the last upgrade broke WiFi

[Daniel Koester]

It was working before, and reverting to the old version (5.100.82.38) makes WiFi run again. I am using a Dell Vostro laptop, if that helps.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-36.57-generic 3.2.35
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-36-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Jan 27 19:56:09 2013
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: bcmwl
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Rick Bianchi (rick-bianchi)]

I am seeing the same issues. Dell e5330 BCM4313.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alex Barrera (ergomus)]

Same issue here. Actually I noticed I had to set a static IP cause it wasn't responding to dhcp. The AP gave the IP to the machine (I can see both the petition and the log of the router assigning the IP to the mac), but it seems the new driver ignores it.

In general it seems as if the wifi is dropping packages, but there are no errors. It's quite unusable.

Same bcmwl version and kernel as Daniel.

[KJ Tsanaktsidis (kjtsanaktsidis)]

I'm running 12.04 too, with kernel Linux 3.2.0-37 and the same version of bcmwl. I was having issues with ARP multicast- possibly related. See my bugreport here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1111956

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

Possibly also affected. 12.04, kernel 3.2.0-37 on a Dell Latitude e6430 w/ BCM4313. I cannot connect to one of the three AP's that I use regularly. The other two work OK, though. Reverting to 5.100.82.38 resolves the issue.

[Patrik Šíma (patrik-ovx)]

how to revert?

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

On Sun, 17 Feb 2013, Patrik Šíma wrote:

> how to revert?

I think you should be able to do:
sudo apt-get install bcmwl=5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu6

[Patrik Šíma (patrik-ovx)]

Unfortunately, it did not help.

[Glenn Horton-Smith (glenn-hortonsmith)]

I am seeing this issue too, on two different laptops. One is a HP-Mini-210-1100, the other a old black MacBook. On both, everything is fine if I downgrade to 5.100.82.38 using
   sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source=5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu6

With bcmwl-kernel-source=6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.1 installed, the wireless works as far as seeing the available networks, but when I try to connect, the status in the top menu bar repeatedly loops through showing the "radiating waves icon" typical of when connecting to a network, and then switches to the circular "updating" icon usually seen when first turning on wireless, and then back again to the "waves", repeating that several times before eventually announcing "network disconnected". Looking at the log messages using
   sudo tail -f /var/log/kern.log
while this is happening, I see lots of messages from cfg80211 about disabling frequencies, updating information, disabling frequencies, over and over again.

I'll just downgrade until this is fixed, since that works for me, but I hope it gets fixed. (I prefer not to fuss with update-notifier update-manager's default settings if I can help it, but that means it will keep offering this update to me.)

[Daniel Koester (dk-d)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Glenn,

yes, I am having the same symptoms as you are - and being reminded to
"upgrade" the driver constantly has become annoying. I wish the author
would just roll this update back and redevelop it properly. Is it
possible that nobody is really aware at Ubuntu of what is going on?

Regards,
Daniel

On 03/02/2013 05:00 AM, Glenn Horton-Smith wrote:
> I am seeing this issue too, on two different laptops. One is a
> HP-Mini-210-1100, the other a old black MacBook. On both,
> everything is fine if I downgrade to 5.100.82.38 using sudo apt-get
> install bcmwl-kernel-source=5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu6
>
> With bcmwl-kernel-source=6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.1 installed,
> the wireless works as far as seeing the available networks, but
> when I try to connect, the status in the top menu bar repeatedly
> loops through showing the "radiating waves icon" typical of when
> connecting to a network, and then switches to the circular
> "updating" icon usually seen when first turning on wireless, and
> then back again to the "waves", repeating that several times before
> eventually announcing "network disconnected". Looking at the log
> messages using sudo tail -f /var/log/kern.log while this is
> happening, I see lots of messages from cfg80211 about disabling
> frequencies, updating information, disabling frequencies, over and
> over again.
>
> I'll just downgrade until this is fixed, since that works for me,
> but I hope it gets fixed. (I prefer not to fuss with
> update-notifier update- manager's default settings if I can help
> it, but that means it will keep offering this update to me.)
>

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[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

Daniel,

Unfortunately, this driver is closed source so there is nothing Ubuntu can do to fix it, other than rolling back the version. Only Broadcom can fix it.

Hopefully, the open source driver is getting better so we will be able to use that some day.

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

To get this to downgrade successfully, after doing:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source=5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu6

I also had to add "blacklist brcmsmac" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf. Otherwise, it was using the brcmsmac driver. I'm not sure how this worked before, maybe Jockey did something when I originally installed bcmwl.

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

If you have downgraded to the older version and you want to stop Update Manager from reminding you about the newer version, you can put the attached file in /etc/apt/preferences.d and it will "pin" the driver to the older version.