Broadcom Wireless chips support

[SaveTheRbtz]

I have notebook running freebsd-current and with broadcom wi-fi on board
PH34R# uname -a
FreeBSD PH34R 8.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT #6: Fri Nov 14 00:21:58 MSK 2008 savetherbtz@PH34R:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/PH34R.8 i386

PH34R# pciconf -lv | grep BCM43
device = 'BCM4310 broadcom wireless 1490 (dell)'

wireless currently running via ndis

Will there be support for this wireless chipset in future?

[graudeejs]

I very much doubt.
Broadcom aren't willing to give drivers to free community

[Kitche]

I m pretty sure that drivers would be ported sometime from OpenBSD but highly doubt it will be officially Broadcom.

[paradox]

_http://paradox.lissyara.su/bwi.01.tar.bz2
try this driver

[prudhvi]

Hi, Paradox

Your driver is working like charm :)

I tried it on 7.0-RELEASE will give it a short in 8-CURRENT today :)

Thanks

[richardpl]

It will not work on CURRENT because of VAP aka multi-BSS

[paradox]

>prudhvi
driver not mine
i take it from perforce repository
my be iam write own driver

[SaveTheRbtz]

Today I've tried dragonflybsd bwi drivers on my HP 6715s laptop... But it didn't worked out with my card =(
First of all in pciconf my card listens as
device = 'BCM4310 broadcom wireless 1490 (dell)'
but has BCM4312's id:
bwi0@pci0:48:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x1371103c chip=0x431214e4 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00

Back to driver:
My card isn't in supported macs revisions list... So i've got error something like "MAC rev 13 is not supported"
not a big deal, added to see if it helps.

# vi bwimac.c
static const uint8_t bwi_sup_macrev[] = { 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13 };
Now driver says "unsupported 11G PHY, rev 9"
This is worse, but I can give it a try:
# vi bwiphy.c
if (phyrev > 9) {
device_printf(sc->sc_dev, "unsupported 11G PHY, "
"rev %u\n", phyrev);
return ENXIO;
}
That time i've got "bwi0: can't initialize 0th TX ring"
And what i see in bwi_init_tx_ring64? (Yeah my card has 64bit bus)

static int
bwi_init_tx_ring64(struct bwi_softc *sc, int ring_idx)
{
/* TODO:64 */
return EOPNOTSUPP;
}
=(( I can't write it without knowledge of BWI_TXRX64_RINGINFO_ADDR_MASK, BWI_TXRX64_RINGINFO_FUNC_MASK and etc. values =(

full output of driver below
bwi0: <Broadcom BCM4312 802.11 Wireless Lan> mem 0xc8000000-0xc8003fff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci48
bwi0: [ITHREAD]
bwi0: regwin: chipcommon (0x800), rev 19, vendor 0x4243
bwi0: BBP: id 0x4311, rev 0x2, pkg 0
bwi0: nregwin 4, cap 0x0864000d
bwi0: regwin: 802.11 MAC (0x812), rev 13, vendor 0x4243
bwi0: MAC: rev 13
bwi0: regwin: usb 1.1 host (0x817), rev 4, vendor 0x4243
bwi0: regwin: pci express (0x820), rev 5, vendor 0x4243
bwi0: clksrc CS_OSC
bwi0: clkfreq min 990000, max 1010000
bwi0: power on delay 153
bwi0: bus rev 6
bwi0: pci express is enabled
bwi0: card flags 0x4a49
bwi0: 0th led, act 2, lowact 0
bwi0: 1th led, act 3, lowact 1
bwi0: 2th led, act 4, lowact 0
bwi0: 3th led, act 0, lowact 0
bwi0: 802.11 MAC was already disabled
bwi0: PHY is linked
bwi0: PHY: type 2, rev 9, ver 4
bwi0: PHY: 802.11G attach
bwi0: RF: manu 0x17f, type 0x2050, rev 2
bwi0: bus rev 6
bwi0: PHY is linked
bwi0: 64bit bus space
bwi0: max txpower from sprom: 74 dBm
bwi0: ant gain 8 dBm
bwi0: region/domain max txpower 76 dBm
bwi0: max txpower 74 dBm
bwi0: sprom idle tssi: 0x783e
bwi0: TSSI-TX power map:
83 83 82 82 82 82 81 81
80 80 79 79 79 78 78 77
77 76 75 75 74 74 73 73
72 72 71 70 69 69 68 67
66 65 64 64 62 61 60 59
58 57 55 54 52 51 49 48
46 45 42 41 38 36 33 31
28 25 22 19 15 11 6 2
bwi0: idle tssi0: 62
bwi0: bus rev 6
bwi0: locale: 0
bwi0: WARNING: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface
bwi0: Ethernet address: 00:00:00:1a:73:8c
bwi0: bwi_init
bwi0: bwi_stop
bwi0: bbp atten: 0, rf atten: 3, ctrl1: 2, ctrl2: 65535
bwi0: bus rev 6
bwi0: 802.11 MAC is disabled
bwi0: 802.11 MAC was already disabled
bwi0: PHY is linked
bwi0: firmware rev 0x0127, patch level 0x000e
bwi0: IV count 317
bwi0: lo gain: 19, rx gain: 48
bwi0: RF calibration value: 0x0026
bwi0: base tssi 49
bwi0: can't initialize 0th TX ring

