BCM4312 (14e4:4315) help.

ReaperX7 · 07-15-2012, 09:18 PM

Does anyone know which b43-firmware and b43-fwcutter version works with the current kernel 3.2.23?

Need to get an HP Mini Netbook wireless card working, but so far I haven't had any luck, yet.

Wireless card is a 14e4:4315 BCM4312. Looked for a Broadcom-STA driver, but only driver from Broadcom was for kernel 2.6.x series.

zakame · 07-15-2012, 09:24 PM

The broadcom-sta driver works on kernel 3.x as well. I've used it on my -current prior to building my own mainline kernel. Just watch out for its aggressive power management when in use (e.g. it blocks packets when on battery power, so I had to do 'iwconfig wlan0 power off' to get my connection back.)

hakan56 · 07-16-2012, 02:32 AM

I have the same card as you and also use "Current"...

Code:

root@hakan:/home/spiken $ lspci
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

spiken@hakan:~ $ dmesg |grep 14e4
[    0.831539] pci 0000:08:00.0: [14e4:4315] type 0 class 0x000280

..and I use this SlackBuild...
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.../broadcom-sta/

/Håkan

H_TeXMeX_H · 07-16-2012, 10:34 AM

It is listed as working here with either b43 (make sure to get the firmware) or sta.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
Instructions are there.

ReaperX7 · 07-16-2012, 04:56 PM

Well, in that lies the problem.

I have the b43 driver in usage and attempted to load the firmware, but for some reason Wicd still says that there is no wireless connection, when I have a wireless router in-use. I loaded the 5.100.138 firmware but so far, nothing.

I attempted to build the STA driver but the compile failed. After searching the internet I found a patch and attempted and compiled it manually using this patch: http://www.mindwerks.net/2011/11/wir...12-3-2-kernel/ and instructions on the webpage, but even with the driver module loaded, it still fails to recognize the device. I'm still troubleshooting this, so hopefully, I'll find out what I'm doing wrong.

Any suggestions or ideas?

tomtomjkw · 07-17-2012, 12:37 AM

Did you check interface name? Maybe that's the same problem that willysr had:
http://slackblogs.blogspot.com/2012/...nged-rule.html

hakan56 · 07-17-2012, 11:58 AM

I am ashamed

of course I knew about the patch (I did get my card to work), but I completely forgot to tell you about it. I'm glad you found it anyway.

The first time my /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules looked like this...

Code:

# PCI device 0x14e4:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:08:00.0 (wl)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f0:7b:cb:88:b9:fd", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x10ec:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.5/0000:20:00.0 (r8169)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:26:b9:d0:f8:e1", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x14e4:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:08:00.0 (wl)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f0:7b:cb:88:b9:fd", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth2"

# PCI device 0x10ec:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.5/0000:20:00.0 (r8169)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:26:b9:d0:f8:e1", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth3"

0x14e4 is the wireless-card, as you can see "something renames it"

from eth0 to eth2 (0x10ec is the "wired-card")

I then made a /etc/udev/rules.d/90-local.rules to name my "wire-card" eth0 and wireless-card wlan0...

Code:

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x4315 (wl)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f0:7b:cb:88:b9:fd", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="wlan0"

# PCI device 0x10ec:0x8168 (r8169)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:26:b9:d0:f8:e1", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

..and commented (#) the lines with "eth2" and "eth3" as you can see above in the 70-persistent-net.rules. Then I made a reboot...but no go....more lines in 70-persistent-net.rules...

Code:

# PCI device 0x14e4:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:08:00.0 (wl)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f0:7b:cb:88:b9:fd", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

# PCI device 0x14e4:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:08:00.0 (wl)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f0:7b:cb:88:b9:fd", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan1"

...but then I only had to comment the last line about "wlan1" and reboot.

And now my "wire" is eth0 and wireless wlan0

I have no idea why this name changes occurs (eth0 -eth2, eth1-eth3, wlan0-wlan1), maybe someone else knows more about it?

/Håkan

ReaperX7 · 07-17-2012, 06:35 PM

I'll check this tonight when I have time. Thanks for the pointers.

klickback · 07-18-2012, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hakan56

I have no idea why this name changes occurs (eth0 -eth2, eth1-eth3, wlan0-wlan1), maybe someone else knows more about it?

/Håkan

It's most likely udev trying to be a smartass. I faced the same problem and 'fixed' it by deleting the "lib/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules" file. Credits to n00bysy0p : http://n00bsys0p.co.uk/blog/2012/07/...etwork-devices

@ReaperX7: You also have to blacklist the 'b43' and 'ssb' modules if you're using the STA driver. I've written a guide on Slackwiki for this since it's the most frequently asked hardware question on the Slackware IRC channel. See if it helps: http://slackwiki.com/Broadcom_Wireless. Of course, you need to add the patch to the Slackbuild first, since you're using kernel 3.X.

