I've installed Debian - testing net-installation on a Dell Inspiron 5150. The precompiled kernel was a 2.4.25 kernel and it has support for my Broadcom 4400 NIC. (b44.o). The driver works fine with the precompiled kernel as i was able to upgrade to sid and install other packages over the net, however when I recompile my kernel, dhcp then has problems getting an IP for my ethernet.
I get the following messages when i do 'ifup eth0':

----------------------
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.2555 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.2555 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.2555 port 67 interval 18
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.2555 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.2555 port 67 interval 9
NO DHCPOFFERS received
No working leases in persistent database.

Exiting.

Failed to bring up eth0
------------------------

I made sure my kernel compile options for DHCP were set. If anyone knows how I can solve this problem, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem with my Dell Inspiron 5150 before it was stolen ...

I've solved the problem using the old BCM 4400 driver (see the package bcm4400-source with apt-cache).

The problem seems to be related with apic. See my posted bug on bugs.debian.org : #236310
I was trying to solve the problem but now that my lnspiron has been stolen, the bug has been closed. It could be very interested if you reopen it.

Do not hesitate to contact me for any information (pinted@tiscali.be).


DidrikPinte

So what you're saying is that i should not compile the module into the kernel, but just download the source and build it? i'm using debian sid, so would that be ok to get the source from that or would that give a problem also?

Also, what type of video card did you have with your 5150?

About the module :

download the bcm4400-source, uncompress it,
configure you kernel without the b44 in it (nor as a module)
do "make-kpkg clean kernel_image modules_image",
dpkg -i bcm4400-module-...
add to your /etc/modules "bcm4400".

Try a modprobe bcm4400, then ifup eth0 (if it's bound to eth0)

(For your information, the bcm4400 is the old module for the BCM4400 network card, the new module is the b44 and has been included in the kernel is 2.4.20)

I had the NVIDIA Geforce FX Go 5200.

My brother had exactly the same computer but with the ATI Radeon video card; He had no problem with the b44 module and kernel 2.6.x.

Did you have any problems getting it to work under X? I'm installing the latest drivers and when I 'startx' the system dumps out characters to the screen like a 'cat /dev/urandom' was done and then the system hangs.. how did you get it working if you did?

I think you are talking about the nivdia module.

First of all, i've installed nvidia-glx, then i've skipped the installation script from nvidia and compiled it has a module of my kernel (see package nvidia-kernel-source and compile it just has the bcm4400 one). The advantage of this is that when you recompile a new kernel, you'll directly have the nvidia module (otherwise you will need to launch the nvidia script to install your new module for your new kernel).

! udev does not work with the nvidia driver (you need to create the device by hand)

! nvidia driver does not support suspend/resume !

Didrik

! udev does not work with the nvidia driver (you need to create the device by hand)


what do you mean by that? what is udev?

udev is the new way a managing dev... A /dev with udev contains only existing dev files related to real peripherals on your computer !

Google it for more information

Didrik

End result was that you got it working? correct?

the nvidia module, sure. Udev, no, I didn't want it to be modified by hand. it's not safe in a long stable perspective...

didrik

how do i build the module specifically for debian from the bcm4400-source i downloaded?

1) disable all the thnkgs related to b44 in your kernel configuration
2) download the bcm4400-source package
3) in /usr/src, tar xzf bcm4400-source.tar.gz
it will create a module directory in /usr/src
4) with your kernel well configured, do this :

cd /usr/src/linux

"make-kpkg --append-to-version=withbcm4400 clean kernel_image modules_image"
it will build the kernel and create two packages, one kernel-image... and on bcm4400-modules...

Install them using dpkg :
dpkg - i kernel-image...
dpkg -i bcm4400-module...

Then update your lilo (or grub), add "bcm4400" into your /etc/modules file, and reboot


Didrik

Hey,
Thanks for your help with my laptop issues.
I got the video working from looking at your .config file in the debian bugs system. Apparently I was compiling agpgart with the wrong chipset so it was acting all weird
I got the bcm4400 source through apt-get but it wouldn't compile, so I downloaded the source from Brodcom's website and compiled it and it worked perfectly. (of course i took out APIC support in the kernel).

So things seem to be working fine now. I haven't tried getting my wireless working as yet, but I'll get to that soon. The problem I'm having now is that I installed i8kutils to get dell accessories but when I try to run them I get the message

----
/proc/i8k: No such file or device
----

Now I guess that means that my dell support isn't working correctly. I saw this message in my dmesg:

----
i8k: unable to get SMM Dell signature
i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version
----

and I was wondering if that had something to do with it.

If you got i8kutils working or if you know what the problem could be could you please help
and thanks.

I did not succeed with i8kutils ... I can't help you with this. See also the bug report that i've sent to bugs.debian.org concerning i8kutils !


Didrik