[SOLVED] Can't get Broadcom wireless to work in 13.37

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 02:51 AM

I'm trying to get wireless working on my older laptop but can't figure out after a couple hours of googling how to get it fixed. I've got the Broadcom 4318 chip and installed the broadcom driver from sbopkg.

Here's my lspci:

Code:

bash-4.1# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
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)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
05:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
05:09.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
05:09.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
05:09.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller

iwconfig:

Code:

bash-4.1# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

flank'er · 08-23-2012, 02:59 AM

output, please

Quote:

# lspci -k -s 05:02.0

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flank'er

output, please

Code:

bash-4.1# lspci -k -s 05:02.0
05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb

flank'er · 08-23-2012, 03:16 AM

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwlist wlan0 scan

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flank'er

flank'er · 08-23-2012, 03:29 AM

i think that need a firmware file

ReaperX7 · 08-23-2012, 03:46 AM

The BCM4318 is supported by the Linux kernel's B43 driver but does require firmware to operate.

Go to http://www.SlackBuilds.org and download, build, and install the following packages:

b43-fwcutter
b43-firmware

Usually this will get most Broadcom Wireless chipsets working. You can use a tool like Wicd to manage the connection very easily. Wicd is included in the Install media's /extra directory.

Simply install those and reboot the machine (not required but it helps). When you relaunch Wicd at startup in your X11 session it should tell you if connections are available for "wlan0". If there are, then you can proceed on to connecting to the internet wirelessly.

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

The BCM4318 is supported by the Linux kernel's B43 driver but does require firmware to operate.

Go to http://www.SlackBuilds.org and download, build, and install the following packages:

b43-fwcutter
b43-firmware

Usually this will get most Broadcom Wireless chipsets working. You can use a tool like Wicd to manage the connection very easily. Wicd is included in the Install media's /extra directory.

Simply install those and reboot the machine (not required but it helps). When you relaunch Wicd at startup in your X11 session it should tell you if connections are available for "wlan0". If there are, then you can proceed on to connecting to the internet wirelessly.

I'm using XFCE... will wicd work outside of KDE? When I tried to install the b43-fwcutter it seemed to be stuck in an error loop

ReaperX7 · 08-23-2012, 04:18 AM

Yes. Wicd will work on all desktop environments.

Did you download the SlackBuild package and the source, or just the source? Just for the sake of argument:

Download the b43-fwcutter package b43-fwcutter.tar.gz which contains the SlackBuild scripts and unpack it with

Code:

tar -xzvf b43-fwcutter.tar.gz

Download the source b43-fwcutter-014.tar.gz and place it in the /b43-fwcutter directory you extracted.

Now as root using:

Code:

su

to enter super-user mode run:

Code:

ARCH=XXX* ./b43-fwcutter.SlackBuild

*=replace XXX with i486 or x86_64 depending on what architecture Slackware you installed.

and then run:

Code:

installpkg /tmp/b43-fwcutter-*.t?z

And it'll install the firmware extractor.

Repeat this for the Firmware package with it's correct command names and it'll install.

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

Yes. Wicd will work on all desktop environments.

Did you download the SlackBuild package and the source, or just the source?

I tried to install from sbopkg... should I try from source instead?

ReaperX7 · 08-23-2012, 04:29 AM

I don't use the sbopkg tool. I actually use the SlackBuild scripts manually and install with pkgtool (installpkg).

zrdc28 · 08-23-2012, 09:12 AM

Did you do a lsmod to see if the module is installed, I thought it was installed on my broadcom wireless on bootup?

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zrdc28

Did you do a lsmod to see if the module is installed, I thought it was installed on my broadcom wireless on bootup?

This is my lsmod:

Code:

bash-4.1# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_seq_dummy           1479  0 
snd_seq_oss            30116  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      5708  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                52486  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          5473  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            40089  0 
snd_mixer_oss          17282  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  275315  12 
cpufreq_ondemand        9164  1 
powernow_k8            12956  0 
freq_table              2435  2 cpufreq_ondemand,powernow_k8
mperf                   1195  1 powernow_k8
lp                      9781  0 
ppdev                   6021  0 
parport_pc             21214  0 
parport                30087  3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
fuse                   66651  1 
radeon                906280  2 
b43                   175283  0 
mac80211              204017  1 b43
snd_atiixp             12995  0 
ttm                    52981  1 radeon
snd_ac97_codec        113919  1 snd_atiixp
drm_kms_helper         27035  1 radeon
ac97_bus                1222  1 snd_ac97_codec
drm                   177345  4 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
snd_pcm                73762  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec
hp_wmi                  5741  0 
cfg80211              142106  2 b43,mac80211
joydev                 10279  0 
sparse_keymap           2984  1 hp_wmi
processor              25982  2 powernow_k8
sdhci_pci               7550  0 
thermal                 8082  0 
snd_timer              19671  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
agpgart                28874  2 ttm,drm
rfkill                 16442  3 hp_wmi,cfg80211
rtc_cmos                9374  0 
ssb                    46360  1 b43
i2c_piix4               8176  0 
i2c_algo_bit            5055  1 radeon
firewire_ohci          27301  0 
sdhci                  17079  1 sdhci_pci
snd                    58334  9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
video                  11949  0 
i2c_core               19769  5 radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_piix4,i2c_algo_bit
wmi                     8349  1 hp_wmi
thermal_sys            13862  3 processor,thermal,video
soundcore               5681  1 snd
mmc_core               64800  3 b43,ssb,sdhci
firewire_core          51107  1 firewire_ohci
snd_page_alloc          7297  2 snd_atiixp,snd_pcm
k8temp                  3451  0 
rtc_core               14471  1 rtc_cmos
yenta_socket           21449  0 
tifm_7xx1               4498  0 
button                  5013  0 
8139too                19577  0 
evdev                   9813  16 
shpchp                 26821  0 
hwmon                   1473  3 radeon,thermal_sys,k8temp
tifm_core               5065  1 tifm_7xx1
output                  2020  1 video
pcmcia                 37397  2 b43,ssb
rtc_lib                 1978  1 rtc_core
pcmcia_rsrc             9418  1 yenta_socket
ac                      3249  0 
battery                10535  0 
pcmcia_core            12125  3 yenta_socket,pcmcia,pcmcia_rsrc
mii                     3906  1 8139too
psmouse                47222  0 
serio_raw               4534  0 
sg                     26495  0

Is there anything out of the ordinary there? It has the b43 which I'm pretty sure is correct for my wireless chip

dsotm · 08-23-2012, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

Yes. Wicd will work on all desktop environments.

Did you download the SlackBuild package and the source, or just the source? Just for the sake of argument:

Download the b43-fwcutter package b43-fwcutter.tar.gz which contains the SlackBuild scripts and unpack it with

Code:

tar -xzvf b43-fwcutter.tar.gz

Download the source b43-fwcutter-014.tar.gz and place it in the /b43-fwcutter directory you extracted.

Now as root using:

Code:

su

to enter super-user mode run:

Code:

ARCH=XXX* ./b43-fwcutter.SlackBuild

*=replace XXX with i486 or x86_64 depending on what architecture Slackware you installed.

and then run:

Code:

installpkg /tmp/b43-fwcutter-*.t?z

And it'll install the firmware extractor.

Repeat this for the Firmware package with it's correct command names and it'll install.

When I do ARCH=x86_64 ./b43-fwcutter.SlackBuild it keeps looping something about 'Makefile' has modification time 200699500 s in the future

ReaperX7 · 08-23-2012, 03:44 PM

Check your system and CMOS clocks and make sure they are set correctly.