broadom 4311 and broadom sta driver not working
 

so I was originally trying to set up my wireless using b43-fwcutter and the b43 driver from linuxwireless.org. I was not having much luck getting that to work however with my broadcom 4311 chip so I switched to using broadcom's driver which I found here.

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

I removed b43 modules and added modules for this driver and installed it but I still can't figure out why I can't get a connection. Below I've included relevant console outputs that I think should be able to help some of you braniacs help me figure this out. :)

------EDIT 9:55 AM MST------

Below are some additional details I found. the first portion is relevant to my broadcom chip when running lspci -vn and the second part is just showing that I don't have any modules for ssb, even though my broadcom chip seems to be expecting one. I would say that is obviously a problem although I don't know how to change it..

try you might need to too

That snippet of what you posted strongly suggests (to me) that, despite your comment about removing the b43 modules, you have failed to do so. I'd suggest that you consider adding b43 and b43_phy to /etc/modules.d/blacklist-b43.conf or (since I don't use Slackware) wherever your system keeps it's module blacklists.

<edit>
It is, of course, possible that the driver you're trying to use is, in fact, a version of the b43
driver, and you just need to install the firmware specified in the message I quoted from your post.
</edit>

Looking at your prior thread, did you consider checking that the power to your wireless device was turned on? (On my laptop the wireless power switch is on the front of the case, and easily "tripped" by sliding the unit on my lap. I spent a couple of hours once trying to figure out what had gone wrong before I thought to check the switch position. In fact, :redface:, I booted Vista which popped a message that the power to the device was "off" before I thought to check.)

this is what i get when i type those commands

I wish that the only problem was that i need to hit the switch. :) that would be pretty nice.

in slackware it is /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and i've done the following (even though it doesn't seem to be working since these modules seem to be loaded into the kernel anyways - or so thats what modprobe is telling me, right? )

You`ve been battling this for a while. If all else fails the ndiswrapper module and windows drivers will work. However, Im surprised the b43 didn`t work. You should really check the drivers at slackbuilds.org. Search for broadcom. I`m not sure but the drivers there could have modified install paths or something. The stuff there almost always works on slackware systems.

The slackbuilds site doesn`t list any dependencies for the broadcom-sta driver. Not even the firmware. So I doubt the ssb and b44 modules were needed. Are you using the huge kernel or generic?

lol not sure...i'm pretty sure the huge one..how can i tell?

in the readme for the broadcom sta driver it says i need to remove ssb, b43, all that cause it causes conflicts...thats why i added it to the blacklist and did rmmod on them

go to /boot directory
check to see what the vmlinuz symbolic link is to.
Chances are your using the huge kernel with just about everything compiled into it. You will not be able to remove or blacklist anything.
The b43 drivers will be in the kernel. You need to switch to the generic kernel
make an initrd
then use broadcom-sta driver

I just saw your old thread. The wpa supplicant is on the slackware disk in N so you may have it already.If you can you should disable security until you get connectivity. Then work on security. It makes troubleshooting easier. You might have already had the b43 driver working but the wpa issue didn`t allow connectivity.

this is what i get. why on earth can i not unload specific modules or blacklist anything? thats pretty annoying. lol

Hi,

Look at 'Slackware 13.0 RC2 X86_64 Broadcom bcm4312 problems' to possibly get some insight to help solve your 'STA' problems.

BTW, what's the output for 'ifconfig -a'? 'SSB' is necessary for the b44 driver if you plan to use the Ethernet.

:hattip:

...how do i disable security, what is the wpa issue, and how would it keep me from connecting? are you referring to the fact I couldn't set the key on the wlan0? somehow i managed to completely remove wlan0 as it doesn't come up at all when i enter
I was trying to work with the ndiswrapper but its saying I need to download the windows driver for my wireless card and extract it but its an exe file which is unextractable. lol

below is the output...and i don't really care about ethernet..i never hook up to ethernet..i'm always using wireless..

You should use a generic kernel if you have one in /boot.
You need to change your symbolic links for vmlinuz, syatem.map, and config to point to their generic files in /boot if they exist.
Then make an initrd. The /boot directory has an easy readme for this.
Don`t forget to doafter making the initrd.
It is easy to do.
When you use the huge kernels everything is in kernel. Generic kernel uses mostly loadable modules.
The huge kernel is a PITA when conflicts arise.
If you do want to stay with the huge kernel you probably only needed firmware for b43. The drivers were already in the kernel.