I've been testing the 12.04 Ubuntu release, and hit an immediate
issue with one
machine; the live ISO boots only as far as the b43 driver, and then
the machine
is entirely non responsive and has to be powered off.
The last thing displayed is ..
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and
download the
correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all
instructions
on this website.
If I put the following in the kernel command line
b43.blacklist=yes
the module behaves differently
"b43: Unknown parameter 'blacklist'"
and the problem goes away. There's probably a better way to achieve
the same
goal, but this solution has the benefit that it is easy to switch it
on and off
via grub.
I've not attempted to install firmware, as for most 'normal' users, the
opportunity doesn't arise. Appreciate that for your understanding
that maybe of
interest. Let me know.
You may find further useful detail on the bug over at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/950295 -
including various
diagnostic data that was captured automatically for kernel issues.
The system is 32bit.
The 12.04 kernel is, currently: "Ubuntu 3.2.0-20.32-generic-pae 3.2.12"
The only way to make that boot is with the kernel argument.
As requested on the b43 linuxwireless.org page, please find below the
uname info
and lspci info, and attached the dmesg.
As part of the investigation for the ubuntu bug, I've been testing
Canonical's
vanilla kernel builds; more info about those here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds
I booted the system off a kernel that works; obviously the bug isn't
illustrated. This is the most recent canonical provided mainline
'trunk' (3.x.0)
kernel which boots.
$ uname -a
Linux tecumseh 3.1.0-030100-generic #201110241006 SMP Mon Oct 24
14:20:44 UTC
2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
ben@tecumseh:~$ lspci -vvn|grep 4318 -A7
06:02.0 0280: 14e4:4318 (rev 02)
Subsystem: 1468:0312
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping-
SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort-
>SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at d0002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
I've tried lots of other kernels; including
3.3.0 - hangs
3.2.0 - hangs
I've also tested a few of the 3.2.0 release candidates. I worked back to
3.2.0-rc2; It also hangs. Canonical didn't do a 32bit 3.2.0-rc1, so I
can't test
that.
None of the kernels I've tested down the 3.1.x branch have the problem.
The Ubuntu bug page has all the kernels I've tried; where
/proc/cmdline doesn't
show the argument, I was able to boot it.
Please do let me know what other info / procedures would help to
troubleshoot this.
