[Hardy]b43 wireless driver: WiFi LED is out when interface up and vice versa

[der_vegi]

I am using the b43 driver from the 2.6.24-1-generic kernel (amd64) for my broadcom BCM4312 wireless card. If this module is up and running, it creates a network interface called 'wlan0_rename' which is working. But if it is up and working, my WiFi LED is off, if I do 'ifdown wlan0_rename', the LED goes on although the device is off now.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. After you perform your 'ifdown wlan0_rename, can you capture your dmesg output and attach it to this bug report? Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Strange, now the LED does not work at all anymore. Here the output of my dmesg while performing 'modprobe b43', 'ifconfig wlan0_rename up' and then 'ifconfig wlan0_rename' down.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks der_vegi,

I should have probably been more clear, can you attach your entire dmesg output? Can you also attach the output of 'cat /proc/version_signature'?

Also, the Hardy Heron Alpha2 release should be coming out soon. It might also be good to test with this as well. I'll update this report when it is available. Thanks!

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Okay, now here the output with kernel 2.6.24-2-generic.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Oh, the output of cat '/proc/version_signature' is 'Ubuntu 2.6.24-2.3-generic'.

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

From Bug #177766 :
I'm experiencing the same problem on my Acer Aspire 3004WLCi (BCM4138) I am able to turn my wireless device on and off by pressing the (wireless button in front of it). However, the orange led (that used to come on in earlier kernels) on the button does not turn on. This light should turn on when I am connected and turn off when I turn off the device, otherwise it is very confusing as to when wireless is on or off.

Attempting a 'ifdown wlan0' or 'sudo ifdown wlan0' does not work - I receive an error that the device is not configured. I am running Hardy Alpha 2 and my output of cat is 'Ubuntu 2.6.24-2.4-generic'.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

It seems that this bug has been fixed in 2.6.24-rc6, see http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.24-rc6:

" b43: Fix rfkill radio LED

    This fixes Bug #9414

    Since addition of the rfkill callback, the LED associated with the off
    switch on the radio has not worked for several reasons:

    (1) Essential data in the rfkill structure were missing.
    (2) The rfkill structure was initialized after the LED initialization.
    (3) There was a minor memory leak if the radio LED structure was inited.

    Once the above problems were fixed, additional difficulties were noted:

    (4) The radio LED was in the wrong state at startup.
    (5) The radio switch had to be manipulated twice for each state change.
    (6) A circular mutex locking situation existed.
    (7) If rfkill-input is built as a module, it is not automatically loaded.

    This patch fixes all of the above."

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

Updating to the released rc6-based kernel has not fixed this issue for me.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Well, for me it works now with the most recent kernel in the repos, 2.6.24-3-generic (amd64). Can anyone confirm this?

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Ops, I was wrong: The radio LED is only on until I press the hardware-key for disabling the card, then the LED turns off, as it should do. But turning the card on again by pressing the button, does not turn the LED on again, although the wireless connection works again.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

With the newest kernel (proc/version says 'Linux version 2.6.24-4-generic (buildd@yellow) (gcc version 4.2.3 20080104 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.2.2-5ubuntu2)) #1 SMP Mon Jan 14 18:19:11 UTC 2008') the LED works as it should.

[Ralf Hildebrandt (ralf-hildebrandt)]

I still see the inverted behaviour. LED off == card is active
and vice versa.

01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
        Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Unknown device 0422
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 23
        Region 0: Memory at c3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
        Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
                Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag+
                Device: Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
                Device: AtnBtn- AtnInd- PwrInd-
                Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                Device: RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
                Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s, Port 0
                Link: Latency L0s <4us, L1 <64us
                Link: ASPM L0s Enabled RCB 64 bytes CommClk- ExtSynch-
                Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1

# cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 2.6.24-8.14-generic

# uname -a
Linux acerbus 2.6.24-8-generic #1 SMP Thu Feb 14 20:13:27 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[ 279.462732] b43-phy1: The hardware RF-kill button still turns the radio physically off. Press the button to turn it on.
[ 283.752921] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xd5 on isa0060/serio0).
[ 283.752928] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e055 <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 283.837555] b43-phy1: Radio hardware status changed to ENABLED
[ 283.856907] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xd5 on isa0060/serio0).
[ 283.856915] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e055 <keycode>' to make it known.

[zanonmark (info-marcozanon)]

My experience:

- Gutsy: worked perfectly

- Hardy, default install kernel:
-- the wireless led works perfectly only after a few minutes of computer activity
-- instead, it is "always on" (even if you turn the interface down) in the first minutes

- Hardy, current 2.6.24-17-generic kernel (just upgraded today)
-- the wireless led is on when you power the computer up
-- it stays "off" when you first disable the wireless interface
-- it does not turn "on" again, even when you restore the wireless interface

[zanonmark (info-marcozanon)]

forgot to say: Dell Vostro 1000 with Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (b43 driver)

[abePdIta (abepdita)]

Same problem..
on my laptop, activity led is on only sometimes and only if my wireless interface is disabled..

$ cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 2.6.24-20.38-generic

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

[abePdIta (abepdita)]

Sorry, forgot to say:
$ sudo ifdown wlan0
ifdown: interface wlan0 not configured

[abePdIta (abepdita)]

Another strange behavior i've noticed now:
my laptop has two on/off slides and two leds, the firsts are for bluetooth and the seconds are for WiFi (as shown in the attached picture), even if i haven't an on-board bluetooth device;
What happens if i use the bluetooth slide? It seems to switch something..
Here the different situations:
wifi device on: wifi led off
wifi device on + use BT slide: wifi led on
wifi device on + use BT slide again: wifi led off
wifi device off: wifi led on
wifi device off + use BT slide once or more: wifi led on
wifi device on again: depends on last 'bluetooth' state..
.. so.. what? i don't know! =) but i hope this can be of some help!

[abePdIta (abepdita)]

No one can confirm that the suggested fix actually fixes the problem

[abePdIta (abepdita)]

The comment above explain why I changed this bug status as follows: fix released => confirmed

I can confirm that the problem affect ubuntu 8.10 too.

Well, I was wrong in my previous comment.. der_vegi actually says that LED works as it should, in his case.
Anyway, i think that other users are experiencing this problem still now.

[der_vegi (m-may)]

Just tested it on Intrepid Beta (amd64) again: Enabling/disabling via nm-applet and via the hardware switch works as it should for me. So maybe this is hardware-specific? Or does it depend on the used firmware? dmesg tells me:
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)

My hardware: Dell Inspiron 1501, Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4312] (rev 01).

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

der_vegi, since you are the original bug repoter, and have confirmed this is resolved for you I am marking this back to "Fix Released". For those of you still experiencing issues it would be best to open a new bug as you likely have different hardware than the original reporter which will likely require a different fix. It's best to not hijack another reporter's bug even if you have the same symptoms since many times kernel bugs are hardware specific. Thanks.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.