wl vs. b43 are not properly configured

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Correction: original install was alpha4 (not 5)

However, now after the release of alpha 5 the system had been fully upgraded. The behaviour as described above has NOT changed.

uname -a: Linux cy810 2.6.27-2-generic #1 SMP Thu Aug 28 17:20:02 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

dmesg and lspci attached; but note following text :

calling "Hardware drivers" shows:
Firmware: Broadcom B43 wireless driver ; Enabled is NOT checked; Status is "in use"
Device driver: wl ; Enabled is checked; Status is "in use"
After clicking to enable firmware, a download appears to be initiated (it had asked for admin password), and it ends without any message. Firmware Status then says " need to restart". But very same situation after restart. The before-* files were taken at this stage.

Then went to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware (as shown in dmesg) and executed the command found on this site: sudo /usr/share/b43-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh
This did result in a download, and the directories /lib/firmware/b43 and /lib/firmware/b43legacy were created. The Firmware enabled status received a checkmark. The after-* files were created after another reboot.

It seems that the firmware files were actually never downloaded?

I am now able to see the networks in my neighborhood as I would expect, but I still cannot connect. Neither manual nor automatic connection works. Cold reboot also does not help. Ethernet connection works flawlessly.

Now what?

upgrading to next kernel version: same as before. wlans are visible, but I can't connect to it.

uname -a: Linux cy810 2.6.27-3-generic #1 SMP Wed Sep 10 16:02:00 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

In fact Tim, Mario, and me are just figuring this out for the hardy-proposed version (whose kernel ships wl as well). I have an almost perfect hardy jockey now, will clean that up and adopt it for intrepid once it works.

The driver side is ok now (not really optimal, since they constantly fight each other, and if you have b44, all bets are off for using wl), but since wl is not free software, we can't do a lot about it besides bugging broadcom.

Test package for hardy available at http://people.ubuntu.com/~pitti/tmp/jockey-wl/

After updating (now: uname -a: Linux cy810 2.6.27-4-generic #1 SMP Wed Sep 24 01:30:51 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux) I can now connect to the wlan; it actually seems to be doing it faster than before. But the script may not be complete:

first, the wlan access key is asked every time I start the computer, although KWallet is available. It does not even ask about storing the key. This is a bit cumbersome.

second, I now have two icons in the system tray, the old one from KNetworkmanager, and the new one from the NetworkManagerApplet. Did the script forget to delete the old one, or is KNetworkmanager still needed? As before I can see all wlan networks in KNetworkmanager, but cannot connect to them. Only the applet allows connections. Once it is connected, the KNetworkmanager icon changes to the staircase icon showing the signal strength, just as the applet icon does. A bit confusing.

Lastly, since in fiddling with this I had manually initiated some downloads of drivers and such, I cannot tell if the script does the whole thing properly. If you like, I can try it out if you tell me how to reset this thing to start condition.

Confirm in Intrepid Ibex, laptop nx 7300.

Test packages for hardy:

  http://people.ubuntu.com/~pitti/tmp/jockey-wl/

I asked Mario and Tim for testing. If all goes well, I'll upload these to hardy-proposed.

 jockey (0.3.3-0ubuntu8.1) hardy-proposed; urgency=low
 .
   Fix configuration of "b43" vs. the new "wl" wifi driver. (LP: #263097)
 .
   * jockey/oslib.py: Check all /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist* files in
     module_blacklisted(). The new Broadcom wl driver generates
     blacklist-bcm43, which Jockey needs to evaluate in order to handle the
     enabling/disabling properly. (Cherrypicked from trunk, r296)
   * tests/sandbox.py: Provide temporary module_blacklist_file in
     AllAvailOSLib, so that handlers which modify blacklists do not die with
     EPERM during tests. (Cherrypicked from trunk, r297)
   * Add data/handlers/broadcom_wl.py: Handler for the alternative Broadcom
     'wl' module. Enabling this will automatically blacklist b43 and bcm43xx.
   * data/handlers/b43.py: Remove the blacklist generated by enabling wl when
     enabling b43.
   * data/handlers/b43.py: Do not show the handler as "in use" if no firmware
     is present.
   * jockey/ui.py, jockey-{gtk,kde}: Cowboy ui_download_start() to take an
     alternative title for the progress window, so that we can abuse it for
     other progress dialogs.
   * broadcom_wl.py: Spawn a progress dialog while update-initramfs is running.

