First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still need/want to use the older driver even on devices that are (or should be) supported by the newer driver. If you are in this situation, I recommend this procedure:
# save the file attached to this email as "bcm43xx-old-config" # you need to be root ./bcm43xx-old-config
The internals of that file look a little hairy, so I don't want people having to type the commands themselves... :-) Anyway, the second procedure is ONLY for those who have completed the first procedure and find the bcm43xx-mac80211 driver to be unacceptable. This includes _some_ bcm4318 users and apparently a _few_ bcm4306 users. This should keep most of you from having to use an unsupportable alternative like ndiswrapper.
Hth!
John
On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 09:17:12AM -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still need/want to use the older driver even on devices that are (or should be) supported by the newer driver. If you are in this situation, I recommend this procedure:
# save the file attached to this email as "bcm43xx-old-config" # you need to be root ./bcm43xx-old-config
# left this part out... /etc/rc.local
On Monday 04 June 2007, John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
Since that was a newer driver than the 4.40.1 that came with xp, I did this. But the net result is still the same, dhcp times out. The logged messages appear to be identical while its failing. See my other, very lengthy post for those please.
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still need/want to use the older driver even on devices that are (or should be) supported by the newer driver. If you are in this situation, I recommend this procedure:
# save the file attached to this email as "bcm43xx-old-config" # you need to be root ./bcm43xx-old-config
The internals of that file look a little hairy, so I don't want people having to type the commands themselves... :-) Anyway, the second procedure is ONLY for those who have completed the first procedure and find the bcm43xx-mac80211 driver to be unacceptable. This includes _some_ bcm4318 users and apparently a _few_ bcm4306 users. This should keep most of you from having to use an unsupportable alternative like ndiswrapper.
It would be nice indeed if ndiswrapper would work, but its lsmod displayed use count is 0. If someone who has it working would please post that snippet of their lsmod report so I could compare, I'd appreciate it.
Hth!
John
On Mon, 2007-06-04 at 09:17 -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still need/want to use the older driver even on devices that are (or should be) supported by the newer driver. If you are in this situation, I recommend this procedure:
# save the file attached to this email as "bcm43xx-old-config" # you need to be root ./bcm43xx-old-config
The internals of that file look a little hairy, so I don't want people having to type the commands themselves... :-) Anyway, the second procedure is ONLY for those who have completed the first procedure and find the bcm43xx-mac80211 driver to be unacceptable. This includes _some_ bcm4318 users and apparently a _few_ bcm4306 users. This should keep most of you from having to use an unsupportable alternative like ndiswrapper.
Hth!
John
Thanks for the help with this posting. And to the others who followed up with the pointers to SELINUX.
I was able to get my new shiny Lenovo Lappy working and I was _almost_ happy until I noted the tranfer speeds. I'm only getting 20 Kbytes/sec 2 feet from my AP on my wireless network while my Atheros based machines get 3 Mbytes/sec 50ft from my AP.
Any ideas?
Sean
I was able to get my new shiny Lenovo Lappy working and I was _almost_ happy until I noted the tranfer speeds. I'm only getting 20 Kbytes/sec 2 feet from my AP on my wireless network while my Atheros based machines get 3 Mbytes/sec 50ft from my AP.
Are you getting that with bcm43xx or with ndiswrapper?
I beat my head on the wall for 3 days trying to get ndiswrapper to work on my bcm 4311 in an HP dv9208nr.
I found that I only had to add one line to my ifcfg-wlan0, after I blacklisted bcm43* in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. I added the following to that file:
SECURITYMODE=open
Without that line in ifcfg-wlan0 is the system would not associate with my router that is using wep encryption.
On Tue, 2007-06-05 at 21:36 -0500, John Pierce wrote:
I was able to get my new shiny Lenovo Lappy working and I was _almost_ happy until I noted the tranfer speeds. I'm only getting 20 Kbytes/sec 2 feet from my AP on my wireless network while my Atheros based machines get 3 Mbytes/sec 50ft from my AP.
Are you getting that with bcm43xx or with ndiswrapper?
I'm getting that with the bcm43xx module
Sean
on 06/04/2007 09:17 AM John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still
does this work for x86_64 as well, or is there some other stuff I have to download?
On Tue, Jun 12, 2007 at 10:23:23PM -0400, oleksandr korneta wrote:
on 06/04/2007 09:17 AM John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still
does this work for x86_64 as well, or is there some other stuff I have to download?
Firmware used on the card has nothing to do with the host arch, so it should work just as well on x86_64.
John
On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 09:17:12AM -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
Also need to reboot or "modprobe -r bcm43xx-mac80211 ; modprobe bcm43xx-mac80211", FWIW...
