BCM4312 and Puppy 4.31

Message

paintenzero · #1 Post by **paintenzero** » Fri 20 Nov 2009, 16:21

First of all, I'm really sorry for creating yet another thread about this wireless chipset. I found at least 5 of them and they marked as solved. Still none of them helped me.
I have Dell Inspiron 1720 and Dell 1395 Wireless Mini-card. This card has "BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev01)" chipset. And here is output of lspci: "0c:00.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4315 (rev 01)". I'm using Puppy 4.31.
I have openSuSE installed on this laptop and b43 module doesn't work with this wireless card, so I have to install package named "broadcom-wl" to make it work. I get both b43 and wl modules loaded after installation of broadcom-5.10.91.9.3-k2.6.30.5.pet package

So I blacklisted b43 and have only wl loaded on start-up, but interface still doesn't show up

Am I missing something? I really don't want to stop using Puppy because of this!
Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry for my english.

jrb · #2 Post by **jrb** » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 03:07

Hi paintenzero,
I had the same problem setting up a Lenovo s10-2. I got it to work using ndiswrapper as explained at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 026#373026.

Hope it works for you as well, J

scottbg1 · #3 Post by **scottbg1** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 20:59

Hi jrb,

I am having the same problem too, and I have half the problem solved.

If you are like me, I prefer the STA driver over ndiswrapper.

The problem with wl working is due to module 'ssb'.

'ssb' is used by b43, b44, and another one I cant recall right now.

remove all the modules I just listed including wl, and then reload wl. You should have wireless.

Code: Select all

rmmod b43
rmmod b44
rmmod (the one I cant remember, it will tell you which one when you try and remove ssb)
rmmod ssb
rmmod wl
modprobe wl

Then....

Code: Select all

 iwconfig

You should see your wireless card on either ethx or wlanx.

Now configure your wireless connection. i.e. wep or wpa keys.

The remaining problem is you have to do this after every boot.

So in short 'ssb' is the bad guy here, not just 'b43'.

I have a thread started now with the question of how to overcome this.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=50514

Good luck to you and I hope this atleast gets you connected.

Scott

rjbrewer · #4 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 21:08

jrb solved that problem much more elegantly days ago.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 374#374374

jrb · #5 Post by **jrb** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 21:11

scottbg1,
Thanks for the reply. I ended up making a modified Puppy431 in which I removed ssb, b43 and b43legacy. It finds wl, lists it as eth1 and connects to it at boot.

Edit: .iso modified with tempestuous' new ssb.ko module 27dec09

The new iso is at http://puppylinux.ca/members/choicepup/ ... 4312v3.iso.

Give it a try, I hope it works equally well for you.

Cheers, J

scottbg1 · #6 Post by **scottbg1** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 21:34

Great news jrb.

Sorry to have responded to this. It was right under my new post today and it said nothing about it being resolved so I added my 2 cents.

I actually need ssb for my ethernet card, I just need to change the order that they are loaded. So removing it isn't a solution.

Maybe Mr. Brewer can help me find a more elegant solution to my problem as well.

Happy New Year to you both.

scottbg1 · #7 Post by **scottbg1** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 21:48

J,

Reading back through the threads on the subject, I just now noticed that it was you who had been posting.

I never much pay attention to "who" as I am to "what" when I am reading.

Again, thanks and HNY...

jrb · #8 Post by **jrb** » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 22:10

scottbg1,
ssb couldn't be blacklisted because it was in initrd.gz and was loaded before puppy read the skiplist.

If you take my iso and copy the ssb.ko module into the filesystem after boot then you should be able to come up with a workable solution.

I am attaching a .pet which will place it in your filesystem. I am also attaching the module info files from initrd.gz which mention ssb. They're not the same as the files in the puppy-431.sfs but may contain lines which you will need to add to those.

Good Luck, J

Edit: Attachments removed in favour of new .iso with tempestuous' modified ssb.ko module. See below

scottbg1 · #9 Post by **scottbg1** » Sun 27 Dec 2009, 13:00

Thanks a million!!

I will try this straight away.

Scott

tempestuous · #10 Post by **tempestuous** » Mon 28 Dec 2009, 03:38

jrb,
I suspect that loading the ssb module, regardless of whether it's contained in the initrd, will create a conflict with the Broadcom wl wifi driver.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the only comprehensive way of dealing with this problem is to disable support for device ID's in the ssb module which overlap those of the wl module.
This is relatively straightforward, and I just did so now.

