WiFi Cannot Scan

[eltone]

Re: TCP 5.1 LiveUSB
BCM4318 WLAN chipset

Hi,

I just did a fresh TCP 5.1 install.

WiFi cannot scan/find cells:

[root@box: dmesg
Adding 261116k swap on /dev/sdb2.  Priority:-2 extents:1 across:261116k
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2 (G), Revision 7
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNL ]
ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
8139too 0000:06:06.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x41E1
root@box:~# microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
sh: microcode:: not found
root@box:~# microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
sh: microcode:: not found
root@box:~# microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
sh: microcode:: not found
root@box:~# microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
sh: microcode:: not found
root@box:~# microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
sh: microcode:: not found
root@box:~# dmesg

 

This problem appears to be a carrie-over from TCP 4.73, where the work-around was to use
wicd network manager and rfkill.

Q: Is there a fix coming?

Also, wicd and rfkill needs to be TCP 5.1 recompiled.

Kind Regards,
eltone

[Juanito]

There's nothing in your dmesg that indicates a problem with rfkill, or any other problem with wifi.

Adjustments were made to the base for tc-5.x to change the rfkill permissions - could you confirm that your wireless does not work with the wifi extension (tested with your wired connection disconnected/disabled).

[eltone]

- could you confirm that your wireless does not work with the wifi extension (tested with your wired connection disconnected/disabled).

Dear Juanito:

Without wired ethernet, clicking the Wbar wifi icon:

Select Wifi Network

    ESSID                         Enc   Qual    Channel Type           

Enter selection ( 1 - 0 ) or (q)uit:

Cheatcodes used:

UI vesamenu.c32
MENU TITLE Tiny Core Bootloader
TIMEOUT 100

DEFAULT core
LABEL core
KERNEL /tce/boot/vmlinuz

APPEND initrd=/tce/boot/core.gz quiet tce=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" waitusb=9:UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" restore=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" home=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" opt=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" local=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7" showapps vga=788 xsetup lang=en kmap=us pause blacklist=wl blacklist=bcma

LABEL windows
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 1

*****************
Please note that wifi extension did find one cell yesterday that I did not recognize, while there are many in the vacinity.  Also, the hp dv8000 WLAN LED does get enabled and turned off w/wifi extension.

Q: Any plans to add wicd extension to TCP 5.1?

Sincerely,
eltone

[coreplayer2]

Honestly I'm not sure why you'd blacklist wl proprietary driver if you are using the in-tree b43 driver with bcma and ssb ??   possibly bmca doesn't need to be blacklisted either

cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2 (G), Revision 7
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNL ]

Given this I'd say that the driver b43 is loaded, but no mention of the firmware?
I'd start over, uninstall the wl-modules if installed and remove all the unnecessary blacklist boot codes

blacklist=wl  (is this proprietary module installed?)
blacklist=bcma  (first try with this and ssb modules and firmware loaded)


Am curious of the reasons for these boot codes?

restore=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7"
local=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7"
xsetup
pause

[eltone]

Honestly I'm not sure why you'd blacklist wl proprietary driver if you are using the in-tree b43 driver with bcma and ssb ??   possibly bmca doesn't need to be blacklisted either

I have always used 'modprobe -r wl' in the past, but not 'modprobe -r bmca'

cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2 (G), Revision 7
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNL ]

Given this I'd say that the driver b43 is loaded, but no mention of the firmware?
I'd start over, uninstall the wl-modules if installed and remove all the unnecessary blacklist boot codes

The two firmware extensions required for the BCM4318 chipset appear to be bundled w/TCP 5.1
b43-fwcutter.tcz
firmware-openfwwf.tcz

Q: Please list all WLAN modules required for the BCM4318 chipset?
All others should be removed!

blacklist=wl  (is this proprietary module installed?)
blacklist=bcma  (first try with this and ssb modules and firmware loaded)

I'm not sure about 'bcma' but 'wl' must be blacklisted when using b43 and ssb kernel modules.

Am curious of the reasons for these boot codes?

restore=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7"
local=UUID="de54793e-5803-4242-87af-27fbbdcb2bb7"
xsetup
pause
 

This was used to add TCP 5.1 LiveUSB stability between two computers.  It shouldn't effect wifi's ability to scan for cells.

eltone

[Juanito]

You have two choices to get your hardware working:

b43 kernel module with firmware, but no blacklist required (do not load wl-modules-KERNEL)
or
wl-modules-KERNEL without firmware, but blacklist the bcma, ssb and b43 modules

With the first option you may need to follow the instructions here:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

..to cut your own firmware.

