MacBook rev3, rev4: Wireless works in 8.10 but not in Jaunty

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Problem occurs with: Jaunty alpha 4, alpha 5, alpha 6, beta, release candidate
Does not occur with: Ubuntu 8.10

Linux mpt-laptop 2.6.28-9-generic #31-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 11 15:43:58 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

On a MacBook early 2008 (rev3 and rev4), Ubuntu 8.10 connects to wireless fine. But in Jaunty, Network Manager does not display any wireless networks.

Hardware Drivers reports that the "Broadcom STA wireless driver" is "activated but not currently in use".

This is not a duplicate of bug 125919 or bug 221837, unless they were fixed after Intrepid alpha 2 and have since regressed (in which case there probably should be a new bug report anyway). Nor is it a duplicate of bug 342802 for the MacBook Pro, because it uses an Atheros card whereas the MacBook uses a Broadcom one.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

@Matthew -- It does seem that the right drivers are loaded according to lspci and yet there is no mesaages from the driver in the dmesg output. Odd. So could we get the lsmod output from the failing kernel and lsmod, dmesg and lspci -vvnn from the previous working one.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

Ok, so you have the Broadcom controller below:

  02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4328] (rev 03)

and bug 342802 has the Atheros controller below:

    0b:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0024] (rev 01)

So this is not a duplicate of that bug.

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

What do you see when you do : modprobe wl

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

In 8.10 (where wireless works), "modprobe wl" returns no output.
In Jaunty with all updates installed (where wireless doesn't work), "modprobe wl" returns "FATAL: Error inserting wl (/lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/wl.ko): Operation not permitted".

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

... And with -v:
mpt@mpt-laptop:~$ modprobe -v wl
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/kernel/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.ko
WARNING: Error inserting ieee80211_crypt (/lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/kernel/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.ko): Operation not permitted
FATAL: Error inserting wl (/lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/wl.ko): Operation not permitted

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

Sorry, you will have to do a "sudo modprobe wl"

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

mpt@mpt-laptop:~$ sudo modprobe -v wl
[sudo] password for mpt:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/kernel/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/wl.ko

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

@Matthew -- that looks like the module inserted correctly. Did wireless work after this. Could you attach the output of the dmesg command to this bug after immediatly after doing the successful modprobe as above.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

No, wireless does not work after the modprobe. Network Manager still does not present any wireless networks in the menu, and nor does it even have an "Enable wireless" item in its context menu.

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

As per you lspci for 8.10, the wl and the ssb module works

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4328] (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Apple Computer Inc. Device [106b:0088]
 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: 256 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at 90500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Region 2: Memory at 90000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=1M]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: wl
 Kernel modules: ssb, wl

In 9.04 the same modules should work for the broadcom wireless card. I dont see a reason why it would fail to list the available networks.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Anything else I can do to help debug this? (I'd quite like to upgrade to Jaunty...)

[natrium42 (alexei-karpenko)]

Adding wl to /etc/modules & rebooting fixed it for me.

[ShamrockUK (uplift)]

On my install, that changes the restricted drivers message to "This driver is activated and currently in use" however network manager still doesn't present any wireless options. lsmod shows the driver as loaded also, whereas iwconfig shows no wireless extensions.

[tomDaniel (thomaspdaniel)]

adding wl to didn't help but deactivating the driver, rebooting, reactivating, (rebooting?) did the trick.

[ShamrockUK (uplift)]

Thanks tom, that did it for me! The second reboot was required and I did have wl in my /etc/modules file, for the record. I could have sworn I had tried that before, but obviously not in the right sequence. :shrug: Thanks again!

[Chris Carey (chris-carey-gmail)]

adding wl to /etc/services, reboot, reboot, reboot, rmmod wl, modprobe wl.

still not working here

[Chris Carey (chris-carey-gmail)]

correction:

adding wl to /etc/modules, reboot, reboot, reboot, rmmod wl, modprobe wl.

still not working here

[Majamba (lakomdol)]

 also wl doesnt fix the problem either
not working either installed modconf
and also installed ndiswrapper
activate b43 module
and the ndiswrapper

still not working, well it seems that it doesn't want to work no matter what

don't know what to try

[Любомир Маринов (lyub0m1r.mar1n0v)]

"rmmod ssb wl && modprobe wl" works for me

[Michael (michael-whatever)]

the sequence mentioned by tomDaniel also worked fine for me:

deactivating the driver, rebooting, reactivating, rebooting

i have the BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n in a Dell Latitude D430

thanks to tomDaniel

bye,
michael

[Dave Vasilevsky (djvasi)]

As Lubomir mentions, this is the (well known?) problem of ssb interfering with wl. You should be able to just "rmmod wl ssb; modprobe wl" and wireless will work.

