bcm43xx connection woes (again)

C-Sniper · 12-01-2007, 10:25 PM

well im back with another bcm4306 problem.
i had a small error that caused me to re-install slackware onto my laptop. So after getting everything re-configured i tried to get my broadcom wireless chip up and running. I know many people use the ndiswrapper for theirs but i use the fwcutter tool. so i downloaded the wl_apsta.o file, and the bcm43xx-fwcutter-006. and installed the firmware, not thinking twice about it since this isn't the first time ive done it. now i can't connect to any wireless network, the manual off/on button for the wireless doesn't work, and i have a new interface called sit0. Im not sure if this would be kernel related or something to do with the fwcutter. have any ideas where i went wrong or how to fix it so i can connect to a wireless network?

lspci -vv

Code:

03:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 12f8
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
        Region 0: Memory at b0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

dmesg |grep eth

Code:

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xe881c000, 00:0f:b0:6c:37:c0, IRQ 20
eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
net eth1: device_rename: sysfs_create_symlink failed (-17)
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth0: could not initialize WEP: load module ieee80211_crypt_wep
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth0: could not initialize WEP: load module ieee80211_crypt_wep
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth0: could not initialize WEP: load module ieee80211_crypt_wep
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth0: could not initialize WEP: load module ieee80211_crypt_wep
eth1: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
eth1: no IPv6 routers present
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
eth1: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
eth1: no IPv6 routers present
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
device eth0 left promiscuous mode

ifconfig -a

Code:

eth0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-90-4B-AC-B2-E5-04-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2326357 errors:0 dropped:1329 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:304 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:293276532 (279.6 MiB)  TX bytes:24770 (24.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0x4000

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0F:B0:6C:37:C0
          inet addr:192.168.1.102  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20f:b0ff:fe6c:37c0/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:15578 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10198 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:15803323 (15.0 MiB)  TX bytes:1182796 (1.1 MiB)
          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xc000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:112 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:112 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:9648 (9.4 KiB)  TX bytes:9648 (9.4 KiB)

sit0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-65-74-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

it is weird too because the LED light that normally tells me if the device is on or off is often the opposite of what the status of the wireless is.

any suggestions?

Hangdog42 · 12-02-2007, 06:14 AM

If eth0 is your wireless card (and your system seems to think it is based on the dmesg output) then it is a Realtek chipset, and that won't work with bcm43xx. What is the output from iwconfig?

C-Sniper · 12-02-2007, 10:34 AM

Well i had the wireless working with my ethernet up until the point i had to re-install slackware, but then the ethernet was on eth0 and the wireless was on eth1, and i had no sit0
heres the iwconfig

Code:

lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

eth0      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"Darkstar"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.472 GHz  Access Point: Invalid
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=19 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level=-256 dBm  Noise level=-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Hangdog42 · 12-02-2007, 11:28 AM

If I remember correctly, sit0 is a device that shows up when you enable IPv6 in the kernel and it may allow IPv4 to function on an IPv6 network. At any rate, it isn't the problem here.

What is a problem is that your system seems to have identified the Realtek chipset as the wireless device. At least your dmesg output shows the system trying to initialize WEP on eth0 and that appears to be the Realtek device and iwconfig shows eth0 as the wireless card. Unfortunately, and I may be wrong about this, that chipset is for a wired Ethernet controller, not a wireless one.

Have a look at the modules that have been loaded (lsmod). If the system is picking up your Broadcom card, bcm43xx should be loading. The Realtek card should be something like r8139too, or something like that.

C-Sniper · 12-02-2007, 04:29 PM

heres the lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ieee80211_crypt_wep     3968  3
bcm43xx               406048  0
snd_atiixp             13836  0
snd_ac97_codec         87844  1 snd_atiixp
ac97_bus                1920  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                57608  2 snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              15236  1 snd_pcm
ieee80211softmac       21504  1 bcm43xx
snd                    32376  4 snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc          7176  2 snd_atiixp,snd_pcm
8139too                18688  0

everything appears to have initialized correctly. hmmmm

Hangdog42 · 12-03-2007, 07:47 AM

Hm. What I would try is remove both bcm43xx and 8139too with modprobe -r, and then reload just bcm43xx and see if things improve. I'd also look through the log files and see if anything funky is happening with either of them.

C-Sniper · 12-04-2007, 06:12 PM

ok tried the ?modprobe -r bcm43xx 8139too && modprobe bcm43xx" to no avail.
here is the syslog: (only the part i found pertinent)

Code:

 Darkstar Kernel: net eth1: device_rename: sysfs_create_symlink failed (-17)

the rest of the syslog is just about how DHCP and SSHD timed out waiting for a connection (It was not connected to the internet when i tried this)

Hangdog42 · 12-05-2007, 07:31 AM

From what I can tell from Googling, this error seems to be cropping up in a few of the wireless development kernels and some new kernels. I'm not finding a straight explanation of what is going on, but is seems to me (and I may be wrong) that the 2.6.23 kernel is a little hinky when it comes to bcm43xx. You might want to try dropping back to a 2.6.22 kernel if you can.

C-Sniper · 12-05-2007, 10:58 AM

well this is the first time I've tried it on the 6.23.9 kernel, i remember that it worked well on the 6.23.8 one though. I might try that then, thanks.
The only thing i noticed though is that using the stock 2.6.21.5 kernel it swapped my eth's from what they normally were (ethernet on eth0 and wifi on eth1)