Uploaded to hardy-proposed. Sorry for the long list of changes; it's the minimum stuff to provide a reasonably user friendly and correct way to enable/disable wl/b43 in hardy. It has been extensively tested by Mario and Tim.

Subscribed ubuntu-sru, I cannot ack my own upload, so Steve needs to do it.

For the record, this is the debdiff.

Adapted the wl handler to intrepid now, too, and committed to bzr. Will upload after beta freeze.

If somebody already wants to try this:
  bzr get ubuntu-core-dev/jockey/ubuntu/ jockey-ubuntu
  cd jockey-ubuntu
  debuild -us -uc -b
  sudo dpkg -i ../*.deb

This bug was fixed in the package jockey - 0.5~beta1-0ubuntu2

---------------
jockey (0.5~beta1-0ubuntu2) intrepid; urgency=low

  * Merge some bug fixes from trunk:
    - ui.py: Fix "not installed" -> "not activated" string inconsistency.
      (LP: #274697)
    - Fix typos in German translation.
    - Add and use enabled/disabled/free icons from Kenneth Wimer.
    - Fix jockey-kde crash when no drivers are available. [Alberto]
    - Report indefinite progress if the handler does long non-package
      operations (such as rebuilding initramfs), instead of freezing the UI.
    - UI: Select first driver by default, and keep selection after
      enable/disable. (LP: #274699)
    - jockey-kde: Fix display of window text and subtext, and adapt it to
      driver changes. (LP: #274558)
    - Avoid flickering the progress bar dialog for very fast detect() calls.
    - jockey-kde: Fix indeterminate progress bar behaviour, and fix "Searching
      for drivers..." progress bar at startup.
    - kde/ManagerWindowKDE4.ui: Drop the expander next to the window heading,
      it prevented proper resizing. (LP: #274700)
    - Various test suite fixes.
  * data/handlers/b43.py: Do not show the driver as "in use" if the firmware
    is not installed.
  * Add data/handlers/broadcom_wl.py: Handler for the alternative Broadcom
    'wl' module. Enabling this will automatically blacklist b43 and bcm43xx.
    (LP: #263097)
  * data/handlers/b43.py: Remove blacklist-bcm43 on activation.
  * data/handlers/b43.py: Add (derived) handler for b43legacy. (LP: #247495)
  * data/handlers/b43.py: Actually call the firmware fetching script after the
    -fwcutter installation.

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:44:09 +0200

Accepted into -proposed, please test and give feedback here. Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

I can confirm that the upload works as expected in the default case, but this *can't* enter -updates until bug 271191 is fixed too.

With the improvements to bug 271191, I can confirm it fully works now.

Copied to hardy-updates, thanks for testing!

I am using the latest Intrepid on a laptop with a Broadcom BCM4328 and this still isn't working for me. In my case, B44 was being loaded (and thus ssd) prior to jockey attempting to utilize "wl". Therefore my wireless networking adapter (wlan0) never show up. I had to work around this problem by forcing the loading of wl prior to b44 and ssd -- thanks to the help of an expert in the forums.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=959451

I am not sure if I should file a new bug.

HDave,

right now this is actually on purpose. I was told that it isn't possible to load both ssd (and b44) and wl at the same time. So if you load wl first, and then b44, do both the wifi and the ethernet card actually work? If so, we should modify the handler accordingly; please file a new bug in this case.

Thank you!

Not works for me :(
Updated yesterday to the last updates.
I put others bug about this, and was change the status as duplicate.
Best regards and thanks!

For some time now the B43 wireless driver was working well. I noticed the alternative Broadcom STA driver and changed to it, and it is also working well. In fact the transfer speed judged by mythtv smoothness is consistently better (and it is showing 54Mb/s where previously on B43 I had only 1-6Mb/s, although I believe the real speed was higher).

I no longer see the option to change back to the B43 driver - was this intended? (And the wl driver is also no shown any more).

Overall, works well for me.

ullix, this is not intended. You should see at least one of b43 and wl ("STA") in jockey, or both. Please file a separate bug about this one.

Hi!
I reinstall b43-fwcutter, It's crash with exit error 1.
I restart in english, reinstall again, and It reinstalled fine.
I disable wl in "Hardware drivers" and enable only B43 and IT WORKS FINE!
I have got Wifi in Intrepid :D
Thanks very much!

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