To fix this more permanently, create a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-wl.conf containing the line "blacklist ssb". Then run "update-initramfs -u" so the initrd knows about the blacklist, and ssb will go away.

As I mentioned in #367601, it would be great if either
* ssb could be stopped from tryin load for the BCM4328, or
* jockey could be told how to unload ssb so wl will work

[joseche (joseche)]

Thanks Dave, that worked !

Just a note: update-initramfs updates the initrd for the first kernel
version it finds, not for the one are using.
I had to put it manually.

Tnx

2009/5/3 Dave Vasilevsky <email address hidden>

> As Lubomir mentions, this is the (well known?) problem of ssb
> interfering with wl. You should be able to just "rmmod wl ssb; modprobe
> wl" and wireless will work.
>
> To fix this more permanently, create a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-
> wl.conf containing the line "blacklist ssb". Then run "update-initramfs
> -u" so the initrd knows about the blacklist, and ssb will go away.
>
>
> As I mentioned in #367601, it would be great if either
> * ssb could be stopped from tryin load for the BCM4328, or
> * jockey could be told how to unload ssb so wl will work
>
> --
> MacBook rev3, rev4: Wireless works in 8.10 but not in Jaunty
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/343556
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

--
Séneca - Doble valor tendrá el beneficio que otorgues sin que te lo hayan
pedido

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

This seems like an upgrade issue. If you use Jockey to enable the Broadcom driver, then SSB should get blacklisted.

System->Administration->Hardware Drivers

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

jockey currently blacklists wl by default in favor of ssb (which supports the b44 ethernet driver), the wl driver was recently upgraded to version 5.10.91.9.

[Dave Vasilevsky (djvasi)]

> This seems like an upgrade issue.

Tim, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, I've encountered this problem in non-upgrade scenarios, including both the LiveCD and a fresh desktop install.

> If you use Jockey to enable the Broadcom driver, then SSB should get blacklisted.

When jockey-gtk is first viewed in 9.04, it shows the wl driver as *already* enabled ("activated but not currently in use"). Is wl supposed to be loading automatically like this, or should it the user have to tell jockey to load it?

If wl is not supposed to load by default, this could help explain why the deactivate/reboot/reactivate/reboot workaround (mentioned by tomDaniel and Michael above) works.

[Freyr Gunnar Ólafsson (gnarlin)]

Adding the blacklist fixed it for me as per the advice of Dave Vasilevsky. I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit on a Dell Latitude D630 and the wireless didn't work. I added the wl to /etc/modules but I don't know if that did anything more.
At least it works now. Thank you :-)

[lunch (launch-mailinator-com)]

Took me forever to find it, but here's a simple solution, with no software install required. I got it from Cyberdork33 on the Ubuntu Forums here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1059819.

In System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers "disable the driver, reboot, and reenable (and reboot again)." It has continued to work through several reboots since, without need to reconfigure.

--
Saibashi the Internet Good Samaritan via Bugmenot.com

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Manoj Iyer, please don't mark a bug report Incomplete without specifying what information is missing.

[Lorenzo Maceiras (lorenzomaceiras)]

SUCCESS !!! I edited /etc/modules and added wl Then, reboot. Then, went to System-Administration-Hardware Drivers, and deactivated the Broadcom STA driver. Reboot again, now Activate it. And reboot again, automatically connected to the wireless network.
Lorenzo Maceiras

[Jason (jason-larsen)]

Lunch said: "In System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers "disable the driver, reboot, and reenable (and reboot again)." It has continued to work through several reboots since, without need to reconfigure."nks

This worked perfectly for me! Thanks!

(Macbook 4,1)

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

If you could also test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine this issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

If the issue remains with the upstream kernel, please be sure to also run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux-image-2.6.28-11-generic <bug #>

Thanks in advance.

[Ambrose Neville (a-neville)]

I was also able to get this to work as described by 'lunch' above.

-Disable driver, reboot
-Reenable driver, reboot
-SSIDs then visible

[Marcos Garcia (marcosgdf)]

That sequence worked for me. Macbook 4,1.

[airlabam (airlab-am)]

Also worked for me (disable+reboot+re-enable+reboot); Macbook 4,1.

[joseche (joseche)]

disable+reboot+re-enable+reboot worked on 9.04 and MacBook 4,1

[Slick (slick666)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. If you could test the current Ubuntu development version, this would help us a lot. If you can test it, and it is still an issue, we would appreciate if you could upload updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #>, and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

I've confirmed that this is not a problem on a MacBook 1,1 using the kernel Linux Macintel 2.6.31-20-generic