BCM43225: Horrible ping with Broadcom sta driver

[Maximilian Federle]

Wlan chip is as follows:
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

Problem:
As the wl driver seems to be the default for this card I ended up with this driver after a upgrade to quantal.
However, with this driver, compared to the brcmsmac driver, I get really horrible pings on the LAN.

----------------------------------

Steps to reproduce:
I attach a console log for demonstration.

max@max-laptop:~$ cat /proc/net/wireless
Inter-| sta-| Quality | Discarded packets | Missed | WE
 face | tus | link level noise | nwid crypt frag retry misc | beacon | 22
  eth1: 0000 4. -66. -92. 0 0 0 1 0 0

max@max-laptop:~$ lsmod|grep wl
wl 2573568 0
lib80211 14381 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl
max@max-laptop:~$ ping 192.168.2.1
PING 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=139 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=161 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=185 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=208 ms
^C
--- 192.168.2.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 139.551/173.681/208.169/25.607 ms

max@max-laptop:~$ sudo rmmod wl && sudo modprobe brcmsmac
[sudo] password for max:
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
max@max-laptop:~$ cat /proc/net/wireless
Inter-| sta-| Quality | Discarded packets | Missed | WE
 face | tus | link level noise | nwid crypt frag retry misc | beacon | 22
 wlan0: 0000 46. -64. -256 0 0 0 0 34 0

max@max-laptop:~$ ping 192.168.2.1
PING 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=1.33 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=1.25 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=15.5 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=1.22 ms
^C
--- 192.168.2.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3004ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.225/4.838/15.536/6.176 ms

max@max-laptop:~$

Maybe wl should not be recommended for this chip.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-15.22-generic 3.5.4
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.5.2-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 69266ec2d9afabfcfce94ed6e4f796d8
CheckboxSystem: 2954e74ba17fb0e37fc942cd1d9fab4e
Date: Sun Sep 23 13:23:18 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta amd64 (20110901)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: bcmwl
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-09-15 (7 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Julien (ju+)]

I can confirm the bug here with BCM4313 on a Dell Latitude E6430 and fresh Ubuntu 12.10 install.

$ lspci -vnn
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

This workaround worked : sudo rmmod wl && sudo modprobe brcmsmac (thanks Maximilian)

[Maximilian Federle (ppd)]

I recommend disabling the wl driver in the settings (-> software sources -> additional drivers) instead of removing it by hand all the time. Maybe (I don't know) it is then necessary to remove the brcmsmac driver from the blacklisted modules.

[Julien (ju+)]

yep, removing bcmwl-kernel-source or disabling the driver it in the settings seems to fix network problems.

[Bernardo Reino (reinob)]

Not a duplicate. This bug is about bcmwl driver, not about which driver might be best according to a user.

[Adam Porter (alphapapa)]

Bernardo, there are at least 4 possible drivers to use: bcmwl*, b43*, broadcom-sta*, and the in-tree driver. Users in this report have reported that using the correct driver fixes the problem, therefore this bug is a duplicate of bug 1097519.