bcm43xx_mac80211 (was Re: Announcing Fedora 7 Test 4 (6.93))

Miles Lane miles.lane at gmail.com
Wed May 2 06:16:12 UTC 2007 

On 5/2/07, Bill Nottingham <notting at redhat.com> wrote:
> John W. Linville (linville at redhat.com) said:
> > But, that will not probably not happen upstream in time for F7.
> > I would be open to making that change just for Fedora if there is
> > something resembling consensus that such would be better than the
> > current "two drivers" situation...?  Probably not worth it...?
>
> Two drivers claiming to support the same PCI ids == bad. If the fix
> is on its way upstream, I'm for shipping it slightly early.

Cool!  The 4.0 firmware works!  The dmesg output claims the bcm4306
PCI card is:  "Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2"

Bill, it does appear that the LiveCD is shipping with both bcm43xx and
bcm43xx_mac80211 configured to handle this device.

Okay, here's the scoop.  I booted the F7t4 LiveCD on my nForce2-based
desktop with the bcm4306.  I then did the following steps:

Downloaded the 4.0 firmware to ~fedora (Obviously, I needed an
ethernet connection at this point).
Then:
      yum install bcm43xx-fwcutter
      bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~fedora/wl_apsta.o
      echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
      modprobe -r bcm43xx
      modprobe -r ieee80211softmac
      modprobe -r ieee80211_crypt
      modprobe -r ieee80211
      modprobe -r bcm43xx_mac80211
      modprobe bcm43xx_mac80211

Then, configure my WIFI connection through NetworkManager and I'm
golden.  I am currently sending this note to you through resulting the
connection.  I'm not sure if WPA works.  I have a WPA2-enabled Airport
Extreme in the basement, and I am not seeing it in the NetworkManager
AP list.

I must say, it is really neat that I can get this working using the
LiveCD and without even rebooting.  Albeit, it would be better if I
didn't have to jump through these hoops.  Proprietary firmware...
Grrr.

Here is the corresponding section of dmesg:

ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:06.0
ssb: Core 0 found: ChipCommon (cc 0x800, rev 0x04, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 1 found: IEEE 802.11 (cc 0x812, rev 0x05, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 2 found: PCMCIA (cc 0x80D, rev 0x02, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 3 found: V90 (cc 0x807, rev 0x02, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 4 found: PCI (cc 0x804, rev 0x09, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Switching to ChipCommon core, index 0
ssb: Switching to PCI core, index 4
bcm43xx_mac80211: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned off
wmaster0: Selected rate control algorithm 'simple'
fw_core: created new fw device fw0 (0 config rom retries)
ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13
ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno at linux.intel.com>
bcm43xx driver
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCJ] enabled at IRQ 22
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:06.0[A] -> Link [APCJ] -> GSI 22 (level,
high) -> IRQ 16
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:06.0 to 64
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Mobile IPv6
bcm43xx_mac80211: Adding Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
ssb: Switching to PCI core, index 4
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not
available or load failed.
bcm43xx_mac80211: Adding Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not
available or load failed.
eth2:  setting half-duplex.
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC4] enabled at IRQ 19
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [APC4] -> GSI 19 (level,
high) -> IRQ 21
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
bcm43xx_mac80211: Adding Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not
available or load failed.

>>>>>
At this point I:
downloaded the 4.0 firmware to ~fedora
yum install bcm43xx-fwcutter
bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~fedora/wl_apsta.o
echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
modprobe -r bcm43xx
modprobe -r ieee80211softmac
modprobe -r ieee80211_crypt
modprobe -r ieee80211
modprobe -r bcm43xx_mac80211
modprobe bcm43xx_mac80211

bcm43xx_mac80211: Adding Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Loading firmware version 351.126 (2006-07-29 05:54:02)
ssb: Switching to ChipCommon core, index 0
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned on
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio enabled by hardware
bcm43xx_mac80211: !WARNING! Idle-TSSI phy->cur_idle_tssi measuring
failed. (cur=30, tgt=62). Disabling TX power adjustment.
bcm43xx_mac80211: Chip initialized
bcm43xx_mac80211: 30-bit DMA initialized
bcm43xx_mac80211: Wireless interface started
wmaster0: Does not support passive scan, disabled
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
ieee80211_crypt: unregistered algorithm 'NULL'
bcm43xx_mac80211: Removing Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Wireless interface stopped
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0200 (RX) max used slots: 1/64
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x02A0 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0280 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0260 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0240 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0220 (TX) max used slots: 22/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: DMA-32 0x0200 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned off
ssb: Switching to ChipCommon core, index 0
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned off
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:01:06.0 disabled
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:06.0[A] -> Link [APC1] -> GSI 16 (level,
high) -> IRQ 20
ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:06.0
ssb: Core 0 found: ChipCommon (cc 0x800, rev 0x04, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 1 found: IEEE 802.11 (cc 0x812, rev 0x05, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 2 found: PCMCIA (cc 0x80D, rev 0x02, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 3 found: V90 (cc 0x807, rev 0x02, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Core 4 found: PCI (cc 0x804, rev 0x09, vendor 0x4243)
ssb: Switching to ChipCommon core, index 0
ssb: Switching to PCI core, index 4
bcm43xx_mac80211: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned off
wmaster0: Selected rate control algorithm 'simple'
bcm43xx_mac80211: Adding Interface type 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2, Revision 2
bcm43xx_mac80211: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 2
ssb: Switching to PCI core, index 4
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Loading firmware version 351.126 (2006-07-29 05:54:02)
ssb: Switching to ChipCommon core, index 0
ssb: Switching to IEEE 802.11 core, index 1
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio turned on
bcm43xx_mac80211: Radio enabled by hardware
bcm43xx_mac80211: !WARNING! Idle-TSSI phy->cur_idle_tssi measuring
failed. (cur=30, tgt=62). Disabling TX power adjustment.
bcm43xx_mac80211: Chip initialized
bcm43xx_mac80211: 30-bit DMA initialized
bcm43xx_mac80211: Wireless interface started
wmaster0: Does not support passive scan, disabled
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
bcm43xx_mac80211: Using hardware based encryption for keyidx: 0, mac:
ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:06:25:54:a2:0c
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:06:25:54:a2:0c
wlan0: RX authentication from 00:06:25:54:a2:0c (alg=0 transaction=2 status=0)
wlan0: authenticated
wlan0: associate with AP 00:06:25:54:a2:0c
wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:06:25:54:a2:0c (capab=0x11 status=0 aid=2)
wlan0: associated
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
wlan0: duplicate address detected!
eth0: link down.
wlan0: duplicate address detected!

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