Hi,
I recently bought an HP Pavilion dv2412ca laptop, which came with Vista
pre-installed. I backed it up, then reformatted and installed Mandriva
2007.1.
The laptop has a builtin wireless card that lspci identifies as a "Broadcom
Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 02)". I couldn't get
it working with either bcm43xx or ndiswrapper using the Vista driver.
I got an XP driver for it from the HP support web site (sp34152.exe), and was
able to extract it using wine. I still couldn't get it to work with bcm43xx,
but I got it sort of working with ndiswrapper. I say "sort of" because it was
very flakey. It would usually connect when I first booted if the AP was
within reach, but if it lost the signal there was no way to make it reconnect
other than rebooting, and it wouldn't reconnect after suspend. This was with
Mandriva's 2.6.17-13 kernel, and wireless_tools version 28. I upgraded the
kernel to 2.6.17-15 (the latest available for 2007.1), but that didn't help.
Now I'm trying again with bcm43xx. I downloaded the source tarball for 2.6.22
from kernel.org and built a custom kernel (and I turned on wireless and
bcm43xx debugging while I was at it). I also got an SRPM from Mandriva cooker
for wireless_tools version 29 and built and installed it.
lspci -vn gives me:
01:00.0 0280: 14e4:4311 (rev 02)
Subsystem: 103c:1374
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
Memory at c3000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information
Capabilities: [e8] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0
Enable-
Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 1a-00-5c-ff-ff-73-3d-b9
Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting
I was able to use bcm43xx-fwcutter (version 006) to extract the firmware from
the XP driver into /lib/firmware:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3672 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval01.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval02.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3672 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval03.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval04.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2544 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval05.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval06.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2544 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval07.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2544 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval08.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval09.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval10.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2872 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval17.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval18.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval19.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2816 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval20.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval21.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2824 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval22.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval23.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2824 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval24.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_initval25.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27360 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_microcode11.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26432 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_microcode13.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19912 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_microcode4.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21944 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_microcode5.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1312 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_pcm4.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1312 Sep 19 21:22 bcm43xx_pcm5.fw
I get the following syslog messages during boot:
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control
stack, git-1.1.13
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel
Corporation <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx driver
...
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4311, rev 0x2
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Number of cores: 4
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x13, vendor
0x4243
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0xd, vendor
0x4243
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Unsupported 80211 core revision 13
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x817, rev 0x4, vendor
0x4243
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x820, rev 0x5, vendor
0x4243
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Analog: 4, Type 2,
Revision 9
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Invalid PHY Revision 9
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf:
17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2)
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
Sep 20 15:46:33 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
...
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x173, pl 0x425
(2006-10-04 21:02:04)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Firmware: no support for microcode
extracted from version 4.x binary drivers.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed
(-95)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: set security called, .level =
0, .enabled = 0, .encrypt = 0
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks
first.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is
device up?
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: SoftMAC: Canceling existing associate request!
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks
first.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is
device up?
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 ifplugd(eth2)[2750]: ifplugd 0.28 initializing.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x173, pl 0x425
(2006-10-04 21:02:04)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Firmware: no support for microcode
extracted from version 4.x binary drivers.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed
(-95)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 ifplugd(eth2)[2750]: Using interface
eth2/00:00:00:1A:73:5C with driver <bcm43xx> (version: 2.6.22-custom1)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x173, pl 0x425
(2006-10-04 21:02:04)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Firmware: no support for microcode
extracted from version 4.x binary drivers.
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed
(-95)
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 ifplugd(eth2)[2750]: Using detection mode: SIOCETHTOOL
Sep 20 15:46:37 rllt01 ifplugd(eth2)[2750]: Initialization complete, link beat
not detected.
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x173, pl 0x425
(2006-10-04 21:02:04)
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Firmware: no support for microcode
extracted from version 4.x binary drivers.
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed
(-95)
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x173, pl 0x425
(2006-10-04 21:02:04)
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: Firmware: no support for microcode
extracted from version 4.x binary drivers.
Sep 20 15:46:38 rllt01 kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed
(-95)
These "core up ... failed" messages continue to appear in the log once per
second. I suspect the message about version 4.x drivers not being supported
is the problem.
If I try to bring up the interface manually, I get the error "SIOCSIFFLAGS:
Operation not supported".
Should I try to find an older driver? Is it likely to work with my newer
hardware?
I can help try to add support for 4.x drivers if anyone is interested. I am an
experienced developer, though not on Linux, and especially not on device
drivers.
Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks,
Shocky
--
These are my opinions. Get your own.
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