While waiting for Pat to finalize Slackware 11.0, I've been playing around with the new bcm4306 driver that is part of the 2.6.17 kernel.

I have it compiled into 2.6.17.11, as a module, along with the IEE80211 network stack and Softmac.

No problem connecting to an unencrypted connection. When I try to connect to my TKIP encrypted network using wpa_supplicant 0.4.9, it won't accept the psk key, so dhcpcd won't give me an IP address.

I use the standard wpa_supplicant.conf file:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
ssid="xxxxxx"
proto=WPA
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
psk="xxxxxxx"
priority=2
}

This file works fine for my TKIP network when I use ndiswrapper, but not for bcm43xx module.

I am thinking that wpa_supplicant doesn't handle this module. It was compiled with this .config file:

CONFIG_DRIVER_WEXT=y
CONFIG_CTRL_IFACE=y

and here is the script I use to bring up the eth1 interface:

modprobe bcm43xx
ifconfig eth1 up
iwlist eth1 scan
iwconfig eth1 channel 6
iwconfig eth1 essid "xxxxxxx"
/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -Bw -ieth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
/sbin/dhcpcd -N -R -Y -d eth1
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo

All the modules found in the /lib/modules/2.6.17.11/kernel/crypto and /kernel/net folders are loaded.

Has anyone been able to get bcm43xx to work with an encrypted network using softmac and wpa_supplicant? I even tried the 0.5.4 version in testing without success.

When I changed the wpa_supplicant string above to
/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ieth1 -c -dddd > /etc/wpa.txt

and examined the text file it showed that the 4 way psk handshake was not being negotiated. I think I need to compile wpa_supplicant with more than wext. I tried CONFIG_DRIVER_BROADCOM=y, but it would not compile, so I am at a loss on what else to try :'(

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Gary

I've been using wpa_supplicant with bcm43xx and not having any real trouble. Most of the networks I'm on are WEP encrypted however, so I don't have a lot of experience on WPA encrypted. Just for comparison, I start wpa_supplicant like this:

wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -ieth0

And my config file looks like this:

network={
ssid="HomeSSID"
key_mgmt=NONE
auth_alg=SHARED
group=WEP104
wep_key0=HexWEPKey
wep_tx_keyidx=0
priority=5
}
network={
ssid="AnotherSSID"
key_mgmt=NONE
auth_alg=SHARED
group=WEP40
wep_key0="WEPHexKEy"
wep_tx_keyidx=0
priority=4
}
network={
ssid="AThirdSSID"
key_mgmt=NONE
auth_alg=SHARED
group=WEP40
wep_key0=WEPHexKey
wep_tx_keyidx=0
priority=1
}
network={
ssid="WPA_NETOWRK_SSID"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
psk="WPA_Passphrase"
priority=1
}

One thing I notice is that you're using iwconfig to partially configure the card prior to calling wpa_supplicant. You probably don't need to do this since wpa_supplicant will configure the card.

As far as drivers go, no you don't need to use anything besides wext. However, did you compile the various encryption options? And don't use that Broadcom setting. I have no idea what chipset that is meant for, but I think it is actually one fo their wired cards. It certainly isn't for any Broadcom wireless card. At any rate, here is the .config I use: