Summary: | sys-firmware/b43-firmware-6.30.163.46 unstable with BCM4318 | ||
---|---|---|---|
Product: | Gentoo Linux | Reporter: | Hubert Kromer <hubert.kromer> |
Component: | Current packages | Assignee: | Rick Farina (Zero_Chaos) <zerochaos> |
Status: | UNCONFIRMED --- | ||
Severity: | normal | CC: | gentoo, jstein, kingjon3377, mail, mgorny, millerkenj, njsg, owenthewizard, rickfoland, zsojka |
Priority: | Normal | Keywords: | PMASKED |
Version: | unspecified | ||
Hardware: | All | ||
OS: | Linux | ||
See Also: | https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/pull/3491 | ||
Whiteboard: | |||
Package list: | Runtime testing required: | --- | |
Attachments: | lspci -vvnn |
Description
Hubert Kromer
2015-02-22 18:56:04 UTC
The b43 driver has similar issues when using b43-firmware-6.* with a BCM4311KFBG wireless card: very bad connectivity, drops frequently, very poor bandwidth -- basically it is unusable. Additionally, broadcom-sta-6.* does not work with this card: loading the driver causes a Segmentation Fault (or, if the driver is built to use the wext API, it will fail with "code 21"). This is most likely not a hardware issue: I have tried two BCM4311KFBG cards, and I have issues with both. Thus, the only solution I have right now for this card is b43 + b43-firmware-5.*. I am also having this issue with a BCM4311 card and firmware version 6.30.163.46. Unusably slow speeds with frequent drops.The speeds and drops occur with wicd and networkmanager. It seemed like I was able to make the disconnects less frequent by using dhclient instead of dhcpcd, but I had to edit a line in wicd/misc.py to get dhclient to work and the speeds were slow either way. Works fine with a rollback to b43-firmware-5* There is also a topic on the forum with a couple of others who are having this bug on both bcm4311 and bcm4318: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1026450.html?sid=a6e7ed76aa6d994228d0f04f4dfefc92 With sys-firmware/b43-firmware-6.30.163.46 driving Broadcom 4311 WLAN + G PHY I cannot properly associate to an AP (it associates then immediately disconnects). With sys-firmware/b43-firmware-5.100.138 everything works fine. Considering that b43 wiki page ( http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/#Other_distributions_not_mentioned_above ) explicitly tells to use firmware from Broadcom driver version 5.100.138 I think the sys-firmware/b43-firmware-6.30.163.46 package should be masked since it seems not to be useful at all and certainly breaks things. Created Github PR 3491 that resolves this issue. This bug can be closed now since the problematic firmware version had been hard masked. I can't do it on my own since I'm not the original reporter. I'll mark it PMASKED but I'll leave the decision to Rick. After all, the bug is still there and I don't think we want to keep p.mask like this forever. I am fine with it. I recently retired the computer with the BCM4311 card, so this issue no longer affects me. This will probably only ever be an issue for people with the BCM4311 card if a newer version of the firmware adds some essential new support. Otherwise, sys-firmware/b43-firmware-5.100.138 is sufficient. Created attachment 482948 [details]
lspci -vvnn
I have a BCM4322 chip and have not noticed this issue. Attached: Relevant lspci -vvnn output. |