[SOLVED] BCM4306 need help with driver

[stealth]

This is a fresh install from the 2012.08 KDE LiveDVD and fully updated and there are about another 300 or so files installed as well.

This is my friend's laptop so I need a solution that is clean and will work with no requirement to hold back files from updating.

I also have 3 different windows drivers saved on the computer can't figure out how to extract them. Could use some help there.

I have read these posts:

www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,110200.30.html

www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,110712.0.html

www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,104737.0.html

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

The last URL says that the b43-firmware will work but my only option in pcc/network/config was an ndiswrapper driver and none of the ones available worked.

I have run all these checks as well.

lspci -vnn -d 14e4:

0b:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN [103c:12f8]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
   Memory at c8206000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
   Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
   Kernel modules: ssb

lspci -nnk

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub [8086:2580] (rev 0e)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port [8086:2581] (rev 0e)
   Kernel driver in use: pcieport
   Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2660] (rev 03)
   Kernel driver in use: pcieport
   Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 [8086:2658] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
   Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 [8086:2659] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
   Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 [8086:265a] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
   Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 [8086:265b] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
   Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:265c] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
   Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:266e] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: snd_intel8x0
   Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
00:1e.3 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:266d] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: snd_intel8x0m
   Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0m
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:2640] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt, intel-rng
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller [8086:266f] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
   Kernel modules: piix, ata_piix
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:266a] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
   Kernel modules: i2c-i801
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI M24 1P [Radeon Mobility X600] [1002:3150]
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel modules: radeonfb
0b:00.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller [104c:8031]
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
   Kernel modules: yenta_socket
0b:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller [104c:8032]
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
   Kernel modules: firewire-ohci
0b:00.3 Mass storage controller [0180]: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller [104c:8033]
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: tifm_7xx1
   Kernel modules: tifm_7xx1
0b:00.4 SD Host controller [0805]: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller [104c:8034]
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
   Kernel modules: sdhci-pci
0b:02.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3082]
   Kernel driver in use: 8139too
   Kernel modules: 8139cp, 8139too
0b:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN [103c:12f8]
   Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
   Kernel modules: ssb

dmesg | tail -20

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: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:0b:03.0
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
cfg80211:     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
cfg80211:     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS ]
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 478.104 (2008-07-01 00:50:23)
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

blacklist ssb
blacklist ssb
blacklist ssb

ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:C0:9F:C1:BB:1A  
          inet addr:192.168.1.149  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:fec1:bb1a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:9605 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:7573 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:10262155 (9.7 MiB)  TX bytes:1076921 (1.0 MiB)
          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xc400

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:A5:14:41:AC  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

iwconfig

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm  
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          
locate b43 | grep `uname -r`

/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko.gz
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy/b43legacy.ko.gz
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43/Kconfig
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43/Makefile
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy/Kconfig
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy/Makefile

locate brc | grep `uname -r`

/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmutil
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac/brcmfmac.ko.gz
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac/brcmsmac.ko.gz
/lib/modules/3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmutil/brcmutil.ko.gz
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/Kconfig
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/Makefile
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmutil
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac/Makefile
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac/Makefile
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmutil/Makefile
/usr/src/kernel-devel-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs/include/linux/brcmphy.h

lsmod | grep b43

b43                   302671  0
mac80211              206311  1 b43
cfg80211              144856  2 b43,mac80211
ssb                    41657  1 b43
mmc_core               68553  4 b43,ssb,sdhci_pci,sdhci
rng_core                2698  1 b43
pcmcia                 31466  2 b43,ssb

lspcidrake -v | grep NETWORK

unknown         : Broadcom Corporation|BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:14e4 device:4320 subv:103c subd:12f8) (rev: 03)
8139too         : Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.|RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [NETWORK_ETHERNET] (vendor:10ec device:8139 subv:103c subd:3082) (rev: 10)

I uninstalled all the wireless drivers and rebooted. I need to install only what I need but I don't know what I need.

Should I install just the b43 and reboot and try again or install one of the windows drivers I downloaded after I know how to extract it and use ndiswrapper?

Thanks for the help.

[bicol_willem]

Go to ndiswrapper  (use Windows driver) and instead of choose one, add a new driver. You need the "inf" (.inf) file. Should work... 

[stealth]

I would do that if I could find the windows inf file. I have 3 files files downloaded two of them are exe file the other is a zip file and I looked in it and there isn't anything useful in it. I see the b43-fwcutter file but I have no idea how to use it to get to the inf file in the exe file.

[GermanTux]

Go into Synaptic. 

