Broadcom 43XX (4311) does not work?

[David Vasta]

I have a new DELL D620 laptop with a Broadcom 4311 WiFi Card. It does not work after the install of the OS. This is troubling in that all WiFi cards need to work out of the box. I also don't find an easy way to make them work without looking like I am doing install/apt/driver twister.

Please Fix the WiFi problem and make it easy to get WiFi up and running.

ProblemType: Bug
Date: Thu Mar 22 22:35:02 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
Uname: Linux lon-vastalnx 2.6.20-9-generic #2 SMP Mon Feb 26 03:01:44 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Do you have the bcm43xx-fwcutter package installed? This package contains firmware for your wireless card. Thanks in advance.

[chris (cdrobins)]

I have the same card and installing the bcm43xx-fwcutter package allows me to connect, but the connection seems slow compared to when I run it in windows. I am using wpa-personal encryption.

[Ryan Hurley (aeromechie)]

I have the same card, and I'm seeing the same problem. Using the current stock Ubuntu kernel, speeds max out at about 20 KB/second, no matter where the traffic is coming from (LAN or Internet.) If I recall correctly, this problem was noticed and fixed quite awhile ago by the bcm43xx team. The current version of the driver (as seen with a 2.6.20.4 vanilla kernel, and appropriate patches from the bcm43xx maintainer's (Larry Finger) site here: ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches/ ) is very fast- almost up to the speeds exhibited in windows. I believe that patches exist for everything from 2.6.20 through 2.6.21-rc5, and I also think that all of the patches bring the code up to the same level of performance.

I know the devs are flooded with work for Feisty, but this is a huge issue for anyone with a Broadcom card (which is almost everyone with a built-in HP or Apple wireless card) that seems (at least to my untrained eye) to be relatively easy to fix. If at all possible, it would be awesome for feisty to have decent Broadcom support out of the box (ignoring the issues with firmware- perhaps that could be addressed using the restricted drivers manager? I don't know.)

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Could you please add the full output of 'lspci -vv' and 'lspci -vvn' to your bug report as an attachment? Thanks again.

[chris (cdrobins)]

I attached the files

[chris (cdrobins)]

I looked around for instructions on how to apply the patch, but couldn't
find anything that helped, so how do apply the patch? Are there
instructions anywhere?

On 01/04/07, Ryan Hurley <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> I have the same card, and I'm seeing the same problem. Using the
> current stock Ubuntu kernel, speeds max out at about 20 KB/second, no
> matter where the traffic is coming from (LAN or Internet.) If I recall
> correctly, this problem was noticed and fixed quite awhile ago by the
> bcm43xx team. The current version of the driver (as seen with a
> 2.6.20.4 vanilla kernel, and appropriate patches from the bcm43xx
> maintainer's (Larry Finger) site here:
> ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches/ ) is very fast- almost up to the
> speeds exhibited in windows. I believe that patches exist for
> everything from 2.6.20 through 2.6.21-rc5, and I also think that all of
> the patches bring the code up to the same level of performance.
>
> I know the devs are flooded with work for Feisty, but this is a huge
> issue for anyone with a Broadcom card (which is almost everyone with a
> built-in HP or Apple wireless card) that seems (at least to my untrained
> eye) to be relatively easy to fix. If at all possible, it would be
> awesome for feisty to have decent Broadcom support out of the box
> (ignoring the issues with firmware- perhaps that could be addressed
> using the restricted drivers manager? I don't know.)
>
> --
> Broadcom 43XX (4311) does not work?
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/94972
>

[Ryan Hurley (aeromechie)]

I'm attaching my lspci outputs as well- see attached files.

As to applying a patch, the problem with doing so is that you lose all the custom patches applied by the Ubuntu development team, as well as compatibility with kernel modules provided via apt (such as the nvidia kernel drivers, as well as anything else in restricted-modules).

Assuming you still want to do that, there is howto on how to do it here: http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_ubuntu

But hopefully, that won't be necessary as we'll get the new code into the default Ubuntu kernel sometime soon.

[TrojanCentaur (trojan-centaur)]

I can confirm similar problems in Compaq Presario V3019AU. Just wondering if any headway has been made in this fix, and if you would like any output from my computer to aid development etc.

[Chris Lee (chris-lee-gertner)]

I can confirm similar performance problem on a Dell Precision M65. Besides that, Feisty on the machine is awesome.

[Ryan Hurley (aeromechie)]

What is the current status of this bug? Is there a fix in progress, or a status update someone on the kernel team can give us? Is there anything we can do to expedite the process?

I'm effectively stuck in windows until this gets fixed, so I'm ready and willing to do whatever I can to help. Thanks!

[David Rabinowitz (davidrab)]

Can confirm on Dell D820.

Any idea when this will be solved? It seems that the bcm43xx driver (which should have been incorporated to kernel 2.6.20) is not working, Only solution for now is the ndiswrapper approach, as described in here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff

[Mephisto (wajahat-akram)]

I have a hp compaq with the same wifi card (4311) and even teh restricted drivers dont work. I tried several fixes and patches, but it didnt work I am running 7.10 atm, I know that 8.04 is out, but there are even less fixes for that at the moment, and the wifi card doesnt seem to work on there either).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Chris Lee (chris-lee-gertner)]

I haven't tested 2.6.27, but FYI every 2.6.24 kernel in 8.04 I've used has worked perfectly with the Broadcom 4311.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the update Chris.

David Vasta, since you are the original bug repoter. Is this resolved for you on Hardy? If not, could you test Intrepid? Thanks.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[kernel-janitor (kernel-janitor)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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