BCM4312 and Slackware 12.1 RC1

andrew.46 · 03-30-2008, 08:21 PM

Hi,

I have just taken delivery of my second hand Dell D520 laptop and I am waiting for Slackware 12.1 RC1 to install. I have an old linux distro on it at the moment just to see if all works well and lspci reports the wireless as BCM4312 (01). With the kernel 2.6.24.4 should it just run or will I need firmware as well?

Andrew

andrew.46 · 03-30-2008, 08:54 PM

Woooo hooooo! Got the wireless working on the D520 using 2.6.24-12 and the firmware from linuxwireless.org. Looking forward to doing the same with slackware :-)

Andrew

AceofSpades19 · 03-30-2008, 08:59 PM

Wait..Slackware 12.1 RC1 was released?, when?

andrew.46 · 03-30-2008, 09:05 PM

Oops, as usual I am less than clear:

Quote:

Originally Posted by AceofSpades19

Wait..Slackware 12.1 RC1 was released?, when?

I set the new lap top up with the March 30 build of Gutsy Gibbon simply to test the wifi. When slackware 12.1 RC1 comes out it will replace Gutsy.

Andrew

Bruce Hill · 03-30-2008, 09:54 PM

Here's a read of the Slackware -current ChangeLog.txt:

Quote:

a/udev-118-i486-2.tgz: Blacklist old bcm43xx driver (b43 and b43legacy are
the recommended drivers now).

Also, perhaps 12.1 RC1 is already out? I read this:

Quote:

+--------------------------+
Fri Mar 28 23:35:22 CDT 2008
a/aaa_base-12.1.0-noarch-1.tgz: Added an empty /usr/share/wallpapers as this
seems to be a de-facto standard directory and (for example) XFce will give
an error if it is missing and one tries to change the desktop image.
Thanks to Chess Griffin for reporting this.
Bumped version number of package, and of /etc/slackware-version.

though I'm still burning a CD to start a NFS install to my test box.

Perhaps Pat will add the V4 firmware, which must be installed separately using b43-fwcutter, into Slackware has he's added firmware for other devices.

rworkman · 03-31-2008, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Hill

Here's a read of the Slackware -current ChangeLog.txt:Also, perhaps 12.1 RC1 is already out?

No, not yet

Quote:

Perhaps Pat will add the V4 firmware, which must be installed separately using b43-fwcutter, into Slackware has he's added firmware for other devices.

If the b43 firmware is freely redistributable, then perhaps. Last I checked, it wasn't though.

chess · 03-31-2008, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman

If the b43 firmware is freely redistributable, then perhaps. Last I checked, it wasn't though.

And that's still the case, unfortunately.

Bruce Hill · 03-31-2008, 11:20 AM

Yes, therefore, that firmware won't be added. Also, I hear that the b43 driver has other problems.

I guess we're one step closer to 12.1 RC1:

Code:

mingdao@james:~$ cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 12.1.0

and that's what he meant by changing /etc/slackware-version

Jeebizz · 03-31-2008, 12:34 PM

From part of the changelog dated Wed Mar 19 19:34:38 CDT 2008

Quote:

.....
a/udev-118-i486-2.tgz: Blacklist old bcm43xx driver (b43 and b43legacy are
the recommended drivers now).
.....

Since it is already included in Slackware, wouldn't you just need the firmware only?

[edit]

I would also guess that I have to use the b43 driver, because my chipset is both b/g, according to linuxwireless.org...

Quote:

Q: I'm confused about this b43/b43legacy business. Which one do I need?

If your chipset is 802.11b-only or BCM4306 rev 2, you need to use b43legacy. All other devices, including BCM4306 rev 3, use b43.

You can also ignore this issue and simply compile both drivers, they will automatically detect which one you need by themselves and the appropriate one will be loaded.

cathectic · 03-31-2008, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Hill

Also, I hear that the b43 driver has other problems.

Quite the opposite - the b43 driver actually fixes the serious transmission problems with the BCM4318 and newer chips that plagued the old bcm43xx, as well as adding support for newer hardware.

It's also built on top of the far more robust mac80211 stack, rather than softmac (softmac's authors freely admit that softmac was a hack to get bcm43xx into the kernel in the short-term until mac80211 was added).

So I'd actually encourage as many people as possible to dump bcm43xx - it's abandoned, unsupported, and has known problems that will never be fixed (it's already scheduled for deletion in 2.6.26).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeebizz

I would also guess that I have to use the b43 driver, because my chipset is both b/g, according to linuxwireless.org...

Yes. Pretty much all the current Broadcom wireless chips are covered by b43, b43legacy is only for the really old stuff:

b43legacy:

BCM4301
BCM4303
BCM4306 (pre rev 3)

b43:

Everything else.

Bruce Hill · 03-31-2008, 09:46 PM

I have no Broadcom chips, but quoted a reliable source about
the b43 module. He also said he only gets a 1M rate from it.

So while b43 might obviously be better than it's predecessors,
it apparently "has other problems", at least for some people.

Thanks for posting which chipsets should use the legacy driver.

Jeebizz · 04-01-2008, 05:58 PM

From lspci...

Code:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1363
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
	Memory at c4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
	Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel

Though I can't seem to find that b43 even supports my chipset... 'BCM94311MCG'

Pratt · 04-01-2008, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeebizz

Though I can't seem to find that b43 even supports my chipset... 'BCM94311MCG'

We have the same chipset, and I was able to get it working with help of ndiswrapper and the bcm5wl.inf driver.

I got tired of trying and trying with the b43 module or the ssb module and firmware.

My only salvation was ndiswrapper