[SOLVED] Wireless problems with Broadcom wi fi card

[niculinux]

Hello

I'm a new and very very very newbie linux user

I just discovered portues and have have to say it's great!

Howevere, in the live session I was not able to connect to the internet with my laptop, equipped with a broadcom wi fi card

I tried the 1.1 vers 64 bit either with kde and lxde

here's some output from my dmesg:

Code: Select all

[   38.541732] ieee80211 phy0: brcmsmac: fail to load firmware brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw
[   38.541736] ieee80211 phy0: brcmsmac: Failed to find firmware usually in /lib/firmware/brcm

Code: Select all

[   39.651698] b43-phy1: Broadcom 4313 WLAN found (core revision 24)
[   39.652547] b43-phy1 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 10, Type 8, Revision 1)
[   39.652555] b43: probe of bcma0:0 failed with error -95
[   39.652579] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]

so it is recognized by poteus, but the firmware semms missing and the drive fails to load...it is so or I am completely wrong?

Wicd does not display any connection at all

and alittel sidenote, even with a Wicd blank window connection ne I press the button "Disconnect" Porteus hangs at once

only throuh some forced ctrl+alt+canc I am able to reboot.

Care to give an answer?

A blizzard of thanks

[fanthom]

Welcome on board niculinux,

broadcom chipsets are kinda problematic. please give a shot to precompiled driver first:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/modules/ ... -2_SBo.xzm
(broadcom-sta driver worked great with previous kernel versions but i have got few reports that suddenly stopped for 3.x series)

if that wont work then please remove broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112_3.1.8_porteus-x86_64-1_SBo.xzm from /porteus/modules and download kernel firmware:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/modules/ ... arch-1.xzm
let's hope that standard drivers provided with the kernel are good enough to support your chipset.

let us know which solution worked (if any).

[niculinux]

ok, thank, but it will be very hard for me because I'm a very very very very linux newbie

Please in the meantime would you try those 2 solutions? I beg for mercy, but I have no enough knowledge to face then

edit: I never heard of xzm divers and therefore I do not know how to manage them

as for the broadcom cards:

according to http://linuxwireless.org/

"b43 and b43legacy are drivers for the 802.11 B/G/N family of wireless chips that Broadcom produces. The choice of which driver your card uses depends on the revision level of the 802.11 core. If your card is a BCM4306 Rev 2 or only has 802.11b capability, it uses b43legacy. All other models use b43. This number is read by the driver ssb, and the correct choice for your device is made at that point. The drivers are called bcm43xx in mainline kernels, and b43 and b43legacy in wireless-2.6 and 2.6.24 and later. "

"The Broadcom wireless chip needs proprietary software (called "firmware") that runs on the wireless chip itself to work properly. This firmware is copyrighted by Broadcom and must be extracted from Broadcom's proprietary drivers. To get such firmware on your system, you must download the driver from a legal distribution point, extract it, and install it. This is accomplished different ways by different Linux distributions, so please read the section for yours for the best results. You will need an alternate working internet connection (by Ethernet cable, for example) since the firmware cannot be included with the distro itself"

the core of the problem:

"Both the b43 and b43legacy drivers conflict with the broadcom-wl driver, otherwise known as Broadcom's 802.11 Linux STA driver or simply broadcom-sta. If you want to use the b43 driver in favor of broadcom-wl, make sure that your Broadcom wireless chipset is supported on the supported device list first. You will need to either remove or unload the broadcom-wl driver prior to using b43 by following[...]:"

in the end broadcom suggest to buil and use an hybrid driver, here:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

any chances that you will use that ybrid module in the next porteus relase?

thanks again

[fanthom]

in the end broadcom suggest to buil and use an hybrid driver, here:

this is exactly the driver which i posted above.
all what you need to do it to download xzm module (this is archive - same as rar - containing broadcom kernel driver), put to /porteus/modules folder on your usb stick and reboot. if your wifi start working then all is ok if not then pls upload /var/log/messages to pastebin.com and link it in this thread so i'll be able to have a look on it.
after that please delete broadcom-sta xzm module from /porteus/modules and download kernel firmware to the same place. do a reboot and check wifi again.

good luck!

