Which Broadcom STA driver do I install from the ones listed in Synaptic?

[klaus2008]

Hi, utu!

I tried to build the broadcom-sta-module package as I had described above. I was successful with Knoppix 7.0.3, but in Knoppix 7.0.4 the directory /usr/src/linux-headers-3.4.9/include/asm-x86 is missing. Therefore the compiler does not find the include file asm/system.h and the build process fails.

The version numbers of the two packages broadcom-sta-source and broadcom-sta-dkms seem to be identical. Therefore I don't expect that one can use dkms instead of the module assistant.

[klaus2008]

I was successful with Knoppix 7.0.3

This is false because I used Knoppix 7.0.2. Sorry.
The compiler did not find the kernel header file asm/system.h when I used Knoppix 7.0.3 CD.

[utu]

Greetings, Klaus2008.

Klaus K suspects your rfkill idea may be the key to John's problem.
I've also found two new references that seem to say John's wifi should
work with b43.

On the wl front, I've found several other distros also find problems compiling wl
for kernels 3.4 and 3.5. Also two work-arounds. If you are interested
you might look at these. I've found no Debian solutions yet.

http://www.mindwerks.net/2012/06/wir...nd-3-5-kernel/
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archiv.../t-280821.html

I think patching is beyond my level, so I'm not going that way.

[winger9]

Re your post #7 utu:
"So, you might decide to try building your own wl; or switch to 6.7.1;
or we can continue to diagnose your 7.0.2 to see if it'll work with b43."

Hi utu

(Thanks also to you klaus2008 for your help).

(A) I would have preferred to just find out which of the 5 Synaptic packages to
install (broadcom-sta-source, etc) that I mentioned in my 1st post, but I've
had a think, and, to stop sparks coming out of my brain, I thought it perhaps
makes sense to just follow your kind step-by-step directions utu, and hopefully
quickly get my wifi working.

(In the meantime, sincere thanks to all others who are offering me help as
well.)

(B) Re your post #7 utu:
"So, you might decide to try building your own wl; or switch to 6.7.1;
or we can continue to diagnose your 7.0.2 to see if it'll work with b43."

... I'll go for the latter: "... continue to diagnose your 7.0.2 to see if it'll
work with b43."

Even if my wifi doesn't work with b43, at least you'll know what my system
looks like, and hopefully will be in a better position to guide me through
installing the Broadcom-sta driver.

(C) So next I'll fill you in on what you asked for as per:
"If the latter, do Klaus2008's test (see post #4)
to make sure your wifi isn't disabled, then
1. look in Synaptic and see if b43-fwcutter is installed; then, if it is,
2. do modprobe --first-time -v b43, and lsmod | grep b43 again.
Get back to us with your progress anyway."

0. My results for klaus2008's test:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ rfkill list all
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

1. Yes, b43-fwcutter IS installed.

2. My results for your 2.:

a)
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ modprobe --first-time -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
ERROR: could not insert 'b43': Operation not permitted
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

[Then I cautiously guessed that perhaps you wanted me to be a superuser, so I
repeated it:]

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo modprobe --first-time -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/char/hw_random/rng-core.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/bcma/bcma.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

b)
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ lsmod | grep b43
b43 290652 0
bcma 15000 1 b43
mac80211 264810 1 b43
cfg80211 114298 2 mac80211,b43
ssb 34520 1 b43
rng_core 2328 1 b43
pcmcia 24848 2 ssb,b43
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

(D) By the way, thanks for the gracious way you pointed out that Werner was
having to reformat my postings. I had no idea that my text was coming through
strangely. All I've been doing is copying my text from the Kate text editor and
pasting it into the posting text area. I'll follow your instructions about
checking the formatting.

(E) In actually IMPLEMENTING things on my system, I'd rather go the GUI
approach (eg using Synaptic Package Manager) if that's physically possible. But
if the only way is to type commands, I wonder if you could put a one-line
description of what each command is doing, so that I actually KNOW what I'm
doing.

Don't worry if that's asking too much. I'm just very grateful for your expert
direction.

Bye for now. John.


-----------
Please use the "Go Advanced" button to have more abilities to format the posting; before sending your posting use "Preview" to see how it looks like.
Why don't you use QUOTE tags for quotations or CODE tags for console outputs? There are many other formatting helpers - give them a chance.
WPS

[utu]

0. My results for klaus2008's test:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ rfkill list all
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

1. Yes, b43-fwcutter IS installed.

2. My results for your 2.:

a)
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ modprobe --first-time -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
ERROR: could not insert 'b43': Operation not permitted
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

[Then I cautiously guessed that perhaps you wanted me to be a superuser, so I
repeated it:]

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo modprobe --first-time -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/char/hw_random/rng-core.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/bcma/bcma.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

b)
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ lsmod | grep b43
b43 290652 0
bcma 15000 1 b43
mac80211 264810 1 b43
cfg80211 114298 2 mac80211,b43
ssb 34520 1 b43
rng_core 2328 1 b43
pcmcia 24848 2 ssb,b43
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

Outstanding, John.
Thanks for confirming b43 gets installed. Klaus K will be happy.
rfkill doesn't seem to be a problem. Often it is.
You've done all the hard work.

We'll have to mull over what else could be wrong.

Need to understand the insmods. Did you do the insmods
of was that a result of modprobe as root?

How are you communicating with us, anyway?

What do you get for ifconfig & iwconfig when using 702?

[winger9]

Hi utu

Thanks for the complement. I can cancel my subsription to plonkers anonymous
now. Let me know when any of my colloquialisms sound like double-dutch to you.

Does "modprobe --first-time -v b43" add the "b43" module to the kernel
(as if I know what I'm talking about). Is this the SAME thing as INSTALLING the
b43 driver? Is the b43 module a driver or is it firmware?

After doing the above modprobe, I rebooted to see if the wifi was working but
the orange wifi LED still doesn't come on, even when I toggle Fn + F3.

The answers to your 3 questions:
1. Communication: I've got an ethernet cable running between my laptop and my
router. Router is connected to phone socket on skirting board, which goes to the
outside telegraph pole of course. I think we were much better off with two tin
cans and a piece of string don't you.

2.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr dc:0e:a1:07:fa:4a
inet addr:192.168.1.33 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::de0e:a1ff:fe07:fa4a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4028 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3969 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3427662 (3.2 MiB) TX bytes:536187 (523.6 KiB)
Interrupt:16

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:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:440 (440.0 B) TX bytes:440 (440.0 B)

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

3.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

I'm glad that YOU know what these outputs mean because i haven't the faintest.
I've started using lower case "i" for "I" - a sure sign that I've been
assimilated .

Would you be good enough to tell me something? To get wifi working, is it
normally just a matter of installing the correct wifi device driver in Linux,
and then should the wifi work from that point onwards (you know - press Fn +
F3 (in my case) and the wifi LED comes on)? (I realise that after that you have
to select appropriate wireless settings in network manager to communicate with
the router.)

In Linux, what are the actual STEPS in setting up the wifi. I WOULD like to
know. At the moment I haven't even got a mental picture of what goes off -
just a confused mush. In Windows for example, I presume that what one would do
is, in Control Panel, select the correct wifi driver for the wifi circuit-board
in your PC. Then any software that communicated via the wifi would communicate
with the wifi circuit-board via the wifi driver.

Ta ta for now. John.

[winger9]

Dear utu

Thanks everso much for your continuing help. Just right now, I'm keen to try
klaus2008's suggestion at #4 (m-a build broadcom-sta, etc). I hope you don't
mind.

You see, before I approached you fine chaps at knoppix.net, I had spent a
lot of time looking on the Internet for how to make my wifi work in
Linux/knoppix with MY PARTICULAR Broadcom card. And it became evident to me
that the "b43" or "b43 legacy" driver/firmware is for earlier types of
Broadcom card in that series. (I apologise if I'm wrong about that).

