kernel-packages team mailing list archive

[Michael Zanetti <michael.zanetti@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Christoper,

1) Here is the requested output of a not working setup, that is, no 5GHz
WiFi and slow/unstable 2.4GHz Wifi:

mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331] (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme [106b:00ef]
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 256 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
        Region 0: Memory at c1900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: wl

mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
bcmwl-kernel-source:
  Installed: 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/restricted amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  sudo dmidecode -s bios-version
MBP101.88Z.00EE.B02.1208081132
mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date
08/08/2012
mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  sudo dmidecode -s system-version
1.0
mzanetti@noneyet ~  $  sudo dmidecode -s baseboard-manufacturer
Apple Inc.

This is a MacBook Pro Retina 1st Generation, but I know of people with
non-retina MacBooks and the same chip, having the same problem.

2) The workaround requires downgrading the kernel, pinning of the old
driver version, will break things like overlayfs etc. I don't think a
click-for-click tutorial is useful here. Someone not knowing what's
going on will inevitably mess up his Ubuntu installation with this
anyways. For advanced users/developers, I think the current instructions
are good enough.

3) No, b43 doesn't work for this chip either. I does detect the chip,
but again only 2.4GHz and very slow data rates and connection drops.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel
Packages, which is subscribed to bcmwl in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1387221

Title:
   bcmwl-kernel-source >= 6.30.223.30+bdcom-0ubuntu1 fails to see 5GHz
  networks and is unstable on 2.5GHz

Status in “bcmwl” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Hardware: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)

  This chip is working perfectly fine on 2.5GHz and 5GHz using version
  6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu6 of the driver.

  After upgrading to saucy or any newer version and installing version
  >=6.30.223.30+bdcom-0ubuntu1 it fails to find any 5GHz networks and
  connections on 2.5GHz are unstable.

  Downgrading the machine to kernel 3.8.x and bcmwl-kernel-source 6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu6 (both from raring) makes the chip work again.
  UPDATE: Up to kernel  3.13.0-23 a patched working package of bcmwl-kernel-source 6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu6 can be found in the comments of this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1189611
  Currently there is no way to have utopic with an up to date kernel and properly working BCM4331 chip at the same time.

  Looking at the changelog its most likely caused by the update to the
  new upstream release in version 6.30.223.30+bdcom.

  As of utopic unicorn this is still broken.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
  Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu6
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-23.31-generic 3.16.4
  Uname: Linux 3.16.0-23-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: wl
  ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Wed Oct 29 15:26:09 2014
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-10 (717 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Beta amd64+mac (20120926)
  SourcePackage: bcmwl
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2013-10-22 (372 days ago)

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