b44 issues with dcore Bionic/Stretch x86

[Santos]

Hello

Just wanting to know how to "extract" the correct firmware for a Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX NIC.

This is what i get with sudo modprobe b44 withouth the wireless extension:

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modprobe: can't load module b44 (kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/b44.ko): unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter

Dmesg output without wireless extension:

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b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_is_enabled (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_pcicore_dev_irqvecs_enable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_may_powerdown (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_pcihost_register (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_disable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_enable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_driver_unregister (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol __ssb_driver_register (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_powerup (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_clockspeed (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_translation (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_is_enabled (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_pcicore_dev_irqvecs_enable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_may_powerdown (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_pcihost_register (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_disable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_device_enable (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_driver_unregister (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol __ssb_driver_register (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_bus_powerup (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_clockspeed (err 0)
b44: Unknown symbol ssb_dma_translation (err 0)

After loading wireless extension, dcore doesn't print errors anymore:

dmesg:

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b44: Broadcom 44xx/47xx 10/100 PCI ethernet driver version 2.0
b44 ssb0:0 eth0: Broadcom 44xx/47xx 10/100 PCI ethernet driver 00:17:a4:e4:e1:d8
b44 ssb0:0 eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex
b44 ssb0:0 eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX

lsmod:

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Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
b44                    24576  0
ssb                    36864  1 b44
mmc_core               65536  1 ssb
iwl3945                45056  0
iwlegacy               32768  1 iwl3945
mac80211              233472  2 iwl3945,iwlegacy
cfg80211              159744  3 iwl3945,iwlegacy,mac80211
intel_agp              12288  0
intel_gtt              16384  1 intel_agp
agpgart                24576  2 intel_agp,intel_gtt
iosf_mbi               12288  0
i2c_algo_bit           12288  0
cpufreq_powersave      12288  0
cpufreq_userspace      12288  0
cpufreq_conservative    12288  0
rndis_host             12288  0
cdc_ether              12288  1 rndis_host
usbnet                 20480  2 rndis_host,cdc_ether
ppdev                  12288  0
wmi_bmof               12288  0
hp_wmi                 12288  0
sparse_keymap          12288  1 hp_wmi
pcspkr                 12288  0
serio_raw              12288  0
mii                    12288  2 b44,usbnet
parport_pc             24576  0
parport                28672  2 ppdev,parport_pc
hp_accel               24576  0
lis3lv02d              16384  1 hp_accel
input_polldev          12288  1 lis3lv02d
wmi                    16384  2 wmi_bmof,hp_wmi
lpc_ich                20480  0
squashfs               28672  5
zstd_decompress        61440  1 squashfs
xxhash                 16384  1 zstd_decompress
ac                     12288  0
battery                16384  0
acpi_cpufreq           12288  1
loop                   20480 10

What should I be "grabing" from the wireless extension or in its defect, what should I be downloading individually?

I'm using Dcore Bionic/Stretch x86.

Thank you very much.

[Rich]

Hi Santos
I think those errors are for a missing driver, not firmware:

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tc@E310:~$ grep b44 /lib/modules/4.19.10-tinycore/modules.dep
kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/b44.ko.gz: kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko.gz kernel/drivers/mmc/core/mmc_core.ko.gz kernel/drivers/net/mii.ko.gz
tc@E310:~$
One of the dependencies of  b44.ko  is  ssb.ko  which supplies all of those unknown symbols.

[patrikg]

You can do following to see what depends of what.

Code: (bash) [Select]

modinfo b44 | grep depends

[Santos]

Thank you very much both of you for answering.

Ok, so I went ahead and mount the wireless extions, locate the infamous ssb.ko and tried to modprobe it, no luck.

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$ sudo modprobe ssb.ko
modprobe: module ssb.ko not found in modules.dep

When I modprobe  mii.ko  and  mmc_core.ko  there is no error message, and the modules are loaded.

Is this the way to go?

As always, your help is very much appreciated.

[Rich]

Hi Santos
Try this:

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sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$KERNEL/kernel/drivers/ssbReplace  $KERNEL  with your kernel version.

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sudo cp ssb.ko  /lib/modules/$KERNEL/kernel/drivers/ssb

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sudo depmod -aSee if modprobe works now.

[Santos]

Hello Rich.

Thank you very much!!!

It works now!!!

After following your instructions in a root shell I am able to access the internet.

Just for my future refence or if someone has a similar issue:

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#mkdir -p /lib/modules/4.14.10-tinycore/kernel/drivers/ssb
#cp ./ssb.ko /lib/modules/4.14.10-tinycore/kernel/drivers/ssb/
#depmod -a
#modprobe b44
#udhcpc -i eth0

Thank your for your time and help, I kindly appreciate it.

[Rich]

Hi Santos
You are welcome. Glad to hear it worked.