Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
On Friday 13 August 2010 19:24:08 Bill Longman wrote: On 08/13/2010 10:58 AM, BRM wrote: - Original Message On 13 August 2010 09:08, Neil Bothwick n...@digimed.co.uk wrote: On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. Have you been through the guidance in this page to find out which kernel driver you ought to use with your card? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 Yes. Unfortunately it's a 14e4:4320/ with BCM4306/2 Chip set (4306 Rev 2), so it requires the b43-legacy driver, and only firmware version FW10 supports the hardware from what I can tell. It just seems to me that I went from a working wireless on 2.6.30 to a non-working wireless on 2.6.34. I'd really like to get back to a working wireless card, and be on the newer kernel. I feel your pain, Ben. I remember about three years ago having my laptop working great with all manner of 802.11 cards. I could do my work anywhere in the house. And then it all just kind of melted. A new kernel for one thing but somehow something else fell apart. I've pretty much written off any wireless on Linux now. My time is worth more than the hours of troubleshooting. Keep plugging, you just might get it. Well, there's always ndiswrapper and the MSWindows driver to consider, when all Linux solutions fail or don't work that well. I see on kernel v2.6.34-gentoo-r1 that CONFIG_B43LEGACY will now use V3 firmware, which must be installed separately using b43-fwcutter. Has the OP tried that? PS. The kernel help is also recommending that b43legacy is installed as a module. -- Regards, Mick signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
On Saturday 14 August 2010 11:18:17 you wrote: On Friday 13 August 2010 19:24:08 Bill Longman wrote: On 08/13/2010 10:58 AM, BRM wrote: - Original Message On 13 August 2010 09:08, Neil Bothwick n...@digimed.co.uk wrote: On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. Have you been through the guidance in this page to find out which kernel driver you ought to use with your card? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 Yes. Unfortunately it's a 14e4:4320/ with BCM4306/2 Chip set (4306 Rev 2), so it requires the b43-legacy driver, and only firmware version FW10 supports the hardware from what I can tell. It just seems to me that I went from a working wireless on 2.6.30 to a non-working wireless on 2.6.34. I'd really like to get back to a working wireless card, and be on the newer kernel. I feel your pain, Ben. I remember about three years ago having my laptop working great with all manner of 802.11 cards. I could do my work anywhere in the house. And then it all just kind of melted. A new kernel for one thing but somehow something else fell apart. I've pretty much written off any wireless on Linux now. My time is worth more than the hours of troubleshooting. Keep plugging, you just might get it. Well, there's always ndiswrapper and the MSWindows driver to consider, when all Linux solutions fail or don't work that well. I see on kernel v2.6.34-gentoo-r1 that CONFIG_B43LEGACY will now use V3 firmware, which must be installed separately using b43-fwcutter. Has the OP tried that? PS. The kernel help is also recommending that b43legacy is installed as a module. I read again your original post. I think that you have been trying to use the wrong firmware. The link I suggested recommends that you use b43_fwcutter to install this firmware: http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o Alternatively, you may want to experiment with whatever is the latest firmware in Broadcom's website and see if any of those work. -- Regards, Mick signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
[gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
I have a laptop that has been running Linux Kernel 2.6.30 Gentoo-R8 (gentoo sources, don't remember which version) for a while. It has a Broadcom 4306 Rev 2 wireless card that has been working well with that kernel. I extracted the firmware from the broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5 blob a while ago using b43-fwcutter 011. I have to hard-code the network settings in /etc/conf.d/net for my home network, but am able to use wpa_supplicant whenever I go elsewhere. (I think it's my home wireless router that causes the issue; probably needs a firmware upgrade.) Any how, I recently upgraded to Linux Kernel 2.6.34 Gentoo-R7 (gentoo-sources 2.6.34-r1); again using the b43-legacy driver for the wireless. However, now I can't keep a network connection up. I keep getting errors from the /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 startup - namely: SIOCSIFFLAGS Unknown Error 132. I had to reboot onto the older kernel to write this message and try to research the issue a little. From on-line, some sites suggest the following as a solution: rmmod ath9k rfkill block all rfkill unblock all modprobe ath9k rfkill unblock all however, rfkill seems to only be in testing for gentoo (http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-wireless/rfkill), and I'm using the b43-legacy instead of the ath9k driver - okay, no problem there, just switch out which driver is unloaded and reloaded. Haven't tried it yet as I have to reboot; but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Further, I can't seem to find a version of b43-fwcutter that will extract any of the b43-legacy firmware - even the one I had successfully extracted (011, 012, 13). Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know if this gets resolved (or made worse) by a newer kernel? Ben
Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. -- Neil Bothwick If you use envelopes, why not encryption ? signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
On 13 August 2010 09:08, Neil Bothwick n...@digimed.co.uk wrote: On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. Have you been through the guidance in this page to find out which kernel driver you ought to use with your card? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 -- Regards, Mick
Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
- Original Message On 13 August 2010 09:08, Neil Bothwick n...@digimed.co.uk wrote: On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. Have you been through the guidance in this page to find out which kernel driver you ought to use with your card? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 Yes. Unfortunately it's a 14e4:4320/ with BCM4306/2 Chip set (4306 Rev 2), so it requires the b43-legacy driver, and only firmware version FW10 supports the hardware from what I can tell. It just seems to me that I went from a working wireless on 2.6.30 to a non-working wireless on 2.6.34. I'd really like to get back to a working wireless card, and be on the newer kernel. While the steps I quoted may be a work around for 2.6.34 - I haven't had a chance to test them yet, hopefully tonight - they are just that, a work around for a bug. rfkill did install pretty easily once I unmasked it, but I don't know if it will work yet either. Ben
Re: [gentoo-user] b43-legacy and newer linux kernels?
On 08/13/2010 10:58 AM, BRM wrote: - Original Message On 13 August 2010 09:08, Neil Bothwick n...@digimed.co.uk wrote: On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:10:02 -0700 (PDT), BRM wrote: but even so - they are saying this has to be done on every reboot, and that's not much of a solution. Put the commands in /etc/conf.d/local.start, or the start section of /etc/conf.d/local if using baselayout2. Have you been through the guidance in this page to find out which kernel driver you ought to use with your card? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 Yes. Unfortunately it's a 14e4:4320/ with BCM4306/2 Chip set (4306 Rev 2), so it requires the b43-legacy driver, and only firmware version FW10 supports the hardware from what I can tell. It just seems to me that I went from a working wireless on 2.6.30 to a non-working wireless on 2.6.34. I'd really like to get back to a working wireless card, and be on the newer kernel. I feel your pain, Ben. I remember about three years ago having my laptop working great with all manner of 802.11 cards. I could do my work anywhere in the house. And then it all just kind of melted. A new kernel for one thing but somehow something else fell apart. I've pretty much written off any wireless on Linux now. My time is worth more than the hours of troubleshooting. Keep plugging, you just might get it.
