[BCM4313][14e4:4727] Unable to connect to the network with proprietary driver installed

[Po-Hsu Lin]

CID: 201103-7379 Dell Latitude E4310

With bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.2 installed on this SRU system,
the wireless network refuses to connect to any visible AP, you can see it failed to associate the request to the driver from syslog

Sep 23 00:28:12 201103-7379 wpa_supplicant[1150]: Association request to the driver failed

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Dell Inspiron M5010 / XPS 8300 [1028:0010]
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
 Memory at 52c00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: wl
 Kernel modules: wl, bcma, brcmsmac

There was once a similar bug reported before (bug 1220504), but it can be fixed with deb file provided by Alberto (with driver version 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu1), I will switch back to this package to verify this again later.

Note:
This driver works on another SRU system, 201103-7380, running with BCM4313 [14e4:4727] as well, just with a little difference in the Subsystem:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:051a]
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
 Memory at d0300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: wl
 Kernel modules: wl, bcma, brcmsmac

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-91.129-generic 3.2.71
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-91-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.9
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Sep 23 00:13:28 2015
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: bcmwl
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

It's still not working with bcmwl 6.30.223.141 on 201103-7379, with the same error message:

Sep 23 02:53:07 201103-7379 wpa_supplicant[1219]: Trying to associate with c8:d3:a3:68:99:43 (SSID='ubuntu-cert-n-open' freq=2462 MHz)
Sep 23 02:53:07 201103-7379 wpa_supplicant[1219]: Association request to the driver failed

However, I tried to downgrade the wpasupplicant from 0.7.3-6ubuntu2.4 to 0.7.3-6ubuntu2, and it works with the latest bcmwl driver (6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.2) and 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu1 mentioned above.

I will add wpasupplicant to the affected list.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Note that you will need to poweroff the system for any changes in wpasupplicant, it seem not working with just reboot the system.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

I would say it's a false positive result with wpa-supplicant.
As the downgraded version does not guaranteed to work with the latest broadcom driver.

Also, I tried again with the latest wpa-supplicant + latest broadcom driver and it works.
I am not sure what's going on here.

Since this system works fine on the last SRU cycle, I will switch to that kernel (3.2.0-90.128) and give it a try.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

I cannot reproduce this issue anymore with multiple reboots on 201103-7379 (with the latest wpa-supplicant, version 0.7.3-6ubuntu2, and the latest Broadcom driver version 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu0.0.2)

I will mark this bug as Invalid.
Thanks

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

The Broadcom driver seems not working with the previous kernel (3.2.0-90), there is no wireless networks available after I boot into that kernel.

Also, I notice that this issue still exist, I can't 100% reproduce it, but I do catch it stopped working after few more reboots.
I will revert the bug status, sorry for the noise.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

BTW,
wpa-supplicant was last published on 2015-06-17
bcmwl-kernel-source was last published on 2015-09-02

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Re-installed the system and re-tested, it works fine. (I didn't test it for multiple time though)

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

This issue sometimes will affect 201101-7173, with the same error message in /var/log/syslog:
wpa_supplicant[1219]: Association request to the driver failed

Wireless controller:
Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]