| Summary: | Review request: wl-bcm43142-kmod - X86_64 Kernel module for Broadcom wireless devices BCM43142 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | Package Reviews | Reporter: | NVieville <nicolas.vieville> |
| Component: | Review Request | Assignee: | RPM Fusion Package Review <rpmfusion-package-review> |
| Status: | RESOLVED MOVED | ||
| Severity: | normal | CC: | d.lesca, huizehendrik, rpmfusion-package-review, tmarikle |
| Priority: | P5 | ||
| Version: | Current | ||
| Hardware: | x86_64 | ||
| OS: | GNU/Linux | ||
| namespace: | |||
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Description
NVieville
2012-10-30 19:36:46 CET
I don't think this driver is better than b43/b44 with a fresh cut of the broadcom firmware. Does it ? Hello Nicolas, As I said it in my first message, I don't own myself such a device, so I can't certify that it doesn't. But according to these thread: http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=134909288803047&w=2 http://askubuntu.com/questions/175104/how-do-i-install-bcm43142-wireless-drivers-for-dell-vostro-3460-3560 http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=134909288803047&w=2 and finally this: http://www.wikidevi.com/wiki/Dell_Wireless_1704_802.11n_%2B_BT_4.0 there seems that a little problem occurs with this chipset, even with lasts kernels. Maybe it would be worth waiting for a confirmation of a rpmfusion user/packager of this fact, before going on further? Thanks for the question. Cordially, -- NVieville Hello Community, Happy New Year! This package have been updated to include the official mechanisms of wl-kmod and broadcom-wl RPMFusion packages allowing to choose either the "WEXT API" or the "CFG80211 API" at build time (exclusively for the akmod-wl package), and a configuration file for dracut to include correct modules in kernel initramfs in case of problem. Other files have been cleaned-up too. This package build fine for F-17, F-18 and Rawhide in mock. The only modification in the spec file needed for F-17 and F-18 is to replace: %define buildforkernels akmod line by: %define buildforkernels current in order to obtain correct kmod packages for current kernel. This package depends on broadcom-wl-bcm43142 package (https://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2549). New SPEC and SRPMS files and rpmlint outputs are provided. SPEC file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec SRPMS file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec 0 packages and 1 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm 1 packages and 0 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. Any comments are welcome. Cordially, -- NVieville Hi, With the help of Nicolas i've managed to get the driver working on F18 on my Dell Inspiron 5720. Before these rpm's were published, the only way I got the card working was by following the solution provided at http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-283824.html I must say, as a user without much linux knowledge, I find it way more convenient to install the driver by rpm as by manual installation. I ran into 1 problem: After installing the driver the wireless couldn't connect to my network and /var/log/messages was full with "ERROR @wl_cfg80211_scan : WLC_SCAN error (-22)" errors. Nicolas sent me in the right direction for a solution by pointing me to this url: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1216302#p1216302 The steps I follow to get things working are: 1. hit fn+f2 2. Notice the bluetooth icon pops up in the system tray. 3. 'rfkill list' showed me the wireless was soft-blocked, but the bluetooth wasn't. Unblock the wireless by 'rfkill unblock <devid>' The wireless is working again! Kind regards, Mark Holster (In reply to comment #4) > With the help of Nicolas i've managed to get the driver working on F18 on my > Dell Inspiron 5720. Before these rpm's were published, the only way I got the > card working was by following the solution provided at > http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-283824.html I have the same laptop and was following the same instructions. I found this bug and compiled the source RPMs mentioned. I deleted the manually built wl.ko module and replaced it with the binary RPMs I built and the wireless card came right up on boot. > I must say, as a user without much linux knowledge, I find it way more > convenient to install the driver by rpm as by manual installation. Thanks to Nicolas and Mark Does anyones tried with extracting the b43 firmware from the windows driver using b43-fwcutter ? This will requires to have the wk-kmod uninstalled. Nicolas, No I haven't tried that out. Unfortunately I can't try it out anymore, because I've overwritten my Windows 8 partition with Fedora. Also, I didn't order any rescue DVD as I was not planning to use Windows at all. If someone could provide me the driver I'll give it a try. Regards, Mark Hello Community, This package have been updated to include the last patches needed for last kernels (eg. 3.8 and 3.9 series). This package build fine for F-17, F-18 and Rawhide in mock. The only modification in the spec file needed for F-17 and F-18 in order to obtain correct kmod packages for current kernel, is to replace: %define buildforkernels akmod line by: %define buildforkernels current Previous link for F-18 (comment #1) are still available and updated (only for kernel 3.8) in order to help users to test this package. There are also F-17 spec and srpms files available. Just replace F-18 with F-17 in the previous URLs. These files have already been modified in the buildforkernels directive to "current". This package depends on broadcom-wl-bcm43142 package (https://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2549). New SPEC and SRPMS files and rpmlint outputs are provided. SPEC file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec SRPMS file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec 0 packages and 1 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm 1 packages and 0 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. Happy testing! Any comments are welcome. Cordially, -- NVieville Hi Nicolas, Thanks, it work's like a charm. Regards, Mark Hello Community, This package have been updated to include the last modified patches needed for last kernels (eg. 3.8 and 3.9 series), especially for kernel 3.8 that should panic while using iwconfig tool (see https://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2715 for wl-kmod package). My previous comments about the availability of F-18 and F-17 packages are still available and these ones have been updated according to the devel one. New SPEC and SRPMS files and rpmlint outputs are provided. SPEC file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec SRPMS