The modified ssb module has support for these Broadcom (wifi) device ID's removed:
14e4:432b
14e4:4329
14e4:4328
14e4:4315
14e4:4312
14e4:4311

In theory, this module can now be loaded without any chance of conflicting with the wl module

EDIT: dotpet attachment removed. jrb's remaster contains the modified driver. See later in this thread.

Looking at the kernel source code for this module was interesting. There's quite a range of other devices and modules which rely on this module, so removing it entirely is not a particularly good idea ...

tempestuous · #11 Post by **tempestuous** » Mon 28 Dec 2009, 03:40

jrb, removing the ssb module from the initrd means that some users may have problems at bootup with USB interfaces, Cardbus interfaces, and PCI interfaces which depend upon it.

I suggest you could go one step further, and incorporate my modified ssb module into your initrd, and then into your ISO. If you do so, you must also replace the modules.alias file which has been accordingly modified to remove the defunct device ID's. It's located at /lib/modules/2.6.30.5/

EDIT: attachments removed.

jrb · #12 Post by **jrb** » Mon 28 Dec 2009, 06:56

tempestuous wrote:I suggest you could go one step further, and incorporate my modified ssb module into your initrd, and then into your ISO. If you do so, you must also replace the modules.alias file which has been accordingly modified to remove the defunct device ID's.

Done!

As you have suggested I placed your ssb.ko.gz and modules.alias in initrd.gz and made a new pup-431bcm4312v3.iso.

I booted the Lenovo s10-2 with the new initrd.gz and it worked quite well. No ssb conflict. Hopefully this will take care of Scottbg1's problem.

Much appreciated, J

This .iso has tempestuous' modified ssb.ko which will not conflict with the wl.ko module needed for broadcom4312 wifi cards. It does not contain the b43 or b43 legacy modules.
http://puppylinux.ca/members/choicepup/ ... 4312v3.iso

tempestuous · #13 Post by **tempestuous** » Mon 28 Dec 2009, 13:57

Well done.
I suggest that your remastered Puppy ISO is significant enough to deserve a separate forum thread to announce its availability, and so the information can be easily found in the future.
The thread title should make sense - something like "Puppy 4.31 modified for Broadcom wifi"
and located in "Puppy Projects" or "Cutting edge"??

EditionLocus · #14 Post by **EditionLocus** » Mon 05 Jul 2010, 14:47

jrb wrote:
tempestuous wrote:I suggest you could go one step further, and incorporate my modified ssb module into your initrd, and then into your ISO. If you do so, you must also replace the modules.alias file which has been accordingly modified to remove the defunct device ID's.
Done!

As you have suggested I placed your ssb.ko.gz and modules.alias in initrd.gz and made a new pup-431bcm4312v3.iso.

I booted the Lenovo s10-2 with the new initrd.gz and it worked quite well. No ssb conflict. Hopefully this will take care of Scottbg1's problem.

Much appreciated, J

This .iso has tempestuous' modified ssb.ko which will not conflict with the wl.ko module needed for broadcom4312 wifi cards. It does not contain the b43 or b43 legacy modules.
http://puppylinux.ca/members/choicepup/ ... 4312v3.iso

Looks like this might be useful for me. I clicked on the link, and it requires a username & password. Is there a sign-up for access to these files? Thanks in advance.

rcrsn51 · #15 Post by **rcrsn51** » Mon 05 Jul 2010, 15:05

The login to puppylinux.ca is "puppy" and "linux". However that ISO appears to be missing.

Maybe this will be useful to you.

jrb · #16 Post by **jrb** » Mon 05 Jul 2010, 15:07

Hi EditionLocus,

Looks like this might be useful for me. I clicked on the link, and it requires a username & password.

In general for puppy repo's the username is puppy and the password is linux. In this case however I must refer you to a different repo.

Sadly, puppylinux.ca is no longer completely intact.

The file you seek is no longer there.

Please see this thread:
Special Puppy431 for broadcom 4312 (and other?) wifi cards for other sites where it may be found.

Hope it works well for you, J

EditionLocus · #17 Post by **EditionLocus** » Wed 07 Jul 2010, 12:41

Hi. Thanks for the replies. As it turns out, I installed Lucid Puppy, and it just set itself up and worked with my Broadcomm hardware on the first try. Also, what a nice clean OS. Nice job, everybody. I am quite pleased.

tempestuous · #18 Post by **tempestuous** » Wed 07 Jul 2010, 15:19

EditionLocus wrote:I installed Lucid Puppy, and it just set itself up and worked with my Broadcomm hardware on the first try.

Good. Another confirmed instance of the new b43 driver now working OK with HP/Dell-Broadcom wifi devices.

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BCM4312 and Puppy 4.31

BCM4312 and Puppy 4.31