[niculinux]

in the end broadcom suggest to buil and use an hybrid driver, here:

this is exactly the driver which i posted above.
all what you need to do it to download xzm module (this is archive - same as rar - containing broadcom kernel driver), put to /porteus/modules folder on your usb stick and reboot. if your wifi start working then all is ok if not then pls upload /var/log/messages to pastebin.com and link it in this thread so i'll be able to have a look on it.
after that please delete broadcom-sta xzm module from /porteus/modules and download kernel firmware to the same place. do a reboot and check wifi again.

good luck!

ok, thanks but as os this:

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

there are the "raw" data files (both for 32 and 64 bit) that need to be build following the instructions reported at the same link (see readme.txt) so I gues I have to build it an do as you told, I'm a very newbie user, but that should not be hard to do, thouugh.

The juicy of my question was: will you make that hybrid driver (following the procedure above) and preload it in the next porteus relase? (for the sake of the newbie user... )

and I booted porteus live but not by an usb stick, I burned it to a cd...

thanks again, maybe I'll give a try...

[fanthom]

will you make that hybrid driver (following the procedure above) and preload it in the next porteus relase?

i will do that when someone confirm this driver working with 3.x.x kernel. you are selected for this task as you have the hardware.

I gues I have to build it an do as you told

no - you dont have to build anything. i have compiled this driver for all porteus-1.1 64bit users and it's ready to use. all what you need to do is to download the driver and make it activated during boot.

I booted porteus live but not by an usb stick, I burned it to a cd...

this is not a problem. porteus is very flexible in that matter: you can load modules placed in some folder on your hard-drive while booting from CD.
you can prepare the folder while being on Windows or Mac or whatever.
please create folder named "porteus-modules" on any of your partitions in top directory (example d:/porteus-modules). download broadcom module from here and place in that directory.
start 64bit edition (this driver wont work for 32bits) and press "TAB" key on first booting option (KDE). now add this cheatcode to the existing ones:

Code: Select all

extramod=/porteus-modules

hit enter to start booting.
if you still wont be able to connect to your wifi then please save /var/log/porteus-livedbg and /var/log/messages on your hard-drive, go back to Windows (or whatever) and upload these 2 files to pastebin.com

let me know if you stuck somewhere.

[niculinux]

I booted porteus live but not by an usb stick, I burned it to a cd...

this is not a problem. porteus is very flexible in that matter: you can load modules placed in some folder on your hard-drive while booting from CD.
you can prepare the folder while being on Windows or Mac or whatever.
please create folder named "porteus-modules" on any of your partitions in top directory (example d:/porteus-modules). download broadcom module from here and place in that directory.
start 64bit edition (this driver wont work for 32bits) and press "TAB" key on first booting option (KDE). now add this cheatcode to the existing ones:

Code: Select all

extramod=/porteus-modules

hit enter to start booting.
if you still wont be able to connect to your wifi then please save /var/log/porteus-livedbg and /var/log/messages on your hard-drive, go back to Windows (or whatever) and upload these 2 files to pastebin.com

let me know if you stuck somewhere.

ok, laslty:

currently I'm using another linux distro (PCLInuxOS) so it's right tu put the above module in the current / of my laptop?

If not, where?

I'don't have/don't want to create a pasebin account at the moment. I'll keep in touch for sending the log in another way.

thanks again

[brokenman]

Yes you can create a folder anywhere on your computer to use the extramod cheatcode.

Please create the folder in any place you like, and be sure to point directly to the new folder with the module inside: extramod=/mnt/sdb1/path/to/newfolder

You don't need to make an account for pastebin.com. Just click the link here, paste your stuff in the space and hit submit, then copy the link it gives you back into the forum here.

[niculinux]

OK, I managed to so solve the wi fi problem!

all I did was to download the broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112_3.1.8_porteus-x86_64-2_SBo.xzm module you posted above, and pui into thhe /porteus/modules/ folder (this time I used an USB stick ) chose to boot athe lxde flavor, picked the wifi connection showe in Wicd window et voilà...

So I suppose that module was not merged into the 1.1 relase of porteus.


I was not able to find that module here:
http://porteus.org/distro-download/down ... 4-bit.html

mybe it is in another part of website?

ok, done!

