14e4:4359 [Dell Latitude 5530] Broadcom BCM43228 WiFi interface not recognized with linux-generic-lts-utopic 3.16.0-25

[Vincenzo Costa]

I have a Dell latitude 5530 laptop with the Broadcom BCM43228 wireless card, and I currently run Kubuntu 14.04.1 LTS. It works ok with the 3.13.0-40 original linux kernel, but after installing the linux-generic-lts-utopic kernel (version 3.16-25) the wireless interface does not appear any more. The kubuntu applet for network connections does not allow to switch the wireless network on. Booting back with 3.13 kernel can fix the issue, so it's not a hardware problem. The following commands do not give any output concerning the wireless interface wlan0 or the BCM43228:
dmesg | grep 'BCM'
iwconfig
ifconfig

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-generic-lts-utopic 3.16.0.25.19
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-40.69-generic 3.13.11.10
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-40-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Fri Nov 28 17:35:37 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-04-25 (581 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130423.1)
SourcePackage: linux-meta-lts-utopic
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-18 (224 days ago)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vincenzo Costa, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Could you please provide the missing information following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#Broadcom_STA_Wireless_driver ?

[Vincenzo Costa (cvincenzo16)]

Here is the requested information

Ouput from the following commands:
--------------------------------------------------------------
lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0014]
        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: 32 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 3
        Region 0: Memory at f7e00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

0b:00.0 SD Host controller [0805]: O2 Micro, Inc. Device [1217:8221] (rev 05) (prog-if 01)
--------------------------------------------------------------
lsb_release -rd

Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04
--------------------------------------------------------------
uname -a

Linux leonardo 3.16.0-25-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 7 01:53:40 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
--------------------------------------------------------------
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version

A10
--------------------------------------------------------------
sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

02/06/2013
--------------------------------------------------------------

Let me know if anything else is necessary to identify the problem cause.

[Vincenzo Costa (cvincenzo16)]

Ok, I updated the bios of my laptop from A10 to A15.

Here is the output o 'sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date'
A15
09/24/2014

Nothing has changed concerning the wireless interface, when running kernel 3.16.0-25 wifi doesn't work, while it works perfectly when running the old 3.13 kernel.

Here is the output from 'lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network'
-------------------------------
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0014]
        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 3
        Region 0: Memory at f7e00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

0b:00.0 SD Host controller [0805]: O2 Micro, Inc. Device [1217:8221] (rev 05) (prog-if 01)
--------------------------------

And this is the output of 'lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network' when running linux 3.13.0-40
--------------------------------
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0014]
        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 f7e00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: wl
---------------------------------

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vincenzo Costa, could you please test the latest release of Ubuntu via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue.

[Vincenzo Costa (cvincenzo16)]

I tried with the latest ubuntu image, via unetbootin and a USB drive.

Once opened the live session I checked the wireless network: it doesn't work!

Here are the checking commands an their outputs:

------------------------------------------------
apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source

bcmwl-kernel-source:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
     6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu2 0
        500 cdrom://Ubuntu 15.04 _Vivid Vervet_ - Alpha amd64 (20141201)/ vivid/restricted amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/restricted amd64 Packages
     6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2 0
        500 cdrom://Ubuntu 15.04 _Vivid Vervet_ - Alpha amd64 (20141201)/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

--------------
lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0014]
        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 f7e00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge

--------------
lsb_release -rd

Description: Ubuntu Vivid Vervet (development branch)
Release: 15.04

--------------
uname -a

Linux ubuntu 3.16.0-25-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 4 12:06:54 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

-------------
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

A15
09/24/2014

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

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vincenzo Costa, just to advise, the live environment won't ever work if you don't actually install the bcmwl-kernel-source module (i.e. install proprietary software via Additional Drivers). Did you do this in the live environment?

[Vincenzo Costa (cvincenzo16)]

Ok, after some new attempts I can file a report of what's going on.
I tried again with a live session on a daily ubuntu image. By issuing manually inside a shell the command

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

the wireless network is immediately recognised.
So I decided to try this same command on my installed 14.04.1 system with the 3.16.0-25 kernel, but the package is already installed, and won't istall again.
Then I tried this:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source

after this the wireless network does NOT work. Instead, the command also broke my working network with 3.13.0-40 kernel!!!
Besides, the command

sudo modprobe wl

gives: "no such module"

In an attempt to fix my wireless network within the 3.13 kernel I reinstalled the bcmwl package again. The command was issued under the old kernel this time, and this is the result:

Loading new bcmwl-6.30.223.141+bdcom DKMS files...
Building for 3.13.0-40-generic and 3.16.0-25-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 3.13.0-40-generic
Done.

wl:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
    - No original module exists within this kernel
     - Installation
        - Installing to /lib/modules/3.13.0-40-generic/updates/dkms/

        depmod......

        DKMS: install completed.
        Building initial module for 3.16.0-25-generic
        Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel:
3.16.0-25-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.141+bdcom/build/make.log for more
information.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Elaborazione dei trigger per initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4.2)...

I would stress the attention on this part:

"........Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel:...."

The wireless network works again under 3.13, but apparently, for some reason, the module is NOT built for the new kernel. So it seems that some compilation error is present.
I attached the make.log file.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vincenzo Costa, this would appear to be a downstream packaging issue. However, I am closing this report because as per your comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1397383/comments/9 this bug has been fixed in the latest development version of Ubuntu - Vivid Vervet.

This is a significant bug in Ubuntu. If you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please perform as much as possible of the SRU Procedure [1] to bring the need to a developer's attention.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure