Re: Trouble with Macbook Pro 8,2 (broadcom 4331) and latest b43

[Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>]

On 11/29/2011 03:49 PM, AndrewL733 wrote:
> On 11/29/2011 02:17 PM, Larry Finger wrote:
>> That path is derived from the current kernel version. It should get it right.
>>
>> You should already have the directory /lib/modules/3.1.2-1.1-desktop. The
>> command 'mv /lib/modules/3.1.2-1-desktop/updates to
>> /lib/modules/3.1.2-1.1-desktop/.' followed by 'depmod -a' should be OK.
>>
>> Larry
> I found that at least with Mandriva, simply putting the new b43 modules in
> /lib/modules/{my kernel}/updates and then running depmod (or depmod -a) did not
> work.  After doing that, when I ran "modinfo b43", the result was still pointing
> to the in-kernel b43 modules and not the one in "updates".  However, renaming
> the "updates" directory to "extra" and then running "depmod" again DID work.
> So, putting out-of-kernel modules in a directory named "updates" did not work!
>
> I have never seen out-of-kernel modules in "updates".  I compile many
> out-of-kernel modules (Myricom, ATTO, 3ware, LSI, Intel) and their installers
> always, always, put the new modules in the "extra" directory and never in an
> "updates" directory.
>
> Why does compat-wireless install these in the "updates" directory?

Because that works with MOST distros.

>>
>> But now, to do things the "Mandriva way", I am supposed to launch the
>> "Mandriva Control Center"  (drakconf), go to the "Manage you network devices"
>> section and "add" the wlan0 interface to my system. (The idea is to then allow
>> Network Manager to manage the connection moving forward, but first you have to
>> enable the connection.) When I try to add wlan0 to my network configuration, I
>> get a dialog box asking me which firmware file to use?  Basically, it wants me
>> to navigate to /lib/firmware/b43/ and select one of the "ucode" files.  With
>> the previous Macbook Pro 8,2, I think I selected ucode13.fw and it worked
>> fine.  But what is the correct way to select the proper firmware without
>> guessing?
>>
>> When I was trying to load the "distro b43" driver, dmesg was telling me the
>> driver needed "FW13".  Does that mean anything?

No.

> Okay, I got impatient and decided to just tell the Mandriva network device
> manager to associate /lib/firmware/b43/ucode13.fw with my wlan0.  But how do I
> know if that's really the correct firmware for the Broadcom 4331 (rev 02)
> chipset?  I'm finding that the wireless connection goes down once in a while.
> So far, I have only tried with one access point and maybe the access point
> itself is flaky, but it would be nice how to know which firmware to use. Is the
> choice supposed to happen automagically when the b43 driver is loaded?  Is there
> some table somewhere that says which ucodeXX.fw goes with which chipset?

The table is found at http://bcm-v4.sipsolutions.net/802.11/Init/Firmware. For 
my distro and most others, it is done automagically. The kernel reads the 
version of the 802.11 core and looks up the firmware using logic derived from 
this table. In the dmesg output, you will find a place where the versions of the 
various cores is printed. Using ucode13.fw is certainly not right for a 4331. 
I'm surprised that it works at all.

Larry