[brokenman]

Correct. These drivers were removed from the v1.1 of porteus because it as reported that the kernel should now contain all necessary drivers for the broadcom family. As seen this is not always the case, and for this reason Fanthom decided to reinclude the broadcom drivers for the latest Porteus-v1.2rc1 release. Glad you got it all working. Enjoy.

[niculinux]

Correct. These drivers were removed from the v1.1 of porteus because it as reported that the kernel should now contain all necessary drivers for the broadcom family. As seen this is not always the case, and for this reason Fanthom decided to reinclude the broadcom drivers for the latest Porteus-v1.2rc1 release. Glad you got it all working. Enjoy.

great!

in the end, don't know wheter you may find this useful, but here's my laptop (brand and model)
click me

for some "hardware support knowlege"


over and out

[angus777]

will you make that hybrid driver (following the procedure above) and preload it in the next porteus relase?

i will do that when someone confirm this driver working with 3.x.x kernel. you are selected for this task as you have the hardware.

I gues I have to build it an do as you told

no - you dont have to build anything. i have compiled this driver for all porteus-1.1 64bit users and it's ready to use. all what you need to do is to download the driver and make it activated during boot.

I booted porteus live but not by an usb stick, I burned it to a cd...

this is not a problem. porteus is very flexible in that matter: you can load modules placed in some folder on your hard-drive while booting from CD.
you can prepare the folder while being on Windows or Mac or whatever.
please create folder named "porteus-modules" on any of your partitions in top directory (example d:/porteus-modules). download broadcom module from here and place in that directory.
start 64bit edition (this driver wont work for 32bits) and press "TAB" key on first booting option (KDE). now add this cheatcode to the existing ones:

Code: Select all

extramod=/porteus-modules

hit enter to start booting.
if you still wont be able to connect to your wifi then please save /var/log/porteus-livedbg and /var/log/messages on your hard-drive, go back to Windows (or whatever) and upload these 2 files to pastebin.com

let me know if you stuck somewhere.

The driver is good for 64bits (My computer use Broadcom BCM43225)!
Do you have the driver for 32bits?

[Hamza]

Pretty sure this module has been compiled by using
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

So for 32-bit Edition, you will need to compile one on 32-Bit Edition of Porteus and uses http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/ ... 112.tar.gz

[amshyd]

Welcome on board niculinux,

broadcom chipsets are kinda problematic. please give a shot to precompiled driver first:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/modules/ ... -2_SBo.xzm
(broadcom-sta driver worked great with previous kernel versions but i have got few reports that suddenly stopped for 3.x series)

if that wont work then please remove broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112_3.1.8_porteus-x86_64-1_SBo.xzm from /porteus/modules and download kernel firmware:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/modules/ ... arch-1.xzm
let's hope that standard drivers provided with the kernel are good enough to support your chipset.

let us know which solution worked (if any).

---
Hi,
I use the 32 bit version of Porteus installed on a USB stick; after using the firmware module (broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112_3.1.8_porteus-x86_64-1_SBo.xzm) suggested by fanthom above 'iwconfig' shows me the wireless interface as 'wlan0'. But neither 'wicd' nor the 'porteus network setup tool' could help me to connect to my wireless network. It talks about creating a log file on the desktop but never really creates anything there.

My hardware: Dell latitude E6410 laptop
My wireless network: Hidden, WPA/WPA2 Personal

I really like porteus for its swift boot and modular approach and want to use it. What do you suggest I should do to resolve the wlan issue? Do you need any additional details from me to identify the issue?

Thank You!

Edit: Oops, I pasted the wrong module name above, actually I used the firmware module 'kernel-firmware-20120202git-noarch-1.xzm' with my 32bit installation after which iwconfig detected wlan0.

[fanthom]

Welcome on board amshyd,

I use the 32 bit version of Porteus installed on a USB stick; after using the firmware module (broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112_3.1.8_porteus-x86_64-1_SBo.xzm) suggested by fanthom above 'iwconfig' shows me the wireless interface as 'wlan0'. But neither 'wicd' nor the 'porteus network setup tool' could help me to connect to my wireless network.

that's because you have used 64bit driver in 32bit edition.
please build broadcom-sta driver for your platform as instructed in this post:
link