Bertman123 · 07-18-2012, 08:15 PM

I have the same wireless card and when I set it up using wicd I would iwconfig to find out if the wireless card was listed as eth1 or eth2, etc and then go into wicd and go to preferences and then tell wicd what the wireless was listed as (eth1 or eth2). Sometimes I would notice that my wireless connection would be renamed from eth1 to eth2 and I would just repeat this process to get it working.

folkenfanel · 07-20-2012, 01:05 PM

Greetings fellow Slackers:

I have been upgrading from 13.37 to -current for the last week.

I own a Broadcom wireless card ( 04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01), pci 0000:04:00.0: [14e4:4315] type 0 class 0x000280 ). I can use it with no problems whatsoever, with the standard Slackware normal and huge 2.6.37 and 2.6.38 (testing) kernels, and the firmware version 4.178.10.4, it just works and causes no problems at all.

During the upgrade process, the first thing I tested was the kernel from -current. As usual, I test the huge kernel first. It loads with no problems, with just one line complaining about my sound card (but it works anyway, it just complains that it is initialized with a generic method or something). The wireless driver worked with kernel 3.2 and the 4.178 firmware.

After that I upgraded everything to -current, and everything worked except the Phonon MPlayer backend (one of the libraries, it blocks the KDE sound system but not most apps specially music players - I can live without the start up sound), a complaint with no side effects about modprobe -bv acpi unexpectedly exiting, and the wireless card (which is actually serious from my point of view as I needed to reboot time after time just to test the card and connect to the internet and change the firmware, and so on...). So I decided to investigate it first.

I tried the 5.100.138 firmware. It does not work. It does bring the interface up but it does not work. I tried reloading the module, reloading udev, playing with udev persistent network rules. No success. I had to switch between firmware versions as the 1337 kernel seems to hate 5.100.138. Every time I tried to load the card it gave me errors about flags, link not ready, etc etc. (checking the logs).

Then I remembered that it worked the first time, even with firmware version 4, before upgrading to -current, with just the 3.2.23 kernel. I thought it might be udev. So I checked the changelog for any possible issues and then I just downgraded udev to 13.37 udev (udev 165 build 2). So that's how I am able to write these lines. It just works. Firmware 4.178. Huge Slackware -current kernel.

During the downgrade I remember having seen some lines about a b43xx rules file. I'll investigate about it later. Maybe I might be able to use udev 175 (which would be good) but I don't want to push my luck. Ah, the modprobe -bv complaint is still there even after I downgraded udev. So it's most likely not related to udev.

folkenfanel · 07-20-2012, 01:36 PM

I updated the firmware to version 5.100.138. It works now with this 13.37 udev.

ReaperX7 · 07-22-2012, 06:08 PM

I'm still not having any luck. At this point I have no idea of what to do now.

Broadcom-STA doesn't work.
B43 + Firmware doesn't work.

I've checked everything, I've removed the udev rules, and renamed the interfaces, but so far my wireless card is completely unusable, if not totally dead.

hakan56 · 07-23-2012, 01:06 AM

It seems that the card works with both drivers...

I use broadcom-sta and need some more information..

Check your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Code:

# blacklist for broadcom-sta driver
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist bcma
blacklist ssb

...then show the result of..

Code:

root@hakan:/home/spiken $ dmesg |grep Broadcom
[    8.486147] eth1: Broadcom BCM4315 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 5.100.82.112

..and..

Code:

root@hakan:/home/spiken $ iwconfig

...and your /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

/Håkan

ReaperX7 · 07-25-2012, 03:41 PM

Okay I'm not using the Broadcom-STA driver and I'm using the default B43 drivers and SlackBuild B43-FWCutter + B43-Firmware package and the Wireless finally does show up after the last udev update (Thanks Patrick!!!), but the wireless still has problems with connectivity such as the wireless will connect to the router, get an IP address, but if I open a web browser I can not get any web pages to come up at all like I'm not even connected to the internet at all. This has been a continuous issue for me with this netbook regarding the wireless...

I can connect to the modem and network but there is not internet or network connectivity between devices.

At this point, I really need help figuring out what is going on.

Is this a DNS issue?

Is this a problem with the B43 driver and firmware (if it is getting a working STA Slackbuild to compile is an issue requiring a patch and editing SlackBuilds is not my strong point)?

Or is this just a problem with the BCM4312 itself such as a hardware failure?

Here's my grep readout:

Code:

[13.229750] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)

ifconfig and iwconfig both show an IPv4 address for each interface.

Update (additional info):

I did once have trouble with a router using DNSMasq and had to keep it disabled on the router for Linux based Networks to connect using Wi-Fi.