Bug 3296 - BCM43224 wifi card is slow when laptop is on battery
Summary: BCM43224 wifi card is slow when laptop is on battery
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: 1
Hardware: All Linux
Priority: Normal major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: QA Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on: 3618
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2011-11-08 13:33 CET by José Jorge
Modified: 2011-12-08 05:48 CET (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: broadcom-wl
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments

Description José Jorge 2011-11-08 13:33:58 CET
Description of problem:
There is a bug in the driver of BCM43224 devices released with Mageia 1.
This makes Wi-Fi useless on battery.
This new version fixes the problem on my laptop, it will be hard to find the same hardware in QA I think...
Comment 1 claire robinson 2011-11-08 14:19:39 CET
New version of what Jose?
Comment 2 claire robinson 2011-11-08 15:43:45 CET
broadcom-wl-5.100.82.112-1.mga1 according to the BS :)
Comment 3 José Jorge 2011-11-08 17:49:01 CET
It is a new version of the proprietary driver. But of course, they never provide a patch to current version, so we have to get it all.
José Jorge 2011-11-08 17:49:18 CET

Status: NEW => ASSIGNED

Comment 4 claire robinson 2011-11-08 18:09:20 CET
I'm not sure how we'll test this one, I think leuhmanu has broadcom wifi. We can maybe put a call out on the ML if not.
Comment 5 claire robinson 2011-11-08 18:54:28 CET
José is this driver just for that one specific wifi card or does it cover a range?
Comment 6 claire robinson 2011-11-08 19:15:50 CET
More info here I think - http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

The rpm is dkms-broadcom-wl.

---
These packages contain Broadcom's IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n hybrid Linux® device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-, BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43224-, and BCM43225-, BCM43227- and BCM43228-based hardware. 
---

From the website.
Comment 7 Manuel Hiebel 2011-11-08 19:19:52 CET
Hello I have the card: BCM4313 so I can not confirm that the update solve the bug. (And I have never see this issue with this one.) 
But I can confirm that the new version works as the old on x86_64 arch. ;)
Comment 8 Manuel Hiebel 2011-11-09 02:18:20 CET
Hum I have every minute 4 'ERROR' in syslog / dmesg

Nov  9 02:14:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:14:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:14:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)
Nov  9 02:14:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_tx_power : error (-1)
Nov  9 02:15:01 vosdook CROND[10403]: (apache) CMD (    /usr/share/bugzilla/bin/whine.pl > /dev/null 2>&1)
Nov  9 02:15:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:15:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:15:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)
Nov  9 02:15:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_tx_power : error (-1)
Nov  9 02:16:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:16:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
Nov  9 02:16:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)
Nov  9 02:16:36 vosdook kernel: ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_tx_power : error (-1)

do you know why ?
Comment 9 José Jorge 2011-11-09 11:17:16 CET
No, but :
- do you have the same problem after a reboot?
- is it a problem introduced by the new driver?
- does the wifi still work?
Comment 10 José Jorge 2011-11-09 11:22:29 CET
(In reply to comment #7)
> Hello I have the card: BCM4313 so I can not confirm that the update solve the
> bug. (And I have never see this issue with this one.) 
> But I can confirm that the new version works as the old on x86_64 arch. ;)

I think your card should be better handled by the free b43 driver, did you try it?
Comment 11 Manuel Hiebel 2011-11-09 14:52:23 CET
(In reply to comment #9)
> No, but :
> - do you have the same problem after a reboot?
yes
> - is it a problem introduced by the new driver?
yes
> - does the wifi still work?
yes

I have test on cauldron and I can't see this ERROR (before the update, the device was called eth1 and now it's wlan1)

In Mageia 1 the device is also called eth1



(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > Hello I have the card: BCM4313 
> I think your card should be better handled by the free b43 driver, did you try
> it?

No because according to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 it's not supported.

I don't think my 'issue' is a blocker for the update.
Comment 12 José Jorge 2011-11-09 18:02:39 CET
(In reply to comment #11)
> I have test on cauldron and I can't see this ERROR (before the update, the
> device was called eth1 and now it's wlan1)

I also have the ERROR messages in Mageia 1.

According to http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt :
+ Added cfg80211 API support.
So I think there is a feature in the 2.6.38 kernel with this API that throws lots of debug messages, while in cauldron we have 3.x kernels that solve the problem.

I agree with you this should not block the update.
Comment 13 Manuel Hiebel 2011-11-09 18:16:15 CET
Thomas, do you know if we can remove the debug messages ?

CC: (none) => tmb

Comment 14 claire robinson 2011-12-05 10:07:08 CET
Thomas could you comment on this matter please, thanks.
Comment 15 José Jorge 2011-12-07 12:05:54 CET
There is now #3618 that brings an update package. So when it is validated, we should just push :

broadcom-wl-5.100.82.112-2.mga1

for both bugs.
Thomas Backlund 2011-12-07 20:30:40 CET

Depends on: (none) => 3618

Comment 16 Thomas Backlund 2011-12-07 20:31:04 CET
Update pushed.

Status: ASSIGNED => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED

Comment 17 Kamil Rytarowski 2011-12-08 05:48:33 CET
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_tx_power : error (-1)
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_tx_power : error (-1)
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address
ERROR @wl_dev_intvar_get : error (-1)

I have this too in my dmesg, but wlan is working perfectly.

CC: (none) => n54


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