[SOLVED] Broadcom 802.11 STA insmod segfault

DonnieP · 11-06-2011, 07:27 AM

Broadcom updated their 802.11 Linux STA driver on 10/25/2011 - hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz. The API patch is no longer needed and the driver compiles without issue. However when I insmod the driver I get a segmentation fault. Does the same thing after a reboot.

Code:

root@imac1337:~/packages/broadcom$ ls
Makefile                                    lib            wl.mod.c
Module.symvers                              modules.order  wl.mod.o
built-in.o                                  src            wl.o
hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz  wl.ko
root@imac1337:~/packages/broadcom$ rmmod wl
ERROR: Module wl does not exist in /proc/modules
root@imac1337:~/packages/broadcom$ insmod wl.ko
Segmentation fault
root@imac1337:~/packages/broadcom$ 
Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077076] ------------[ cut here ]------------

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077082] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP 

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077519] EIP: [<fb3bfd5d>] wl_cfg80211_detach+0x16d/0x180 [wl] SS:ESP 0068:ef43dcb0

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077195] Stack:

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077193] Process insmod (pid: 2433, ti=ef43c000 task=ef6ca200 task.ti=ef43c000)

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077484] Code: c5 8b 83 84 05 00 00 c7 83 98 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 e8 98 f8 d2 c5 89 d8 c7 83 84 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 e8 37 a9 ff ff 5b 5e 5d c3 <0f> 0b 0f 0b eb 0d 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 55 89                                                             

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077216] Call Trace:

Message from syslogd@imac1337 at Sun Nov  6 08:10:28 2011 ...
imac1337 kernel: [  249.077085] last sysfs file: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:02:00.0/net/eth0/carrier

ReaperX7 · 11-07-2011, 12:06 AM

insmod might not be the best option to load a module for your system. The "modprobe" tool works a lot better for this purpose.

However, wl.ko will not by default work with modprobe if you install it using SlackBuilds or a custom compile, and it does require some extra steps to get to autoload correctly.

You first need to symlink it from the directory where ever it was installed to like /lib/modules/*kernel-version*/kernel/extra and create a symlink to /lib/modules/*kernel-version*/kernel/drivers/net/wireless, forexample I use kernel 3.1.0, so I would symlink it using:

Code:

ln -s /lib/modules/3.1.0/kernel/drivers/net/wireless /lib/modules/3.1.0/kernel/extra/wl.ko

This will let the kernel detect the new driver module and autoload the driver correctly, or allow modprobe to load the module and all the module's dependencies.

You also should add the following lines to your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file...

blacklist b43
blacklist ssb

...just in case they aren't blacklisted.

koenigdavidmj · 11-07-2011, 12:27 PM

With the build script from slackbuilds.org I have never needed to do the symlink dance that you describe.

Also the newest version of the driver requires blacklisting the 'bcma' module in addition to b43, b43legacy, and ssb.

Like ReaperX7, I recommend that you not use insmod directly instead use modprobe.

DonnieP · 11-07-2011, 05:35 PM

Same kernel oops using modprobe as with using insmod. And already had wl.ko installed to both .../extra and .../net/wireless.

DonnieP · 11-19-2011, 03:37 PM

Marking it solved. The short answer is forget Broadcom's driver and use the b43 tools from sbopkg. Unfortunately had to install openSUSE to figure this out.