[eltone]

You have two choices to get your hardware working:

b43 kernel module with firmware, but no blacklist required (do not load wl-modules-KERNEL)

Juanito,
I agree with your first choice and dmesg now mentions it:

root@box:~#
EXT4-fs (sdb1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2 (G), Revision 7
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNL ]
ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
8139too 0000:06:06.0 eth0: link down
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
microcode: AMD CPU family 0xf not supported
------------[ cut here ]------------
WARNING: at drivers/net/wireless/b43/main.c:2574 0xf85ce129()
Hardware name: Pavilion dv8000 (ET831UA#ABA)     
Modules linked in: cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_stats cpufreq_userspace cpufreq_conservative b43 mac80211 bcma cfg80211 squashfs loop hp_wmi sparse_keymap powernow_k8 video backlight 8139cp sdhci_pci sdhci ac battery mmc_core tifm_7xx1 wmi 8139too tifm_core ssb pcspkr
Pid: 5344, comm: ifconfig Not tainted 3.8.13-tinycore #2511
Call Trace:
 [<c012b5dd>] ? 0xc012b5dd
 [<f85ce129>] ? 0xf85ce129
 [<f85ce129>] ? 0xf85ce129
 [<c012b60b>] ? 0xc012b60b
 [<f85ce129>] ? 0xf85ce129
 [<f85cf02e>] ? 0xf85cf02e
 [<f853a235>] ? 0xf853a235
 [<f8538acb>] ? 0xf8538acb
 [<c0143bea>] ? 0xc0143bea
 [<c0429b7f>] ? 0xc0429b7f
 [<c0429af2>] ? 0xc0429af2
 [<c0429d6b>] ? 0xc0429d6b
 [<c04263d2>] ? 0xc04263d2
 [<c01b1ed2>] ? 0xc01b1ed2
 [<c0429e3f>] ? 0xc0429e3f
 [<c046dca0>] ? 0xc046dca0
 [<c04263d2>] ? 0xc04263d2
 [<c01b1ed2>] ? 0xc01b1ed2
 [<c014654c>] ? 0xc014654c
 [<c041945b>] ? 0xc041945b
 [<c0419283>] ? 0xc0419283
 [<c01b67a0>] ? 0xc01b67a0
 [<c01b7239>] ? 0xc01b7239
 [<c012263e>] ? 0xc012263e
 [<c041a2be>] ? 0xc041a2be
 [<c041afc0>] ? 0xc041afc0
 [<c01b72ac>] ? 0xc01b72ac
 [<c04c63d8>] ? 0xc04c63d8
---[ end trace 41743691ca79d3f4 ]---
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2015-15-255 15:32:10)
b43-phy0 warning: No "pcm5.fw" firmware file found. Hardware accelerated cryptography is disabled.
b43-phy0 warning: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
net_ratelimit: 5 callbacks suppressed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
b43-phy0 ERROR: MAC suspend failed
root@box:~#

I have never downloaded any firmware or needed a wired connection on other distros.

Q: Why not bundle it with TCP 5.1?
The b43 kernel module is but it's firmware is not.
eltone

[gerald_clark]

Hundreds of unused firmware files would be a waste of memory.
Just load the extension containing the ones you need.

[Juanito]

Q: Why not bundle it with TCP 5.1?
The b43 kernel module is but it's firmware is not.

broadcom does not make its drivers available to the open source community so the b43 module is reverse-engineered. This is why the linux wireless page provides the firmware cutter and points you towards where you can find the firmware to cut - it is OK for an individual to do this, but a distro cannot neccessarily make the firmware available.

if you don't want to cut your own firmware, then you can use the closed source broadcom wl module provided by the wl-modules-KERNEL extension. Since the wl module is provided by broadcom the firmware is included.

[eltone]

Hi,

'wl-modules-3.8.13-tinycore.tcz' is non-functional, therefore, please confirm accuracy:

I. Cut your own firmware w/TCP 5.1
If you are using the b43 driver from 3.2 kernel or newer:
1) Make sure b43-fwcutter.tcz is installed

2) Download version 5.100.138 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:

