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b43 wireless firmware problems on 2.6.24-rc2



Hello!

I'm trying to get a wireless adapter to work on a laptop using the b43 driver 
in 2.6.24-rc kernels.  The card requires firmware which is located in 
/lib/firmware/b43.  The problem is that I can't always use ifup and ifdown on 
the connection; those commands fail sometimes.  It seems to be related to 
firmware loading.

At this time I am using 2.6.24-rc2 (but I'll use whatever I need to...!) on 
Debian Lenny/Sid.

The wireless connection uses DHCP but no encryption.

Note that most of the output was copied manually; there may be errors!


__/etc/network/interfaces portion:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
  wireless-channel 11
  wireless-essid ****
  wireless-ap any

__Here is the lspci output for the card:
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)


__When the card is first inserted:
pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
b43-phy9: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:00.0
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

__Run 'iwlist wlan0 scan':
  > works

__Run 'ifup wlan0':
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on Socket/fallback
 > DHCP client gets IP and everything works

__Run 'ifdown wlan0':
 > DHCP client releases IP and connection is brought down

__Run 'iwlist wlan0 scan' again:
wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

__Run 'ifup wlan0' again, without removing the card:
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on Socket/fallback
 > DHCPDISCOVER broadcast repeatedly until timed out

__Then run 'iwlist wlan0 scan' again:
  > works

__Run 'dhclient wlan0':
 > DHCP client gets IP and everything works


I'd like ifup and ifdown to always work.  This is convoluted enough that I 
haven't been able even to write a script that always works (though I haven't 
tried hard; hacks are bad).  Any tips?

Thanks!

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