broadcom 14e4:4311, B43 and STA drivers sporadically disconnect

[J]

Binary package hint: firmware-b43-installer

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=maverick
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.10"
Linux HP 2.6.35-28-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 18 18:42:20 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Laptop is a HP Pavilion dv9500 with a wireless hardware switch.
Problem seems to occur after intensive wireless use (simultaneous video, IM, IRC and web surfing) or after being on continuously for more than 24 hours. Network manager will indicate disconnection from wireless network (WPA2) and any subsequent attempts to reconnect will not work (nw will act as if interface is down).
Attempted modprobe -r / -i of b43 driver, restart of /etc/init.d/network and /etc/init.d/network-manager and flipping physical hardware switch in various orders. Out put of lspci -vnn follows:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company BCM4311 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [103c:1374]
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
 Memory at f6000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
 Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
 Capabilities: [e8] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
 Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
 Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
 Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number f9-48-73-ff-ff-90-00-1a
 Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
 Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
 Kernel modules: ssb

dmesg is provided for when this occurs if helpful.
---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release Candidate amd64 (20101002)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: b43-fwcutter 1:013-3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Tags: natty running-unity
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-05-02 (0 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare tape video

[Sly (netrefuge)]

Would probably be best to run "apport-collect 772124" to get a collection of debugging information that developers may need.

I have also been experiencing a similar problem on my Dell Inspiron 1546 with a B43 card. However, my problem seems to be when I restart the computer. It tries to continuously connect to the wireless network, with nothing ever happening.

The only fix I have found for this problem when it happens is to reboot into Windows, and then reboot back into Ubuntu; or deactivate & reactivate the STA driver.

Would definitely like to see a fix for whatever is causing your problem, because it's probably the same problem I'm having.

[J (wooglez)]

apport information

[J (wooglez)]

Ty Sly, I didn't realize this existed. I've recently upgraded to 11.04, mostly in an attempt to fix this problem. It's VERY intermittent so times it will happen within a day other times it will be a week before it happens. In every case rebooting the laptop fixes it. Please feel free to suggest any other ways to get this more noticed as it's my first bug report and I'm not sure I've done everything correctly.

[J (wooglez)]

So it happened again today and I dumped dmesg again (attached here)
It keeps mentioning rfkill when I attempt to 'ifconfig wlan0 up' so I tried a bunch of rfkill commands such as
'rfkill list' then 'rfkill unblock 1' not much change though.

[Sly (netrefuge)]

Happened again to me today, too. Has been working fine all this week.

[Afiefh (afiefh)]

Happened to me twice this week. My laptop is an HP TX2500 which has the following network chip:
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

Sometimes even a reboot doesn't fix the problem until I completely shutdown and then power up again.
If there is a way to send more debug information I would be glad to provide it next time.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

J, thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Natty reached EOL on October 28, 2012.
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

If you are having an issue in a supported release, please file a new report.

Do feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs