Acer Aspire One 722-0743 Broadcom Wireless issue [SOLVED]

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ISHAIM · Post by **ISHAIM** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:19 pm

I am trying to get my Broadcom Wireless adapter to work but I'm having some difficulties. There is no wlan0 interface in ifconfig. From what I'm Googling, I can see that perhaps I should be trying to compile brmsmac as a module. I am unsure if I should load this with /etc/conf.d/modules, but I did that just to be safe.

dmesg output does have the line:

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[    0.932083] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PL, Firmware-ID: FW13]

lspci -n output for this is:

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07:00.0 0280: 14e4:4727 (rev 01)

I have emerged linux-firmware.

/lib/firmware/brcm contains bcm4329-fullmac-4.bin bcm4329-fullmac-4.txt bcm43xx-0.fw bcm43xx_hrd-0.fw

Gusar · Post by **Gusar** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:21 pm

Yeah, compile it as a module. No need for any further configuration.

ISHAIM · Post by **ISHAIM** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:25 pm

I did that, it's still not working, there is still no wlan0 in ifconfig. Should I take some my other configuration settings out?

Gusar · Post by **Gusar** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:27 pm

Use pastebin to post your kernel config. Just a guess though: Did you compile bcma support? You shouldn't. Also post your full dmesg, again using pastebin.

ISHAIM · Post by **ISHAIM** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:29 pm

Kernel .config: http://pastebin.com/npE4QY46

dmesg: http://pastebin.com/KhwUUGVC

Not sure if I compiled bcma support, where can I find that at? I have been hacking at this for a while trying to get it up.

EDIT: When I search menuconfig for "bcma" the only thing that is marked Y is BCMA_POSSIBLE=y. I am unsure about the difference between all of these options.

Gusar · Post by **Gusar** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:16 pm

From a quick look, your kernel config is ok. But that one line about wireless in your dmesg does not belong to brcmsmac, it belongs to b43. So you're not running the kernel you think you're running. Are you using a separate /boot partition and did you maybe forget to mount it before copying the new kernel over?

ISHAIM · Post by **ISHAIM** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:04 pm

I am using a separate boot partition, but I didn't forget to mount it. This is an otherwise working minimal installation, I even have the Ethernet port working. I reconfigure the kernel manually and recompile it all the time. Just to be sure, mount lists /dev/sda1 on boot.

cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep CONFIG_B43 returns

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# CONFIG_B43 is not set
# CONFIG_B43LEGACY is not set

However, I still am getting this from dmesg | grep Broadcom

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[   0.955573 Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PL, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]

How is that happening? Even the timestamps of both the bzImage and /boot/kernel-3.1.6-gentoo look fine to me. I keep recompiling the kernel making sure the options for B43 aren't set, but after copying the newly compiled kernel over and running dmesg it still shows the 43xx driver loaded.

EDIT: Yup, when I reconfigure the kernel the timestamp of bzImage is current, I can even see lines like:

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INSTALL drivers/staging/brcm80211/brcmsmac/brcmsmac.ko
INSTALL drivers/staging/brcm80211/brcmutil/brcmutil.ko

and it copies over to /boot without a problem and is the current version from looking at that timestamp too.

ISHAIM · Post by **ISHAIM** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:00 pm

I figured out the fix for this issue, although I'd hardly call it a "fix".

http://bernaerts.dyndns.org/linux/202-ubuntu-acer-ao722

Basically, the solution is to set the Network Boot in BIOS to the top priority along with making sure it is Enabled. After that, net.wlan0 is able to bring the interface up.

I am willing to work with anyone who would like to produce a more graceful resolution to this problem, although I do have prior engagements as a college graduate student.