Older Broadcom chipsets require older driver [Raring, Saucy]

[Daniel Manrique]

I installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 on this system, then the proprietary bcmwl-kernel-source driver. It installed version 6.20.155.1. The available networks are shown on nm-applet, but I can't connect to any of them. For WPA networks, I get asked for the passphrase, but then the icon just throbs endlessly and never connects. Open networks don't ask for the password but also don't connect.

I know the wireless networks are set up correctly as other systems are able to connect. I used b/g and n test networks, on 2.4 GHz band, both open and with WPA. the access points are Cisco E3000 (and one Cisco enterprise AP for which I don't know the model number).

This seems like a regression from the old version of the driver (5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu6). With that version, the system is able to connect to b/g networks only; n networks can't be connected to. But at least b/g worked :)

This system is primarily used for testing, so don't hesitate to ask for further tests, package installs, logfiles or anything that may be of help.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-38.61-generic 3.2.37
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-38-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Mar 12 13:40:44 2013
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: bcmwl
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

I'm attaching a portion of syslog showing the endless connection attempts :)

[Ara Pulido (ara)]

Adding the regression tag, as this was working before with the old driver.

[Ara Pulido (ara)]

Daniel, can you add the device id, so Alberto can add it to the blacklist for updates?

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Sure, here's the affected device's pci id data.

0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Adam Porter (alphapapa)]

This bug affects Raring as well. I have a BCM4313 in my netbook. It worked perfectly in Quantal with 5.100.82.112. I upgraded to Raring, which upgraded it to 6.20.155.1, which is unusable. I installed 5.100.82.112 from Quantal and it works perfectly again.

This driver must be split and older chipsets must use 5.100.82.112.

This is a major regression.

[Chris Hermansen (c-hermansen)]

Actually I think bug 1097519 is a duplicate of this bug.

The title of this bug is a better description of the problem: the wrong driver is loaded for the 4311 (at least on my Dell Inspiron 1501) and worse in the last two releases this problem craps out the wired driver as well!

A thing I notice in /var/log/syslog:

Oct 1 11:43:41 valencia kernel: [ 13.133362] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
Oct 1 11:43:41 valencia kernel: [ 13.133466] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
Oct 1 11:43:41 valencia kernel: [ 13.133566] b43-phy0 ERROR: 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.

Another thing I notice in /var/log/syslog:

Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.408527] wl driver 6.30.223.30 (r390414) failed with code 21
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.408549] ------------[ cut here ]------------
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.408624] Kernel BUG at f96be33a [verbose debug info unavailable]
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.408713] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.408788] Modules linked in: wl(POF+) dell_wmi sparse_keymap dell_laptop parport_pc(F) snd_hda_codec_idt dcdbas ppdev(F) snd_hda_intel bnep radeon snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep(F) rfcomm snd_pcm(F) snd_page_alloc(F) snd_seq_midi(F) snd_seq_midi_event(F) snd_rawmidi(F) bluetooth snd_seq(F) lib80211 snd_seq_device(F) ttm snd_timer(F) cfg80211 drm_kms_helper psmouse(F) snd(F) drm sp5100_tco soundcore(F) serio_raw(F) k8temp i2c_piix4 i2c_algo_bit wmi video(F) shpchp ohci_pci ati_agp mac_hid lp(F) parport(F) pata_acpi sdhci_pci sdhci pata_atiixp ahci(F) libahci(F)
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.409800] CPU: 0 PID: 418 Comm: modprobe Tainted: PF O 3.11.0-8-generic #15-Ubuntu
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.409920] Hardware name: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1501 /0UW744, BIOS 2.3.0 03/15/2006
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410030] task: f4cae700 ti: f4918000 task.ti: f4918000
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410109] EIP: 0060:[<f96be33a>] EFLAGS: 00010246 CPU: 0
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410250] EIP is at wl_cfg80211_detach+0xca/0xd0 [wl]
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410327] EAX: 00000000 EBX: f50db034 ECX: f50dbe00 EDX: f50db034
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410418] ESI: f5965800 EDI: f50dbe00 EBP: f4919bd0 ESP: f4919bc0
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410510] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 00e0 SS: 0068
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410591] CR0: 8005003b CR2: b768e428 CR3: 351dc000 CR4: 000007f0
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410684] Stack:
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410717] 00000000 f50db034 f5965800 f50dbe00 f4919be8 f96b7443 f50db00c f50db000
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.410876] f5965800 f42c9800 f4919c94 f96b7ae8 c109dc8d f4919c34 c109df27 c1a725c0
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.411034] 00000400 01919c0c c1a932e0 00000046 0000033b 00000000 00000000 0000033c
Oct 1 11:14:29 valencia kernel: [ 14.411...