Regression: bcm4312 lp-phy device not recognized in 4.15 kernel

[Chris Vine]

I probably should have copied this to the relevant kernel wireless
mailing lists. Anyway, here it is.

As a further datum point, the b43 driver works fine with the 4.15.0-rc3
kernel. So something seems to have changed between that and 4.15.0.

Chris

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 23:37:49 +0000
From: Chris Vine <***@gmail.com>
To: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-***@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Regression: bcm4312 lp-phy device not recognized in 4.15 kernel


I have an old netbook with a Broadcom bcm4312 802.11b/g lp-phy
[14e4:4315] (rev 01) wifi device. It is no longer recognized in kernel
4.15: it works fine with the 4.14 kernel and earlier, with the b43 and
ssb kernel modules.

I cannot give any further information as there are no error messages
logged. The b43 firmware (wl-5.100.138) is not loaded for it, nor are
the ssb/b43/bcma/ mmc_core/mac80211/cfg80211 modules. The modules can
be loaded by hand without error, but nothing happens and no network
interface is presented.

This is a pretty slow and rubbish netbook but is useful when travelling
to a country which might impound your laptop (no names) and you don't
mind too much losing it. It would be nice to continue to be able to
use it for that.

Chris

[Florian Fainelli]

Post by Chris Vine
I probably should have copied this to the relevant kernel wireless
mailing lists. Anyway, here it is.
As a further datum point, the b43 driver works fine with the 4.15.0-rc3
kernel. So something seems to have changed between that and 4.15.0.

Does this patch help?

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kvalo/wireless-drivers.git/commit/?id=a9e6d44ddeccd3522670e641f1ed9b068e746ff7

Post by Chris Vine
Chris
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 23:37:49 +0000
Subject: Regression: bcm4312 lp-phy device not recognized in 4.15 kernel
I have an old netbook with a Broadcom bcm4312 802.11b/g lp-phy
[14e4:4315] (rev 01) wifi device. It is no longer recognized in kernel
4.15: it works fine with the 4.14 kernel and earlier, with the b43 and
ssb kernel modules.
I cannot give any further information as there are no error messages
logged. The b43 firmware (wl-5.100.138) is not loaded for it, nor are
the ssb/b43/bcma/ mmc_core/mac80211/cfg80211 modules. The modules can
be loaded by hand without error, but nothing happens and no network
interface is presented.
This is a pretty slow and rubbish netbook but is useful when travelling
to a country which might impound your laptop (no names) and you don't
mind too much losing it. It would be nice to continue to be able to
use it for that.
Chris

[Chris Vine]

On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 12:03:49 -0800

Post by Florian Fainelli

Post by Chris Vine
I probably should have copied this to the relevant kernel wireless
mailing lists. Anyway, here it is.
As a further datum point, the b43 driver works fine with the
4.15.0-rc3 kernel. So something seems to have changed between that
and 4.15.0.

Does this patch help?
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kvalo/wireless-drivers.git/commit/?id=a9e6d44ddeccd3522670e641f1ed9b068e746ff7

Yes, I have wireless working again.

I'll recompile tomorrow from a fresh kernel tree and apply the patch
again and make sure it still works. I will let you know.

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

Post by Florian Fainelli

Post by Chris Vine
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 23:37:49 +0000
Subject: Regression: bcm4312 lp-phy device not recognized in 4.15 kernel
I have an old netbook with a Broadcom bcm4312 802.11b/g lp-phy
[14e4:4315] (rev 01) wifi device. It is no longer recognized in
kernel 4.15: it works fine with the 4.14 kernel and earlier, with
the b43 and ssb kernel modules.
I cannot give any further information as there are no error messages
logged. The b43 firmware (wl-5.100.138) is not loaded for it, nor
are the ssb/b43/bcma/ mmc_core/mac80211/cfg80211 modules. The
modules can be loaded by hand without error, but nothing happens
and no network interface is presented.
This is a pretty slow and rubbish netbook but is useful when
travelling to a country which might impound your laptop (no names)
and you don't mind too much losing it. It would be nice to
continue to be able to use it for that.
Chris

[Chris Vine]

On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 22:00:32 +0000

Post by Chris Vine
On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 12:03:49 -0800

Post by Florian Fainelli

Post by Chris Vine
I probably should have copied this to the relevant kernel wireless
mailing lists. Anyway, here it is.
As a further datum point, the b43 driver works fine with the
4.15.0-rc3 kernel. So something seems to have changed between
that and 4.15.0.

Does this patch help?
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kvalo/wireless-drivers.git/commit/?id=a9e6d44ddeccd3522670e641f1ed9b068e746ff7

Yes, I have wireless working again.
I'll recompile tomorrow from a fresh kernel tree and apply the patch
again and make sure it still works. I will let you know.

I can confirm that when the kernel is built with that configuration
patch my bcm4312 device works OK again.

Chris

Post by Chris Vine
-----------------------------------------

Post by Florian Fainelli

Post by Chris Vine
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 23:37:49 +0000
Subject: Regression: bcm4312 lp-phy device not recognized in 4.15 kernel
I have an old netbook with a Broadcom bcm4312 802.11b/g lp-phy
[14e4:4315] (rev 01) wifi device. It is no longer recognized in
kernel 4.15: it works fine with the 4.14 kernel and earlier, with
the b43 and ssb kernel modules.
I cannot give any further information as there are no error
messages logged. The b43 firmware (wl-5.100.138) is not loaded
for it, nor are the ssb/b43/bcma/ mmc_core/mac80211/cfg80211
modules. The modules can be loaded by hand without error, but
nothing happens and no network interface is presented.
This is a pretty slow and rubbish netbook but is useful when
travelling to a country which might impound your laptop (no names)
and you don't mind too much losing it. It would be nice to
continue to be able to use it for that.
Chris