bcm4328 wireless unstable with wl driver

[Alex Trofast]

Binary package hint: wl

On a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop with the bcm4328 chipset, it will connect to both secured and unsecured networks, but it shows the connection speed as 2MB/s. With ndiswrapper it shows as 130MB/s in the same location. Additionally the connection is unstable. It doesn't disconnect but transferring of files stop. Here's some information that might be useful:

Distro: Ubuntu 8.10 32 bit
Linux kernel: 2.6.27-7-generic
wl version: 2.14.0-9
lspci -vv output:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Dell Device 000a
 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: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
 Region 0: Memory at f9ffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Region 2: Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=1M]
 Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
  Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
 Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information <?>
 Capabilities: [e8] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
  Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
 Capabilities: [d0] Express (v1) Endpoint, MSI 00
  DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
   ExtTag+ AttnBtn+ AttnInd+ PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
  DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
   RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
   MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
  DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
  LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <4us, L1 <64us
   ClockPM+ Suprise+ LLActRep- BwNot-
  LnkCtl: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
   ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
  LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
 Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel <?>
 Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 1c-00-40-ff-ff-26-95-be
 Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
 Kernel driver in use: wl
 Kernel modules: wl, ssb

If you need anything else, please let me know.

[BernardB (b-launchpad)]

I have a Dell Studio Hybrid with the same BCM4328 and suffered similar issues with the wl driver. The killer for me was that wireless would simply drop out for minutes at a time, then come back.

I grabbed the latest Broadcom driver (5.10.27.14) and dropped it into linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-11 and rebuilt. It appears that this driver does not cause the drop outs any more. It still seems to miss some beats when streaming at high bitrates, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

[Dawning (dawning)]

I too have been banging my head against a wall with this same issue. My BCM4328 is a rev 03 (in my macbook).

I wonder what the process is to get the latest driver thrown in to apt?

[Dawning (dawning)]

I have this problem too. Things seem somewhat more stable with the latest broadcom kernel module (wl.ko) installed, but really, this seems to be an on-going issue for me and it's really making me sad. Afterall, it really limits how I can use my machine. I hope we find a good fix soon! :D

[Dawning (dawning)]

Well, it's been over a year since I last commented on this. At this point the wl driver seems pretty solid. I think the rare problems I have are more likely to do with the access points I connect to and interference. I think we can close this ticket.