[previously: Confusion with b43 driver and broadcom firmware] now WPC54GS on FC8 on Sony VAIO PCG-FRV37 [On 29 Sept. 2007 Jesus Jr M Salvo wrote...]

[Alan Spicer]

* On Fedora Core 8...
* I just wanted to get on here and report my story. I was VERY HAPPY to find Jesus posting in the archives. He may have had a problem with Broadcom chipset, but his posting sure helped me solve mine. I was about to pull hair out when getting "Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by the b43-fwcutter. This file has an unknown MD5sum <whatever it was...>." I also tried with a Windows .sys file, and who knows what else. I was about to think I needed another version of the CUTTER program, or to figure out what really driver file I needed that has the right firmware.

I had just picked up a Linksys WPC54GSv2 wireless PC card in exchange for the Belkin Mimo card which gave nothing but trouble. I tried what I thought was the correct Broadcom download from downloads.openwrt.org but the one that he mentioned was the MAGIC ONE! http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2

I extracted that and ran "b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o" as he mentioned. He seemed to have a problem where he was saying that none of those extracetd files going to "/lib/firmware" were the correct thing that was needed in his situation. But it sure was GOLDEN for me. I was seeing in the /var/log/messages that it was wanting "b43/ucode5.fw" (also confusing in the text it says you need version 4, why the "ucode5.fw" THAT's CONFUSING, a little bit...). Anyway it must be that Fedora Core 8 with this WPC54GSv2 card surely needed "ucode" something or other along the lines of 4 or 5? And the card came right on.

So thanks Jesus Jr M Salvo for unknowingly saving the world. Or at least my little old Sony Vaio Laptop's corner of the world!!!!


[On 29 Sept. 2007 Jesus Jr M Salvo wrote...]

    

From: "Jesus Jr M Salvo" <jesus m salvo gmail com> 
To: "For users of Fedora" <fedora-list redhat com> 
Subject: Confusion with b43 driver and broadcom firmware 
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:53:07 +1000 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compaq Presario V6107AU running Fedora 7 with a Broadcom wireless chipset.
Kernel: 2.6.22.7-85.fc7 x86_64

/var/log/messages shows this:

Sep 23 19:31:34 c211-30-78-254 firmware_helper[4763]: Loading of
/lib/firmware/bcm43xx_microcode5.fw for b43 driver failed: No such
file or directory
Sep 23 19:31:35 c211-30-78-254 kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: Microcode
"bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep 23 19:31:35 c211-30-78-254 kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and
download the correct firmware (version 4)
Sep 23 19:31:37 c211-30-78-254 NetworkManager: <WARN>
nm_device_802_11_wireless_scan(): could not trigger wireless scan on
device eth1: Network is down
Sep 23 19:33:37 c211-30-78-254 kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: Microcode
"bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep 23 19:33:37 c211-30-78-254 kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and
download the correct firmware (version 4)

So it loaded the b43 driver and was looking for
/lib/firmware/bcm43xx_microcode5.fw
It tells me to get the firmware from
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
... which then says to download
http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
... which when extracted has a wl_apsta.o
... which when extracted with b43-fwcutter ( as per instructions in
the link above ) does NOT produce a file called
/lib/firmware/bcm43xx_microcode5.fw, as shown below:


# b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
This file is recognised as:
  filename   :  wl_apsta.o
  version    :  351.126
  MD5        :  9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0
Extracting b43/ucode4.fw
Extracting b43/ucode5.fw
Extracting b43/ucode11.fw
Extracting b43/ucode13.fw
Extracting b43/pcm4.fw
Extracting b43/pcm5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals4.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals4.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals4.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals4.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals13.fw

So I am confused about the instructions from the website.
Instead, I downloaded the XP drivers from Compaq / HP and extracted
the firmware files instead using bcm43xx-fwcutter ( instead of
b43-fwcutter )
.... which produced the file that the b43 driver was looking for (
/lib/firmware/bcm43xx_microcode5.fw ) and other firmware files.

So why was the b43 driver looking for a firmware file that cannot be
produced by b43-fwcutter ( but produced by bcm43xx-fwcutter ) ?
Does this mean I am using a v3 firmware ? ... but I though b43 driver
is only for v4 firmware ?

So I am confused as per above...


John


[END OF - - On 29 Sept. 2007 Jesus Jr M Salvo wrote...]

---
Alan Spicer 

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
*
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