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

Code: [Select]

root@box:/home/tc/b43fw# wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5
.100.138.tar.bz2
Connecting to www.lwfinger.com (173.254.28.119:80)
broadcom-wl-5.100.13 100% |*******************************| 13197k  0:00:00 ETA
root@box:/home/tc/b43fw# tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
root@box:/home/tc/b43fw# sudo b43-fwcutter -w /usr/local/lib/firmware broadcom-w
l-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
This file is recognised as:
  filename   :  wl_apsta.o
  version    :  666.2
  MD5        :  e1b05e268bcdbfef3560c28fc161f30e
Extracting b43/lp0initvals14.fw
Extracting b43/lcn0bsinitvals25.fw
Extracting b43/n0bsinitvals25.fw
Extracting b43/n0bsinitvals17.fw
Extracting b43/ucode17_mimo.fw
Extracting b43/ucode16_lp.fw
Extracting b43/sslpn1initvals27.fw
Extracting b43/lp2bsinitvals19.fw
Extracting b43/sslpn3bsinitvals21.fw
Extracting b43/ucode16_sslpn.fw
  ucode time:     01:15:07
Extracting b43/ucode25_lcn.fw
Extracting b43/ucode21_sslpn.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals14.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/ucode20_sslpn.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/lp1initvals20.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp2initvals19.fw
Extracting b43/n2bsinitvals19.fw
Extracting b43/sslpn4bsinitvals22.fw
Extracting b43/ucode16_sslpn_nobt.fw
  ucode date:     2011-02-23
Extracting b43/n1bsinitvals20.fw
Extracting b43/n1initvals20.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
failed to open file: Read-only file system
root@box:/home/tc/b43fw#


THX!
eltone

[eltone]

Hi,

Win32 WLAN driver is non-functional:

Code: [Select]


root@box:/# ndiswrapper -i /home/tc/ndiswrsp/*.inf
couldn't open /home/tc/ndiswrsp/*.inf: No such file or directory at /usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper line 219.
root@box:/#




[Lee]

Just at a glance, and w/o any experience with ndis wrapper, I wonder is that a typo in "/home/tc/ndiswrsp/*.inf"?

[eltone]

Just at a glance, and w/o any experience with ndis wrapper, I wonder is that a typo in "/home/tc/ndiswrsp/*.inf"?

Lee,

Correction:

Code: [Select]

root@box:~# ndiswrapper -i /home/tc/ndiswrap/bcmwl5.inf
installing bcmwl5 ...
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
root@box:~# ndiswrapper -m
modprobe: invalid option -- 'c'
BusyBox v1.20.2 (2012-08-07 01:31:01 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: modprobe [-alrqvsDb] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -a      Load multiple MODULEs
        -l      List (MODULE is a pattern)
        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -s      Log to syslog
        -D      Show dependencies
        -b      Apply blacklist to module names too

adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.conf ...
root@box:~# modprobe ndiswrapper


Code: [Select]

root@box:~# ndiswrapper -l
modprobe: invalid option -- 'c'
BusyBox v1.20.2 (2012-08-07 01:31:01 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: modprobe [-alrqvsDb] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -a      Load multiple MODULEs
        -l      List (MODULE is a pattern)
        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -s      Log to syslog
        -D      Show dependencies
        -b      Apply blacklist to module names too

bcmwl5 : driver installed
        device (14E4:4318) present
root@box:~#

wifi.tcz remains unable to scan for cells.

eltone

PS. Need a WLAN Guru, to resolve.

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Broadcom_BCM4318

[coreplayer2]

b43-phy0 warning: No "pcm5.fw" firmware file found. Hardware accelerated cryptography is disabled.

pcm5.fw is not listed as available in any firmware extension available for tc-5.x, except possibly firmware-broadcom_bcm43xx.tcz which may be worth trying if there is confusion over the actual chip ID, though looks like only recent devices are supported.

Realistically one solution is use the b43-fwcutter to extract the firmware then create an extension, I'm not sure of the legality to provide (bundle) this fw in any distro.   

 Another solution, acquire a better supported adapter (it's always an option)

'wl-modules-3.8.13-tinycore.tcz' is non-functional, therefore, please confirm accuracy:

according to   http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 the wl-modules-3.8.13-tinycore.tcz driver might not support your specific hardware though with Broadcom it always seems worth trying.  wl is also not provided in-tree so is not required to be blacklisted.  wl is provided in extension wl-modules-3.8.13-tinycore.tcz, since it might not support your specific hardware should ideally be either uninstalled or be removed from onboot.lst


AFAIK for ndiswrapper to function properly, you might need to blacklist bcm,ssb and b43 modules with this boot code

blacklist=bcma,ssb,b43

[Juanito]

b43-fwcutter updated to the latest version.

To cut your own firmware:

Code: [Select]

$ wget -c http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
$ tar xf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/firmware
$ sudo b43-fwcutter -w /usr/local/lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o