helpful wireless how-to for Broadcom chipsets

[Mahmood]

I would think that altering /etc/conf.d/local.start is the best way to go as this file is made just for personalizing and I would think updates for modprobe rules would not effect it.
One can always change it back to default to check in future if this is resolved, especially after modprobe, udev, module and kernel updates. 

The file. /etc/rc.conf,  is a Debian distro file, which I think I have also seen it in Fedora, but not sure.  I think it's equivelant in Pardus are the files under /etc/conf.d .
Lisa Marie

Thanks Lisa,

I have used the first method for now.

You are right abt the 4th solution. i was searching on the net and found this on arch wiki. arch wiki is a very well documented site. they suggested to use 'wl' as a last resort and try other drivers first.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless

my chip was [14e4:4727] BCM4313. i tried to install module 'bcma' but there is no such module so finally i went with 'wl'.

let's hope that this remains future proof 

[atolboo]

I have used the first method for now.
let's hope that this remains future proof  

and

Solution 1: (as suggested)

Comes from

atolboo@wind-pardus ~ $ pisi sf local.start
Zoekt naar local.start
Pakket baselayout bevat bestand /etc/conf.d/local.start

This means that /etc/conf.d/local.start will almost certainly be overwritten with an update  of baselayout.
Unless this is prevented in one of the the comar-script of baselayout.

If /etc/rc.conf is doing the required job, I would go for that solution because

Solution 4:

atolboo@wind-pardus ~ $ ls -l /etc/rc.conf
ls: kan geen toegang krijgen tot /etc/rc.conf: Bestand of map bestaat niet   <<< does not exist

And thus not from any package.

And if this ^^^^ is OK, a feedback will be highly appreciated 

[Lisa]

Another file I see mentioned when it comes to modems, is udev/nm-modem-probe.  I'm not sure if this is an outdated file of NM or if NetworkManager was not compiled with it in Pardus.  It seems like a handy utility if what it does is probe for modems. 

[Lisa]

Looking at what is already available in Pardus, I see a utility called, b43-fwcutter.  You can read about it in terminal doing:
man b43-fwcutter

"DESCRIPTION
b43-fwcutter  can  extract  the firmware for your Broadcom 43xx hardware from different closed source drivers. The b43 driver depends on this firmware files and can't work without them.
Currently b43-fwcutter supports Apple MacOS X, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Linux drivers, but keep in mind that b43-fwcutter doesn't support all driver versions.

I've never used it.  Here is what I get with this terminal command:

Code:

$ b43-fwcutter -l
b43-fwcutter version 015

Extracting firmware is possible from these binary driver files.
Please read http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

<driver>        <filename>              <microcode>     <MD5 checksum>

b43legacy       wl_apsta.o              295.14          e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
b43             wl_apsta.o              351.126         9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         351.126         722e2e0d8cc04b8f118bb5afe6829ff9
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         410.2160        cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c
b43             wl_apsta.o              478.104         bb8537e3204a1ea5903fe3e66b5e2763
b43             wl_prebuilt.o           508.1084        490d4e149ecc45eb1a91f06aa75be071
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.1107        f06c8aa30ea549ce21872d10ee9a7d48
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.10872       e413c0017b99195f3231201c53f314d1
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.154         023fafbe4918e384dd531a046dbc03e8
b43             wl_apsta.o              644.1001        68f38d139b1f69f3ea12393fb645c6f9
b43             wl_apsta.o              666.2           e1b05e268bcdbfef3560c28fc161f30e

[Mahmood]

I have used the first method for now.
let's hope that this remains future proof  

and

Solution 1: (as suggested)

Comes from

atolboo@wind-pardus ~ $ pisi sf local.start
Zoekt naar local.start
Pakket baselayout bevat bestand /etc/conf.d/local.start

This means that /etc/conf.d/local.start will almost certainly be overwritten with an update  of baselayout.
Unless this is prevented in one of the the comar-script of baselayout.

If /etc/rc.conf is doing the required job, I would go for that solution because

Solution 4:

atolboo@wind-pardus ~ $ ls -l /etc/rc.conf
ls: kan geen toegang krijgen tot /etc/rc.conf: Bestand of map bestaat niet   <<< does not exist

And thus not from any package.

And if this ^^^^ is OK, a feedback will be highly appreciated  

I got your point, but since there is no rc.conf, maybe pardus does not need it? I picked it up from arch wiki.

maybe i should try creating this file? let me see

I created rc.conf in /etc and put modprobe wl in it, but it had no effect

[Mahmood]

Looking at what is already available in Pardus, I see a utility called, b43-fwcutter.  You can read about it in terminal doing:
man b43-fwcutter

"DESCRIPTION
b43-fwcutter  can  extract  the firmware for your Broadcom 43xx hardware from different closed source drivers. The b43 driver depends on this firmware files and can't work without them.
Currently b43-fwcutter supports Apple MacOS X, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Linux drivers, but keep in mind that b43-fwcutter doesn't support all driver versions.

I've never used it.  Here is what I get with this terminal command:

Code:

$ b43-fwcutter -l
b43-fwcutter version 015

Extracting firmware is possible from these binary driver files.
Please read http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

<driver>        <filename>              <microcode>     <MD5 checksum>

b43legacy       wl_apsta.o              295.14          e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
b43             wl_apsta.o              351.126         9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         351.126         722e2e0d8cc04b8f118bb5afe6829ff9
b43             wl_apsta_mimo.o         410.2160        cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c
b43             wl_apsta.o              478.104         bb8537e3204a1ea5903fe3e66b5e2763
b43             wl_prebuilt.o           508.1084        490d4e149ecc45eb1a91f06aa75be071
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.1107        f06c8aa30ea549ce21872d10ee9a7d48
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.10872       e413c0017b99195f3231201c53f314d1
b43             wl_apsta.o              508.154         023fafbe4918e384dd531a046dbc03e8
b43             wl_apsta.o              644.1001        68f38d139b1f69f3ea12393fb645c6f9
b43             wl_apsta.o              666.2           e1b05e268bcdbfef3560c28fc161f30e

i have both b43-fwcutter and b43-firmware installed, however, if i understand correctly from the arch wiki link, b43 is not for the chip set i have.

[Lisa]

If you give command

Code:

ifconfig -a

you get no device detected?

Here's another similar bug report for ubuntu.  One fix was to create file
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcma

and add one line:
blacklist bcma

reboot. 

[nkoc]

wl modul permanently to activate :
as administrator

echo  wl  >>  /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

and reboot

[Mahmood]

wl modul permanently to activate :
as administrator

echo  wl  >>  /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

and reboot

the only problem with this is that this is not future-proof. in the event of a kernel version change, this will have to be redone.