Uninstall the dkms-broadcom-wl package. 

Install the bcm43xx-fwcutter package. 

This did it for me.  Broadcom deserves a ton of flack for breaking their own proprietary driver in the latest kernel releases. 

[stealth]

That doesn't do anything different than b43-fwcutter. So far everything I have tried has accomplished nothing. I have the windows bcmwl6 drivers in a self extracting exe file but the cutter won't extract it and I can't find away to pull the files out. All that I see when the cutter shows what is in the exe is 4 *.o files. I have installed and uninstalled the wireless drivers one at a time. b43 came close but did not work the ndiswrapper files airforceone & bcmwl5 came close but did not work either nothing else even remotely comes close to working. I have done everything I could find as listed in my OP. I have no idea what to do to make this work.

[bicol_willem]

Duno, anything you can find here maybe?

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

[stealth]

Been there.

[bicol_willem]

After installing b43-fwcutter, could this be your solution?

After installing b43-fwcutter, download version 5.10.56.27.3 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:

Toggle line numbers

   1 export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
   2 wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
   3 tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
   4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o

Note that you must adjust the FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR path to your distribution. The standard place where firmware is installed to is /lib/firmware. However some distributions put firmware in a different place.

[stealth]

That produced an error message that said:

Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by b43-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum 490d4e149ecc45eb1a91f06aa75be071

When I run b43-fwcutter on the exe file I downloaded yesterday that is supposed to have the bcmwl6 driver it shows.

Extracting firmware is possible from these binary driver files.
The <ID> column shows the unique identifier string for your firmware.
You must select the firmware with the same ID as printed by the kernel driver on modprobe.
Note that only recent drivers print such a message on modprobe.
Please read http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

<driver>        <filename>              <microcode>     <ID>    <MD5 checksum>

b43legacy       wl_apsta.o              295.14          FW10    e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
b43             wl_apsta.o              351.126         FW11    9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         351.126         FW11    722e2e0d8cc04b8f118bb5afe6829ff9
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         410.2160        FW13    cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c

The two section below are from http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

Are these the same as what is already in the PCLOS repo b43-firmware and b43legacy ?

If you are using the b43 driver from 3.2 kernel or newer:

After installing b43-fwcutter, download version 5.100.138 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:

export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o



If you are using the b43legacy driver:

After installing b43-fwcutter, download version 3.130.20.0 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:

export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

[bicol_willem]

Tja, here is out of ideas for now.......

[stealth]

Does anyone know where I can find a workable solution?

[GermanTux]

Does anyone know where I can find a workable solution?

Here's a link to the "other distro" forums.  This is where I found my solution. 

[bicol_willem]

Does anyone know where I can find a workable solution?

A (tmp) solution I know .... get a cheap and small USB adapter that works (other chip) for as long as you don't have the right driver. These can be  as (less) big as a thump nail. 

Sample :  http://www.cdrking.com/?mod=products&type=view&sid=9031&main=50

More like that: http://www.cdrking.com/?mod=products&type=category&subcatid=157&main=50

[stealth]

I thought of something to try unless someone knows it won't work. I still have my windows 2000 pro CD I am going to install that on to the laptop then put the LiveDVD in and run that and capture the driver that the windows install uses for the card on a flash drive. Then install Linux again and install the driver from the flash drive. This is the only thing I can think of to get the correct driver. This wireless network card just doesn't have a driver available for download anywhere that I can find. The laptop had windows xp home on it and the wireless network card worked so it should work in windows 2000 and that as I said should let me get a working driver unless as I said someone knows that won't work. I don't have the factory CD for the laptop. I do have 3 gold oem windows xp pro CDs that I used to use when I worked for a POS dealer.

I hate the whole corporate environment. They make it so hard for us because all they want is obsolescence so they can keep making money and anything free threatens blackmail monopoly. What I am going through with this is a prime example of that. I will be glad when their house of cards finally falls. Sorry rant over.

[bicol_willem]

This seems the .inf file needed:   bcmwl5.inf

Its available for download here: http://www.infdump.com/download-inf-files_new.php/inffiles/B/bcmwl5.inf/-/download.html but that link turns out NUTS!

Found an other one here:  http://www.dllempire.com/download/bcmwl5.inf.html  > http://www.dllempire.com/bcmwl5.inf/857d/download/   This one seems to work.

Once you got that .inf file install it with ndiswrapper, simple through PCC > Network & Internet > Setup a new network interface > wifi >. Pick "install Windows driver" > Install new driver (Which will be this new driver found.)

Hope that works for you ......