[SOLVED] broadcom-sta with BCM4331 issue after world update

[DZoom]

The wl module just didn't work any more, switching to b43 did. See below for details

Original post:

Hi,

I updated my Gentoo but after a final reboot the wifi stopped working.
As it's an old Macbook, i need the broadcom-sta firmware for the contained BCM4331 WiFi chip.
Worked flawlessly before, but wpa_supplicant doesn't work right now.
When starting to look into it, i found that seemingly before the update the wifi device name was wlp3s0b1, while now it is wlp3s0.
So i changed it in /etc/init.d:

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cd /etc/init.d
rm net.wlp3s0b1
ln -s net.lo net.wlp3s0

And didn't add it to any runlevel as it was before:

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# rc-update show -v | grep 'net\.'
         net.enp2s0f0 |                                        
               net.lo |                                        
           net.wlp3s0 | 

And i updated /etc/conf.d/net accordingly:

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# cat /etc/conf.d/net
# ethernet
config_enp2s0f0="dhcp"

# wifi
modules_wlp3s0="wpa_supplicant"
config_wlp3s0="dhcp"

My modules blacklist:

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# cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
# deactivate the following four module to run the proprietary
#  broadcom-sta B43 driver
blacklist b43
blacklist bcma
blacklist ssb
blacklist mac80211

And what dmesg says:

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[    3.683551] systemd-udevd[2169]: eth0: Process 'net.sh enp2s0f0 start' failed with exit code 1.
[    3.691872] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[    3.691877] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[    3.691878] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[    3.720235] systemd-udevd[2177]: ethtool: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
[    3.720244] systemd-udevd[2182]: ethtool: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
[    3.725496] systemd-udevd[2177]: sit0: Process 'net.sh sit0 start' failed with exit code 1.
[    3.749005] systemd-udevd[2173]: Using default interface naming scheme 'v245'.
[    3.834768] wlan0: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.30.223.271 (r587334)

[    3.836034] systemd-udevd[2175]: Using default interface naming scheme 'v245'.
[    3.837181] systemd-udevd[2175]: ethtool: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
[    3.837322] wl 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from wlan0

When i plug in an ethernet cable, ethernet works, but Wifi doesn't.
wpa_gui just gives me ret=-22.
Loading and unloading the module wl doesn't change anything.
Restartung wpa_supplicant doesn't change anything.
I'm out of options, any ideas?

[NeddySeagoon]

DZoom,

That all looks good but it appears that the interface did not start.

What does

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/etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start

do?
What is in

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ifconfig

now?

Be aware that with both interfaces up in the same subnet, you may well loose networking altogether.

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/etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 stop

should fix that.

[DZoom]

Hi,

I had to remove the old '/var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlp3s0', but afterwards the interface seemed to come up:

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# /etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start
 * Bringing up interface wlp3s0
 *   Starting wpa_supplicant on wlp3s0 ...
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant                                                                                                                  [ ok ]
 *   Starting wpa_cli on wlp3s0 ...                                                                                                                      [ ok ]
 *   Backgrounding ... ...
 * WARNING: net.wlp3s0 has started, but is inactive

ifconfig:

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# ifconfig
enp2s0f0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.189  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        ether c8:2a:14:01:ca:8a  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 234  bytes 23527 (22.9 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 183  bytes 24038 (23.4 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 16  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 8  bytes 540 (540.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 8  bytes 540 (540.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp3s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether e0:f8:47:0d:33:44  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 17

Usually only Wifi is used, currently i ethernetted the macbook so i can access it from my Desktop and write this posts

[NeddySeagoon]

DZoom,

There is no IP address for wlp3s0 in ifconfig.
What did the attempt to start it leave in dmesg?

Further,

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# /etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start
 * Bringing up interface wlp3s0 

did not spit out a warning about wlp3s0 already being started.

What does

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rfkill

have to say about wifi?

[DZoom]

How could there be an IP address, wpa_supplicant can't trigger the connection to the right WiFi which runs the DHCP server?
Bringing the device up manually (/etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start) doesn't add anything to dmesg.

Before i manually started net.wlp3s0 it wasn't started, it's not in any runlevel (see my first post).

rfkill output:

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# rfkill
ID TYPE DEVICE        SOFT      HARD
 0 wlan phy0     unblocked unblocked
 1 wlan brcmwl-0 unblocked unblocked

[NeddySeagoon]

DZoom,

wpa_supplicant should have been triggered by

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/etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start

[DZoom]

Well that's what wrote in my second post, when starting wlp3s0, wpa_supplicant was brought up without errors as well, right?

[NeddySeagoon]

DZoom,

You did.

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 * Bringing up interface wlp3s0
 *   Starting wpa_supplicant on wlp3s0 ...

You also wrote

Bringing the device up manually (/etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start) doesn't add anything to dmesg.

which is a contradiction.
wpa_supplicant starting should have left messages in dmesg about associating and authenticating.
Those steps are required before dhcpcd can use the wifi to request an IP address.

[DZoom]

NeddySeagon, thank you for your input.

In the end i solved the issues a way not everybody might agree with, as i didn't further investigate what was with the wl module offered by broadcom-sta.

Works-For-Me solution:

1. unmerge broadcom-sta
2. emerge sys-firmware/b43-firmware
3. edit /etc/conf.d/modules, replacing the loaded module wl with b43:

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# cat /etc/conf.d/modules
modules=b43

4. update the module blacklisting, comment every module that had to be blacklisted for wl, and blacklist wl, new content of file:

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# cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist wl

5. as i don't know which file takes precedence (/etc/conf.d/modules or /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf), i updated the one present in my system (/etc/conf.d/modules) and followed the handbook [1] / kernel module guide [2] and created /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf as well and put b43 there:

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# cat /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf
b43

After a reboot lsmod now shows the modules that are necessary for the b43 module to work and no more wl.

I don't know if this solution is what actually solved the issue, because in the process i also migrated to NetworkManager as described here [3] with one important addition: i commented out everything in /etc/conf.d/net, so the file is now essentially empty. To my understanding this should be the case, but the documentation lacks such a statement?

Only open question: Do i need /etc/conf.d/modules and /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf? Or is one a leftover and only the other one necessary? In theory it should be possible to keep only the relevant one, remove wl.ko from /lib/modules/5.4.80-gentoo-r1/net/wireless and then no module has to be blacklisted anymore.
Anyway, this problem is solved.

[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:P ... ion/Kernel
[2] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Modules
[3] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NetworkManager