Using b43 with broadcom 4312 on hp2133 yields "device not ready"

[r***@out-of-bounds.de]

Hello all,

I've been struggling to get the broadcom 4312 wlan chip to work on a
hp2133 laptop. According to all documentation I found this should work
and it almost does: Could extract firmware and driver is loading but
network manager in Fedora only shows "device not ready" (but I can use
to wireless switch to toggle to "deactivated"). Now I'm out of ideas and
hope anybody can help. Details enclosed below

----
HISTORY
hardware is hp 2133 laptop
wlan is enabled in bios
distro is fedora 25

yum install broadcom-wl
yum install akmod-wl
yum install kmod-wl
yum install b43-fwcutter
yum install wget

used wget to download broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4.tar.bz2
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4.tar.bz2
used fw-cutter to extract firmware from wl_apsta.o to /lib/firmware
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o

used wget to download broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
used fw-cutter to extract firmware from wl_apsta.o to /lib/firmware
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o

added modules to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist as per resource #1
according to resource #3 b43 should be the correct driver and is loaded
lspci -nn -d 14e4:
according to resource #0 b43 should support 14e4:4315 (bcm4312)

made backups of firmware directories and freshly created above versions
created symlink to point to active version
only b43 directory affected by extraction
ls -ld /lib/firmware/b*


STATUS
using b43 driver and firmware 4.178.x
network manager shows up during boot
blue led is on but device is not ready
wireless switch is responsive (can toggle between not ready and
deactivated)

using b43 driver and firmware 5.100.x
network manager shows up during boot
blue led is on but device is not ready
wireless switch is responsive (can toggle between not ready and
deactivated)


RESOURCES
#0 https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
#1 http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/#Fedora
#2
https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/46860/how-to-setup-broadcom-4312-wireless/
#3 https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx
#4 http://www.linlap.com/hp_2133

CONFIGURATION
uname -a
Linux hp-2133 4.9.13-200.fc25.i686+PAE #1 SMP Mon Feb 27 17:11:30 UTC
2017 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
lspci -nn | grep Broadcom
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g
LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev ff)
07:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5788
Gigabit Ethernet [14e4:169c] (rev 03)
dmesg
[ 17.442229] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
[ 17.460089] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 6, Type 5 (LP), Revision 1
[ 17.460104] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2062, Revision
2, Version 0
[ 17.471228] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNLS ]
----

Thanks in advance and happy easter holidays!

BTW: I could also not compile the proprietary driver, but that's another
issue. I would really prefer to go with b43

[Larry Finger]

Post by r***@out-of-bounds.de
Hello all,
I've been struggling to get the broadcom 4312 wlan chip to work on a hp2133
laptop. According to all documentation I found this should work and it almost
does: Could extract firmware and driver is loading but network manager in Fedora
only shows "device not ready" (but I can use to wireless switch to toggle to
"deactivated"). Now I'm out of ideas and hope anybody can help. Details enclosed
below
----
HISTORY
hardware is hp 2133 laptop
wlan is enabled in bios
distro is fedora 25
yum install broadcom-wl
yum install akmod-wl
yum install kmod-wl
yum install b43-fwcutter
yum install wget
used wget to download broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4.tar.bz2
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4.tar.bz2
used fw-cutter to extract firmware from wl_apsta.o to /lib/firmware
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
used wget to download broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
used fw-cutter to extract firmware from wl_apsta.o to /lib/firmware
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
added modules to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist as per resource #1
according to resource #3 b43 should be the correct driver and is loaded
according to resource #0 b43 should support 14e4:4315 (bcm4312)
made backups of firmware directories and freshly created above versions
created symlink to point to active version
only b43 directory affected by extraction
ls -ld /lib/firmware/b*
STATUS
using b43 driver and firmware 4.178.x
network manager shows up during boot
blue led is on but device is not ready
wireless switch is responsive (can toggle between not ready and deactivated)
using b43 driver and firmware 5.100.x
network manager shows up during boot
blue led is on but device is not ready
wireless switch is responsive (can toggle between not ready and deactivated)
RESOURCES
#0 https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
#1 http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/#Fedora
#2
https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/46860/how-to-setup-broadcom-4312-wireless/
#3 https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx
#4 http://www.linlap.com/hp_2133
CONFIGURATION
uname -a
Linux hp-2133 4.9.13-200.fc25.i686+PAE #1 SMP Mon Feb 27 17:11:30 UTC 2017 i686
i686 i386 GNU/Linux
lspci -nn | grep Broadcom
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
[14e4:4315] (rev ff)
07:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit
Ethernet [14e4:169c] (rev 03)
dmesg
[ 17.442229] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
[ 17.460089] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 6, Type 5 (LP), Revision 1
[ 17.460104] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2062, Revision 2, Version 0
[ 17.471228] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNLS ]
----
Thanks in advance and happy easter holidays!
BTW: I could also not compile the proprietary driver, but that's another issue.
I would really prefer to go with b43

Why are you blacklisting b43?

The only other things I see are as follows:

This line from the dmesg output looks strange.
[ 53.905515] b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY init: Channel switch to default failed

The rev ff in the lspci line is also strange. My BCM4312 shows rev 01.

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
[14e4:4315] (rev ff)

My BCM4312 device is in a 32-bit netbook that I seldom run. It will take a
couple of days to get its kernel updated to the current version so that I can
test the latest b43 code. I will report those results ASAP.

Larry

[Larry Finger]

Hi again,
when using google on the "channel switch error", I came across the commands
"iwlist" and "iw" so find their output enclosed in the hopes it helps.
Trying "iw phy0 set channel x" did not work, though: device busy
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/4276461/

That patch was applied to kernel code on May 31, 2014.

hope that helps you help me ;-)

I'm not sure how much help I can give you. I have now built a modern kernel for
my netbook. On it the BCM4312 works fine. That system had older firmware on it
so I downloaded the newest file and installed it. The device still works, thus I
think we can rule out some unexpected changes in either the driver or the
firmware. I was using kernel 4.11.0-rc5.

My conclusion is that your hardware is defective. Unfortunately, although a
replacement part can be obtained on E-Bay for less that $4, replacing the WLAN
module on that particular laptop requires complete disassembly. I would not
recommend that unless you have considerable experience.

My suggestion is that you purchase a USB adapter for this laptop. If you are
willing to purchase from E-Bay, the small, dual-band 802.11ac devices are under
$20 US. I'm not sure what they will cost in Germany.

Larry