file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod.spec 0 packages and 1 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. rpmlint wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm 1 packages and 0 specfiles checked; 0 errors, 0 warnings. Happy testing! Any comments are welcome. Cordially, -- NVieville I still don't understand how this device works compared with using the firmware extracted from the windows binaries (I'm not speaking of the firmware provided by fedora). http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 Hi Nicolas, As I already said it (initial message and comment #2), sorry for that, I don't own myself such a device, so I'm unable to provide you any results of your asked test with Windows driver. But according to the chart in http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices the 14e4:4365 device (aka bcm43142, aka Dell 1704, aka bcm4365) is not supported by the b43 or b43legacy drivers. In addition, after a few hours surfing and "googling" about Linux and bcm43142 wireless device led me to the tip that suggest installing/extracting the corresponding Ubuntu package, see for example: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=282334 http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=282334 That's why I thought it was worth proposing a package of this driver "made for Fedora". Maybe I was wrong when I thought this package should be needed by Fedora users, but for the moment, I didn't found any "howto" or "tutorial" showing how to proceed successfully with b43-fwcutter and this bcm43142. It would be very useful if one of the readers of this thread, owning this device, should confirm your suggestion about the b43-fwcutter. To try to help in this way, I found 2 links where one can download the drivers for this device and for Windows (for Lenovo and Dell laptop): http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/h0wg01ww.exe http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER01132685M/1/Network_Driver_154HC_WN_WLAN_6.30.59.7_A02.EXE Be careful, the second one is more than 400 MiB. I can't give any tip on how to use them (probably extracting them is needed but file-roller doesn't show anything useful). In order to get more users reading this thread having the opportunity to test the different suggestions, maybe should I post on the forums sited above the address of this one, to draw their attention to this discussion? I hope we find a solution that will give users the best and smoother Fedora experience. Comments, suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Cordially, -- NVieville @NVieville > Happy testing! Any comments are welcome. I have download these src.rpm > $ wget \ > http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/wl-bcm43142-kmod/wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm \ > http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25699833/rpmfusion/Rawhide/broadcom-wl-bcm43142/broadcom-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm then I have rebuild them with: > $ rpmbuild --rebuild \ > broadcom-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm \ > wl-bcm43142-kmod-6.20.55.19-1.fc19.src.rpm then I have install it with: > sudo yum install \ > rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/broadcom-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19-1.fc18.noarch.rpm \ > rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/kmod-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19-1.fc18.x86_64.rpm \ > rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/akmod-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19-1.fc18.x86_64.rpm and test it. Work. But only if I connect to my and other router wifi with mode "infrastructure". If I connect to my server firewall, witch share our wireless network card in to mode "ad-hoc" do not work. On another Notebook with BCM 4313 (not supported from b43 http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices ) card, I have use wl driver and I had rebuild the src.rpm and modify the make command with "make API=WEXT", in this mode the driver can connect into both mode. With wl-bcm43142 I could not try this trick , but I think that would work. If you're interested, I can try in a few days. Do you have some suggest for me? Hello,
Thanks for your feedback against this wireless driver packages.
> But only if I connect to my and other router wifi with mode
> "infrastructure". If I connect to my server firewall, witch share our
> wireless network card in to mode "ad-hoc" do not work.
>
> On another Notebook with BCM 4313 (not supported from b43
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices ) card, I have
> use wl driver and I had rebuild the src.rpm and modify the make command with
> "make API=WEXT", in this mode the driver can connect into both mode.
>
> With wl-bcm43142 I could not try this trick , but I think that would work.
> If you're interested, I can try in a few days.
>
> Do you have some suggest for me?
As the bcm43142 packages already contain the WEXT-API configuration elements, like the official akmod-wl and broadcom-wl packages, I think you should get this working. Simply follow the steps provided in the /usr/share/doc/broadcom-wl-bcm43142-6.20.55.19/fedora.readme file from the broadcom-wl-bcm43142 package. One thing to do is to uninstall the kmod-wl-bcm43142 package, and use only the akmod-wl-bcm43142 one.
Hope this will be useful, as I don't own myself such a device.
Feel free to provide any feedback you thing necessary.
Cordially,
--
NVieville
Ok, then: # echo API=WEXT > /etc/akmods/akmod-wl-bcm43142/api # akmods --force --kernel `uname -r` --akmod wl-bcm43142 is what I'm looking for, and I did not know. Thank. But I have read also this: Caution : --------- WEXT API will be dropped from future kernels according to https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=10bab00afed042c1a38ed5ffb135e2aea5ce1277 This workaround should only used on compatibles kernels with the WEXT API. One should considere to switch to higher wireless compatible Fedora Release in order to get the most recent CFG80211 API with most recent kernel. This workaround will be dropped from the future broadcom-wl-bcm43142, kmod-wl-bcm43142 and akmod-wl-bcm43142 packages when the WEXT API will be dropped too. --------------- Then, in the future, when the WEXT API will dropped, there is no way to use wireless in "ad-hoc" mode with BCM driver ? Hello, This review request was replaced by the new one for 6.30 series of this driver (rfbz#2890). Please follow this new one for further news. I'll close this one unless someone claims it is still useful. Cordially, -- NVieville Hello, As explained in my previous post, this review request is replaced by : https://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2890 Cordially, -- NVieville |