That should fix things for most people. However, some people still need/want to use the older driver even on devices that are (or should be) supported by the newer driver. If you are in this situation, I recommend this procedure:
# save the file attached to this email as "bcm43xx-old-config" # you need to be root ./bcm43xx-old-config
I now have an updated version of the bcm43xx-old-config script. Larry Finger (bcm43xx driver maintainer) and I collaborated on some minor fixes to correct problems that some have had, including the URL being too long for some versions of wget and detecting the wrong PCI ID for the wireless device on boxes that also have Broadcom ethernet hardware. This also gets the firmware from the openwrt.org site, which regrettably may ultimately prove more stable than some random URL from a hardware vendor...
Updated script attached below. Again, please use this as a last resort only after trying the first block of commands above (before "That should fix things...").
Hth!
John
P.S. If anyone is itching to work on some sort of 'wireless troubleshooting' script/tool that would check for properly installed firmware, suggest download sites for non-distributable firmware (ralink, broadcom, others?), etc then let me know...
On 7/12/07, John W. Linville linville@redhat.com wrote:
On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 09:17:12AM -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
First, the issue that lots of people are having...if you are getting the "YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD" issue, I recommend that you follow this procedure:
# you need to be root wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0
/kmod/wl_apsta.o
...
I am getting this notice in dmesg on FC6, and trying to follow this procedure doesn't work on FC6:
# /usr/bin/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by bcm43xx-fwcutter. This file has an unknown MD5sum 9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0. # /usr/bin/bcm43xx-fwcutter -v bcm43xx-fwcutter version 005
Does this mean I should upgrade to FC7? I've been holding off until a few other things are said to be working. Should bcm43xx-old-config work on FC6?
Thanks Julius
On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 12:33:14PM -0700, Julius Smith wrote:
Does this mean I should upgrade to FC7? I've been holding off until a few other things are said to be working. Should bcm43xx-old-config work on FC6?
When the script was written, FC6 didn't have bcm43xx-mac80211. Now that it does, someone probably should push an update to bcm43xx-fwcutter. Either way, the script was not tested on FC6, so YMMV...
John
i used the updated script -- thanks to J. Linville who went out of his way to supply -- and can at least now see the device listed in system-config-network. Yay!
Now to activate: when I try to activate what system-config-network calls eth1, the message appears that eth1 cannot be activated: please check cable.
1. is there some sort of mixup between FC7 using wlan0 and the system-config-tool using eth1? (I know zip to a bit about networking, but don't mind learning more) Or is this just semantics?
2. I found a tutorial online that mentions a file /etc/pcmcia/config.opts wherein (they say) the card should be mentioned (it is not). I also remember an /etc/modprobe.conf file -- I checked there and there is the line, per the new bcm43xx-old script, options bcm43xx fwpostfix=.v3. I assume that line is similar to adding the alias (that might run something like alias bcm43xx.v3 only better, yes>
So, do I need to add anything to the pcmcia file (I have a mini-pci card, so don't think so??) or fix up any other file so the eth1 device can be activated? Or mebbe I should find a way to get rid of the bcm43xx-mac80211...-.ko files hanging around or the softMAC files from other driver installation tries?
Any advice?
Thanks in advice for any info
On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 04:29:25PM +0200, glhere wrote:
i used the updated script -- thanks to J. Linville who went out of his way to supply -- and can at least now see the device listed in system-config-network. Yay!
Now to activate: when I try to activate what system-config-network calls eth1, the message appears that eth1 cannot be activated: please check cable.
- is there some sort of mixup between FC7 using wlan0 and the system-config-tool using eth1? (I know zip to a bit about networking, but don't mind learning more) Or is this just semantics?
The bcm43xx driver names it's interfaces "ethX", not "wlanX".
- I found a tutorial online that mentions a file /etc/pcmcia/config.opts wherein (they say) the card should be mentioned (it is not). I also remember an /etc/modprobe.conf file -- I checked there and there is the line, per the new bcm43xx-old script, options bcm43xx fwpostfix=.v3. I assume that line is similar to adding the alias (that might run something like alias bcm43xx.v3 only better, yes>
Sounds like an old tutorial. I think you should leave /etc/pcmcia alone. You might want "alias eth1 bcm43xx" in /etc/modprobe.conf.
So, do I need to add anything to the pcmcia file (I have a mini-pci card, so don't think so??) or fix up any other file so the eth1 device can be activated? Or mebbe I should find a way to get rid of the bcm43xx-mac80211...-.ko files hanging around or the softMAC files from other driver installation tries?
This should not be necessary.
Hth!
John