hanging around (lsmod | sort). It happens.

dragon001 · #10 2009-11-07, 01:12 AM CST

Ok,
i can't check it for the next hours, because i have to reinstall it.
Even with Fedora 11 it didn't work.
I never used ndiswrapper, because of a wpa protected network.
so it would make no sense, because as I know you can't use wpa protection.

so many thanks so far

dragon001 · #11 2009-11-07, 01:12 AM CST

Ok,
i can't check it for the next hours, because i have to reinstall it.
Even with Fedora 11 it didn't work.
I never used ndiswrapper, because of a wpa protected network.
so it would make no sense, because as I know you can't use wpa protection.

so many thanks so far

bbfuller · #12 2009-11-07, 02:25 AM CST

Hello dragon001

It's been a couple of years since I needed to use ndiswrapper with my 4318 card. I've gladly adopted the b43 driver with whatever firmware was used at the time.

However, I'm pretty sure I used my 4318 with ndiswrapper and WPA at that time.

dragon001 · #13 2009-11-07, 03:06 PM CST

to solve this is quite painful.
I solved it a litle bit different now.
I bought two ethernet over powerkabel and they work for me.
It is just a pain in the a** with those closed source drivers!