14e4:4320 "Install third party software" during install installs wl for BCM4306 when it's not supported

[Nehal Mistry]

I was installing Xubuntu 14.04. It said 'Configuring bcmwl-kernel-source amd64)' and in the details "DKMS: install completed." and it just froze there. To continue installation I had to open up a terminal and execute 'sudo killall -9 modprobe' due to the wl module being installed when it doesn't support my 4306 card. I had to add it to the module blacklist.

WORKAROUND: During the installation, do not select "Install third party software".

lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network

06:02.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Linksys WMP54GS v1.0 802.11g Wireless-G PCI Adapter with SpeedBooster [1737:0015]
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 32
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
        Region 0: Memory at f8100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

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[Todor Andreev (toshko3)]

Same here!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Todor Andreev (toshko3)]

I don't see an option to edit here, so will write it on a new post:

My chip is BCM 4318 and it has the same issues on my laptop.

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

wl driver supported devices:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

b43 driver supported devices:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices

Both 4306 (Me) and 4318 (Todor) are listed for b43 but not wl.

When I first opened this bug, I contacted the support email listed on the above Broadcom website and directed them here, but I have yet to receive a reply.

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

From looking at wl_linux.c, it seems to be loading the driver for any Broadcom device containing the PCI device ID 0x43##. This is incorrect.

In my opinion, this driver should not be installed, or at least not be loaded, by default in Ubuntu.

If someone would like, they can look at the existing source code and the README file included with the wl driver and can create a patch to do further validation of the PCI ID. Broadcom is unresponsive to me on this.

At this point, the workaround is as follows:
1. During installation, run "sudo killall -9 modprobe" when installation seems to freeze up to resume it. A hard reboot may be required after installation completes.
2. After booting into Ubuntu, add "blacklist wl" to the end of "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf". Again, a hard reboot may be required.
3. After this everything should be working as normal. If you need to load the b43 module by default, you may need to add "b43" to "/etc/modules".

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nehal Mistry, just to clarify, during the install did you check a box regarding installing third party drivers?

Also, could you please provide the missing information following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#Broadcom_STA_Wireless_driver ?

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

Christopher,
No, I did not select any such check box. It installed automatically.

Please see the sta_info.txt file for the other information.

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

Christopher,

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my previous comment. There was no checkbox for third party drivers, but I did select a checkbox for installing third party software, and that apparently also includes third party drivers (although the user has no way of knowing this).

I had a spare external USB drive so I tested this out with Ubuntu 14.10.
I installed once without that checkbox unselected: the 'wl' driver did not install and everything worked perfectly.
Then I reinstalled with it selected: The 'wl' driver installed and I got the same problems (installation froze, reboot froze, stack trace in dmesg). I had to use the workaround I specified in comment #8.

The official Ubuntu installation instructions even advises selecting it and says "We advise you to select Download updates while installing and Install this third-party software now" ( http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-desktop ) .
So although it is not installed by default, it is still too easy to install this driver which causes problems on unsupported broadcom devices.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nehal Mistry, thank you for the requested information. The root cause here as identified is that when one clicks "Install third party software" during the installer, it attempts to install the broadcom drivers (which do not support your particular card as per their README).

Hence, the fix would be that the Broadcom drivers are not installed if one clicks this.

Alberto Milone, would this be one for you, or would this be a different area/specialist?

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

Christopher,

I just tried Kubuntu 15.04 for AMD64. The problem no longer exists and the 'wl' module is not installed at all.

Was this fixed but this bug was not updated, or perhaps it was fixed as part of another bug?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nehal Mistry, would you need a backport to a release prior to 15.04, or may this be closed as Status Invalid?

[Nehal Mistry (nehalmistry)]

Christopher,

I don't need a backport. This seems resolved in 15.04 and there is a workaround in earlier versions, so I am satisfied with this.
You may close this as invalid. If this crops again in future versions, should I post a comment here or open a new issue?

Thank you for your assistance.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nehal Mistry, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1313221/comments/16 regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.