Bug 2266 - Mageia 1 installs the ssb driver for bcm4312 instead of wl driver
Summary: Mageia 1 installs the ssb driver for bcm4312 instead of wl driver
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1405
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: 1
Hardware: i586 Linux
Priority: High major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Thierry Vignaud
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: 6122
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Reported: 2011-07-24 23:36 CEST by egc
Modified: 2012-09-06 15:15 CEST (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: meta-task
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments

Description egc 2011-07-24 23:36:34 CEST
Description of problem:
After migrating from Mandriva 2010.2 to Mageia the Broadcom wireless device bcm4312 did not work anymore, because Mageia installed the ssb and b43 driver for this device instead of wl driver.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel-desktop586-2.6.38.8-4.mga-1-1.mga1

How reproducible:
Install Mageia on a laptop with the bcm4312 device or start a live-cd and the wireless device won't work because of wrong driver loaded.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start Mageia and try to connect to the internet, it won't work, the device can not be activated.
2. Install dkms-broadcom-wl
3. execute:
   rmmod b43
   rmmod ssb
   modprobe wl
3. Wireless device work this way in my case

More information about wl driver you can find also here:
http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt
egc 2011-07-24 23:50:26 CEST

Priority: Normal => High

Comment 1 egc 2011-07-25 02:38:24 CEST
lspcidrake:
ssb             : Broadcom Corporation|BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [NETWORK_OTHER] (rev: 01)
Ahmad Samir 2011-07-25 16:43:33 CEST

CC: (none) => tmb

Comment 2 egc 2011-07-25 22:46:05 CEST
I did a fresh installation of Mageia1 and after the installation i just installed the dkms-broadcom-wl package and the wireless device workes fine now.
Comment 3 Thierry Vignaud 2011-07-29 06:25:45 CEST
What's the output of "lspcidrake -v |grep NET" ?

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => thierry.vignaud

Comment 4 egc 2011-07-29 09:42:50 CEST
output of "lspcidrake -v |grep NET":
wl              : Broadcom Corporation|BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:14e4 device:4315 subv:103c subd:137d) (rev: 01)
Comment 5 Thierry Vignaud 2011-07-29 11:20:54 CEST
This is because with std kernel, it's the only driver available.
With 
We would need binary dkms modules with pcitables in order to know what dkms packages to install
For the mean time, we could alter rpmsrate by adding sg like this:

 HW"BCM43[12][123]" dkms-broadcom-wl

Then there's also the issue that this package isn't free...
Comment 6 egc 2011-07-29 11:51:44 CEST
"We would need binary dkms modules with pcitables in order to know what dkms
packages to install"
well, i'm afraid i don't understand ... 
but you already have a dkms binary: dkms-broadcom-wl. what's wrong with that?

"Then there's also the issue that this package isn't free..."
frankly, as an end user i don't care if the driver/package is free or not, i just want the device to work after installation ... and i think i'm not the only one ...
If Broadcom offers a working driver ( http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php ) why not use it?
Comment 7 Thierry Vignaud 2011-07-29 16:34:48 CEST
That's a source package that will result in the OS building a binary driver for the running kernel on the first boot.
A binary package would be prebuild for main kernel on mageia's BS

As for the other question, this package is in in non-free, and stuff from non-free might not end on the install DVD...
Comment 8 egc 2011-07-29 16:50:24 CEST
"[...] stuff from non-free might not end on the install DVD..."
i think that's a wrong policy and Mageia should change it. Many users don't agree with this policy. 
At least drivers for devices that are eventually necessary for the installation process, like network/wlan drivers, should be definitely taken out of this policy. For other drivers, like video, everybody might decide as he/she likes it.
Comment 9 Thierry Vignaud 2011-08-01 09:40:55 CEST
Many users asked for that.
Anyway, another solution would be to explicitely list those devices in ldetect-lst and to make rpmsrate select the proper dkms when seeing a device managed by this driver

Assignee: bugsquad => thierry.vignaud
Source RPM: dkms-broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-3.mga1.i586 => meta-task

Comment 10 egc 2011-08-01 11:11:27 CEST
any solution that works is fine for me and i guess it is also for the other users :-)
thanks!
Comment 11 Thierry Vignaud 2011-08-01 21:32:13 CEST
Fixed in SVN (for Mageia 2)
Comment 12 diego w 2011-08-23 01:27:22 CEST
for me b43 works like a charm, but probably since this bug was fixed in SVN I have a second WLAN interface, one is the normal one with b43, and one is some kind of a virtual one when I click it it tries installing either the DKMS WL package or if already done so it tries to set up a WL IF (which of course fails, because the same card is already running with b43)


is there a way to manually disable the WL driver from being automatically installed?

I am not against WL as a default, if it helps easing users to get their PC up and running, but I'd prefer having a choice to disable it if I don't need/want it.

just in case it helps someone, my lspci drake output (while online with b43):

wl              : Broadcom Corporation|BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:14e4 device:4315 subv:14e4 subd:04ad) (rev: 01)

diego

CC: (none) => smiling.diego

Comment 13 diego w 2011-08-23 01:37:15 CEST
just wanted to mention that my problems with the bcm4312 were not b43 related, but due to a problem between drakx-net and NM,

see bug #2416

I don't see any advantage of the WL driver, especially since stability of my mdv 2010.2 KDE desktop (before i turned it into cauldron ;-)  improved by orders of a magnitude after moving to b43.
Comment 14 Samuel Verschelde 2011-10-01 14:27:08 CEST
Thierry, is there a way to fix it in mageia 1 or should we close the bug? If we fix it in Mageia 1 and release updated ISOs in a few months, then it would be great, but I don't know if we can.

Keywords: NEEDINFO => (none)
CC: (none) => stormi

Comment 15 egc 2011-12-20 02:47:17 CET
Mageia2 alpha2 still loads the b43 and ssb driver for this device.
The wl driver can't be loaded because there is no wl driver to install on the live iso.
Comment 16 Thierry Vignaud 2012-02-14 18:21:09 CET
I actually fixed that bug 2 weeks ago.
Will be OK in mga2 beta1.
You'll need to boot the new boot-nonfree.iso though as this driver is not free

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1405 ***

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => DUPLICATE

Thierry Vignaud 2012-09-06 15:15:02 CEST

Blocks: (none) => 6122


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