So i felt back then (and still do now) that i need a newer driver that has come
out since the b43, and that covers my BCM43227 card. To cut a long story short,
I found a driver that does cover my BCM43227, at

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php/ (as I mentioned
before).

BUT AFTER THAT I discovered in Synaptic that there appeared to be the same (or
equivalent) driver already available for download from the Linux repository. So
that's what led to my first post in this thread, asking if someone could tell me
WHICH of the 5 Synaptic modules ("broadcom-sta-...") to install.

In Synaptic, the first part of the FULL description of ALL 5 packages is as
follows:

"Broadcom STA is a binary-only device driver to support the following IEEE
802.11a/b/g/n wireless network cards: BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-,
BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43224-, BCM43225-, BCM43227-, and BCM43228-based
hardware."

So this shows clearly that my BCM43227 is accommodated by these packages.

I could tell utu, that you (and Klaus K) were keen to see if Knoppix 7.0.2
already covered my BCM43227. So I tried to help out, and went in that direction
for your good selves.

But having had no success with that thus far, I'd like to switch (at least for
the time being) to trying klaus2008's suggestion at #4, which is I believe going
down the route of my Synaptic "broadcom-sta..." packages, that I've mentioned
above.

By-the-way, I'm trying to tell myself not to be so wordy. So if my future posts
are brief and pithy, I'd just like you to know that i hold you fine chaps in
high regard, and that no offense is meant whatsoever by my brief wording.

Take care. John.

[winger9]

To klaus2008 (and utu for your info)

Reply to your posts klaus, #4 & #24.

Thanks immensely. THE ORANGE WIFI LED LIGHT HAS JUST COME ON!

Skipping all the details, I have just entered the following commands:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo modprobe cfg80211
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo modprobe wl
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

Immediately after the second of the above 2 commands, the wifi LED came on! And I can now toggle the LED on and off with Fn + F3!

I've still got to check some things, but thought I'd let you know this promising progress.

John

[utu]

Good work, John.

I think all you need now is to set up the handshake just like
you do for Windows and you should be all set. You can do this
by working with the network manager icon on the lxpanel.

[utu]

Greetings again, John

If b43 is installed already and you command 'modprobe b43',
you get no response, and no information.

If b43 is installed already and you command 'lsmod|grep b43',
you should get the response
b43 298744 0
bcma 16433 1 b43
ssb 35297 1 b43
rng_core 2363 1 b43
pcmcia 25367 2 b43,ssb
mac80211 283250 2 b43
cfg80211 116931 3 b43,mac80211

If b43 is installed already and you command 'modprobe --first-time -v b43',
you get the response "ERROR: could not insert 'b43': Module already in kernel"

If b43 is available and NOT already installed and you command 'modprobe --first-time -v b43'
THEN, I think you get all the insmods, as you did, bringing in all the modules listed above.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo modprobe --first-time -v b43
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/char/hw_random/rng-core.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/bcma/bcma.ko
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.7/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko

It looks like you have b43 available but it is not being AUTOMATICALLY installed.
Since we know b43 is available, you can do a modprobe b43 to install the drivers YOURSELF
and see then if the wifi is recognized by network manager, the icon on lxpanel.
A left-click on this icon shows your choices for ethernet and wifi'
a right-click show your choices to enable/disable these choices.

If you have a wifi CHOICE and it's enabled, a right-click should either
connect you to this choice or present you with (at least) a query about WEP
or WAP parameters. Other parameters may also be needed.
The same choices that worked for a Windows handshake work here.

In my case, my wifi choice is a Verizon router which answers on 192.168.1.1 which
automatically assigns me a local 192.168.1.x address and does DNS look-up
service for the internet. All I have to know is its assign NAME and mac address.
The NAME shows up in the CHOICE previously mentioned.

Your router, WEP/WAP and DNS situation may be different than mine.

I'm hoping you just need to struggle your way through this hand-shaking process.
We need your confirmation that b43 works for you, so hang in there.