Re: bcm43xx finally working, with encryption too!!!

[Aaron Kerr <Aaron.Kerr@Sun.COM>]

I have bcm43xx semi-reliably working on my iBook G4 12".

I am using 2.6.15.1 kernel, bcm43xx and softmac snapshots (from 15 Jan
06), some dodgy scripts and IEEE80211 compiled in the kernel as a module.

DODGY SCRIPTS - To get the wireless to reliably associate to an AP (with
or without WEP) I have a pre-up script that does the following:
1. unload and reload the bcm43xx module
2. ifconfig down and up the interface (it seems to help?!?)
3. Scan until we see the wireless network (this can take several tries)
4. Set the rate to 11M and the ESSID to the local network ESSID.

While my script is some overly complicated perl that tries to find one
of my preferred networks here is what it would look like as simple
bourne shell script (last two lines optional depending on network and
use as pre-up script or standalone script):

<START SCRIPT>
#!/bin/sh

modprobe -r bcm43xx
modprobe bcm43xx
ifrename   # Needed because I rename the interface to bcm0
INTERFACE=`iwconfig 2>&1 | fgrep "broadcom 4318" | cut -f1 -d" "`
ifconfig $INTERFACE down
ifconfig $INTERFACE up
ESSID=""
while [ -z "$ESSID" ]
do
   ESSID=`iwlist $INTERFACE scan | fgrep ESSID | cut -f2 -d'"'`
   sleep 1
done
iwconfig $INTERFACE rate 11M
iwconfig $INTERFACE essid $ESSID
#iwconfig $INTERFACE key 0a1b2c3d4e
#dhclient $INTERFACE
<END OF SCRIPT>



Shreyas Ananthan wrote:
> Bin Zhang <yangtze31@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> <snip...>
> 
>>Try dscape/bcm43xx. It needs only one second to get connected.
>>http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/bcm43xx/branches/dscape/driver/HOWTO?op=file&rev=1027&sc=1
>>
>>Bin
> 
> 
> <snip..>
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I tried to make dscape+bcm43xx work and haven't succeeded. This is
> with 2.6.15 kernel with the unofficial patch applied. The sta_up.sh
> script causes the kernel to crash and I have to reboot. I traced the
> kernel panic to the following command in sta_up.sh
> 
> ifconfig wlan0.11 up 
> 
> and the xmon exception information at this point shows the following
> message...
> 
> vector: 300 at pc=f26b33b8: ieee80211_master_start_xmit+0x6c/0x4bc
> [80211], lr=f2b3378: ieee80211_master_xmit+0x2c/0x4bc [80211]
> msr=9032, sp = ef4b3a00 [ef4b3950]
> dar = 8, dsisr = 40000000
> current = ef58e770, pid = 3151, comm = bash
> 
> I am not sure what this means or what other information (from xmon
> dump) that I need to post for someone to be able to help me. 
> 
> 
> I tried posting to the bcm43xx-dev mailing list, but since I am not
> subscribed to the list the message is waiting for moderator approval
> for over three days now. I had also posted about this in debian-ppc
> mailing list a few days ago and there were no responses, so I gave up
> on the dscape+bcm43xx route and went with softmac+bcm43xx. 
> 
> I will give the dscape+bcm43xx route a try again if someone can help
> me with this. Any help will be appreciated. 
> 
> Shreyas. 
> 
> 


-- 

Aaron Kerr
-----------------
Engagement Architect
Sun Microsystems