slackware live 1.0.1, Broadcom 4318
 

Slackware live 1.0.1 usb creation was a breeze, and during dmesg, it appears that the b43 / ssb drivers are loading.

However I can't get the wl0 device started.

It was not clear that I needed to do anything in /etc/pcmcia, either.

dmesg suggests going to kernel.org for the Broadcom drivers, but they appear to install during boot. When I google the B43xx I find stuff which references 3.5 kernels, which the slackware live is not.

Has anyone else looked at this?

The target machine is a compaq 2220, so I am using the 32 bit ISO.


addendum: found wirelesslinux.org, and reading there. I realize that this is the first wireless linux platform I have had after using slackware 1.0 years ago!
second addendum: so I found a slack wiki, and then wireless.wiki.kernel.org, which appears to be the most recent.
If I am interpreting things correctly, I have the b43 driver on the slacklive distribution, and apparently it is supposed to load the firmware into the Broadcom 4318 interface on the target laptop. I have not figured out what triggers or makes that happen. Also, I have not been able to determine if I need to get that firmware from Broadcom, or if it is distributed with slackware.

Member response
 

Hi,

From AlienBob's email notification 05-31-2016;BTW, you can subscribe to his notification at the blog; http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/slackware-live-edition/

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

onebuck, that is helpful, and different from where I was going. Let me chase that down. Thanks.

Member response
 

Hi,

Your welcome!

Another source to look at is; http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:liveslak

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

apparently, ucode5.fw is not on the distribution, and is sought by b43 at boot. I will have to see if I can find that, and find out how to insert it into the usb live file structure (if that is the right way).

I went to the blog and did not find the May 31st item you reference, but I tried it, and it appeared to fail for lack of the ucode5.fw file.

Life will be a little more complicated because the ethernet interface on the motherboard does not work.

There is a Broadcom firmware package in SlackBuildsOrg, it is needed
for b43 module, ucode5.fw is in that package.
Search for b43 in https://slackbuilds.org/
or 'sbopkg -g b43' if you have sbopkg installed.
Probably you need only the firmware package, not the firmware cutter.

Edit: I just realized that I'm using persistence, so this works :doh:
Without persistence you must install that package every time.

I'd very much like to hear if you get your wlan0 device to work after adding "load=broadcom-sta" on the boot commandline (either in syslinux or grub). What that does is install the "wl" kernel driver and blacklist all the regular broadcom kernel drivers.
Then hopefully the "wl" driver gets loaded automatically when your computer boots.
Since I do not own broadcom hardware it is difficult for me to test the truth of my assumptions...

Eric,
I did not get it to work after using load=broadcom-sta. It failed during the boot as not able to find ucode5.fw. I will look at it later today, but that was where I was at yesterday. That particular system does not have a working ethernet adapter, so I have to sneakernet to it with a USB drive for now. I will document what I find. My particular MB is recognized as having a Broadcom 4318, which I recall to be correct.

As far as I understand, the "ucode5.fw" firmware is needed by the Broadcom drivers that are part of the Linux kernel. The "broadcom-sta" driver package which is downloaded from Broadcom's own web site, should not require an additional firmware download. At least, that is how I understand it.

Eric, is broadcom-sta part of the distribution? I will investigate further, because perhaps it is not loading right, or I have done something else wrong.

if you are talking about the standard stable Slackware distribution, no: for that broadcom-sta is available on SBo

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1.../broadcom-sta/

if you are talking about Alien Bob's live isos, please see the last announcement (as onebuck wrote)

http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/upda...-live-edition/

I think it must be 'load=broadcom_sta' with underline, with dash the b43 is still loaded and not blacklisted.
With underline, b43 is blacklisted but wl isn't loaded, I had to ran 'modprobe wl' and the wireless nic was
promplty up with eth1 name. eth0 is the wired one.
In Slackware-stable with b43 and firmware package that same nic is named wlan0.


I just downloaded Mate Slackware live from Ryan's mirror and I can see the broadcom_sta file in the iso
(which I'm posting), but in Xfce Slackware live from your mirror (bear) I can't see the file.
I downloaded the Plasma iso (don't remember which mirror) and I can't see the file too.


Edit: My Broadcom wifi chipset isn't the same as the OP, but I think it is the same family.

Indeed it must be "load=broadcom_sta" with the underscore, my apologies.
So it seems like a "modprobe wl" command needs to be added somewhere during boot.

I can confirm that is 'load=broadcom_sta' after a few reboots.

I'm testing with a bootable usb with persistence so it seems that only the first time the wl module wasn't loaded.
After turn off and turn on, wl was loaded and wifi nic was up and wifi password was saved.
Maybe without persistence 'modprobe wl' needs to run. I will burn the Mate iso again, this time without persistence.
Let's see what happens.

OK, I understand why it does not work automatically the first time you boot the Live OS (either from DVD or from a persistent USB stick).
I added a "depmod -a" command at the end of rc.local to make the kernel recognize the kernel modules that get added from optional/addon modules. But that is too late for udev which will not yet know the "wl" driver when it tries to find drivers for the wireless card.
After that first boot, the module dependency file has been updated and on second boot, the kernel will know that there is a "wl" driver and use that.

Which means that on a DVD without persistence, the wireless is never going to work out of the box.

So what I need to do is run the "depmod" command before the OS initializes, which must be done in the Live init script. I will have to investigate.