WIFI issues Broadcom

[tyatyi]

Hello dear All,

I am absolutely lost and I would like to ask advise. After upgrading my Broadcom WIFI driver stopped working.
I tried ndiswrapper with a windows driver, I also tried activating the driver as in previous comments, I tried also different distributions, but the driver is not active and wifi is not working. My expert friend also blacklisted the driver and reactivated, but no change.

These are the details:
Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

It shows : wireless disabled by hardware switch. However I triple checked and the physical switch in ON. I switched ON/OFF not working. On some distros it is not even showing this, it just not showing any wireless options.
Else : networking works fine from ethernet cable and 3G stick.

I freshly reinstalled Mint and run a command suggested and this is the result
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
2: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

What exactly is Hard blocked: yes means? Can it mean that my physical switch might be faulty? It is switched on for sure..

THANKS IN ADVANCE


Does anybody have any idea??
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

[remoulder]

Hard blocked: yes

Means there is a physical switch or firmware/BIOS toggle active

In order to get further help please initially provide outputs of

Code: Select all

inxi -SNx
lspci
lsusb
lsmod

[tyatyi]

Hello. Thanks for the help . Here are the results:

tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $ inxi -SNx
System: Host: tyatyi-Lenovo Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.6.3) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
Card-2: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller driver: brcmsmac bus-ID: 09:00.0
tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 2.0 multicard reader
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 090c:37b4 Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corp.)
tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $ lsmod
Module Size Used by
nls_iso8859_1 12617 1
nls_cp437 12751 1
vfat 17308 1
fat 55605 1 vfat
bcma 25651 0
arc4 12473 2
joydev 17393 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek 174055 1
brcmsmac 540875 0
snd_hda_intel 32765 3
snd_hda_codec 109562 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80845 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
mac80211 436455 1 brcmsmac
brcmutil 14675 1 brcmsmac
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
snd_rawmidi 25424 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
uvcvideo 67203 0
snd_timer 28931 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
psmouse 87140 0
cfg80211 178679 2 brcmsmac,mac80211
bnep 17830 2
videodev 86588 1 uvcvideo
rfcomm 38139 0
parport_pc 32114 0
bluetooth 158438 10 bnep,rfcomm
ppdev 12849 0
serio_raw 13027 0
crc8 12781 1 brcmsmac
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
cordic 12487 1 brcmsmac
i915 414568 2
snd 62064 15 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
binfmt_misc 17292 1
ideapad_laptop 17890 0
drm_kms_helper 45466 1 i915
soundcore 14635 1 snd
sparse_keymap 13658 1 ideapad_laptop
drm 197692 3 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd_page_alloc 14115 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
i2c_algo_bit 13199 1 i915
video 19068 1 i915
wmi 18744 0
mac_hid 13077 0
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
r8169 56321 0
ums_realtek 17920 0
uas 17699 0
usb_storage 39646 2 ums_realtek
tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $ ^C
tyatyi@tyatyi-Lenovo ~ $

[remoulder]

As a test reboot and enter your BIOS setup, set to defaults and exit. After the reboot is there any difference?

[tyatyi]

Hello,

i tried the BIOS reset and blacklist option as well and nothing changed unfortunately.

[mister_lister]

I get the impression that it was working before you did the so called "upgrade" of the broadcom drivers? If so I don't know if what I am about to write will work for you. IF NOT then there is a standard work around for resolving broadcom issues -- It is as follows:

Do the following in terminal in your "/home/*user*/downloads/" directory...

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
Download the a file from following link to the 'download' directory you are working in:
depending on which version of the drivers you need, download one of these files:
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broa ... .5.tar.bz2
(OR)
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broa ... .4.tar.bz2

Usually you will need the 4.178.10.4 version drivers

Depending on which drivers you have downloaded, type the following in terminal:
tar xf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
(OR)
tar xf broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4.tar.bz2

Depending on which drivers you extracted:
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
(OR)
cd broadcom-wl-4.178.10.4/linux

Then type the following in terminal
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
modprobe b43


I edited as administrator the "/etc/modules" file and found that the "b43" module was in fact spelled in Upper Case letters ("B43), so I put the letter "B" in lower case and saved, it loads everytime.

[remoulder]

there is a standard work around

@mister_lister, I would disagree that the actions you propose are a standard workaround on ubuntu based distros. I also don't believe this is simply a Broadcom driver issue as the device is initialised, hardblocked issues are often down to wmi.

[mister_lister]

I am not here to argue with you, but what I posted solved all of my Broadcom issues back when.

If your situation is truely a hard block and not simply an incorrect driver, bios issue, or physical switch issue, then you might want to try my solution.

[AlbertP]

I also don't believe this is simply a Broadcom driver issue as the device is initialised, hardblocked issues are often down to wmi.

In this case the hardblock was only reported by the Broadcom driver, the ideapad_wireless was not blocked so no wmi issue, rather a Broadcom driver problem indeed.
By the way, for Ideapad the driver is not called -wmi but ideapad-laptop. And it hardly causes any problems (as opposed to acer-wmi which was a frequent source of problems on Mint 12).

[remoulder]

That's quite possible Albert, not quite sure of the cause, was wondering a little why there were 2 wireless adapters showing and wondering whether the ideapad one was the cause of the blocking on the broadcom when there is only 1 physical adapter afaics.

[AlbertP]

That's nothing special. Most modern laptops also have some kind of BIOS interface for reading the wifi & bluetooth switch, that's the ideapad thing in rfkill. So you're seeing it twice. Both "hard block" statuses should be the same since it is the same switch. In this case the Broadcom driver was reporting something different, while ideapad-laptop correctly reported that it wasn't blocked.