So there are couple of questions
1) to FreeBSD commiters: bwi driver is now in OpenBSD,NetBSD and even in DreganFlyBSD. Is there so big problem to port it?
2) to bcm hackers: does anybody know where i can get some kind of reversed engineered driver manual or some kind of helpsheet for firmware bits?

[paradox]

bwi0: 64bit bus space
64bit bus not supported by any bwi drivers of *BSD

1) to FreeBSD commiters: bwi driver is now in OpenBSD,NetBSD and even in DreganFlyBSD. Is there so big problem to port it?

_http://paradox.lissyara.su/bwi.01.tar.bz2



2) to bcm hackers: does anybody know where i can get some kind of reversed engineered driver manual or some kind of helpsheet for firmware bits?

this is a new firmware but curently not supported bwi driver
_paradox.lissyara.su/code.rar

[paradox]

show me yr uname -a
is yr bsd 64bit? as example amd64

[SaveTheRbtz]

[PH34R] ~> uname -spr
FreeBSD 7.1-PRERELEASE i386

[paradox]

imposible ))
Today I've tried dragonflybsd bwi drivers on my HP 6715s laptop
which platform the DF ?

[SaveTheRbtz]

1) it'll be CURRENT in an hour.
2) i386

[paradox]

too strange

[SaveTheRbtz]

No, 64bit it's about bus space
bwi0: 64bit bus space
there are three kinds of bus space in BCM43xx: 30bit 32bit and 64bit

It's not connected with operating system arch in any way

[allbanddxer]

This is so interesting that I should stumble on this bwi driver, I have been searching for a solution and gave a OpenBSD a try just because they had that driver, but I could not adjust to OpenBSD. I downloaded bwi.01.tar.bz2 that was posted by Paradox but I don't really know what to do with it. After I install it, how do I configure that module to start? Do I add bwi_enable="YES" in /boot/loader.conf... and then setup the network device like any other card? If it matters, I am using 7.0 Release i386.

[SaveTheRbtz]

I've tried to compile driver against -current and as richardpl said it has some issues with new 80211 stack. So every one who is willing to try bwi need to downgrade to at least 7-STABLE

allbanddxer
# cd bwi.01
# make
# make install
# kldload bwi_v3
# kldload if_bwi

And can you tell model of ur BCM from
# pciconf -lv
?

[allbanddxer]

allbanddxer
# cd bwi.01
# make
# make install
# kldload bwi_v3
# kldload if_bwi

And can you tell model of ur BCM from
# pciconf -lv
?[/QUOTE]

Hey thanks for the install steps SaveTheRbtz, here is the output you requested.
bwi0@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x033a1154 chip=0x431814e4 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'BCM43XX Broadcom 802.11b/g'
class = network

AKA: Buffalo Wireless WLI-CB-G54HP

[SaveTheRbtz]

Your card is in "known devices" list, so, if revision is right it should work just fine
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4301,"Broadcom BCM4301 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4307,"Broadcom BCM4307 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4311,"Broadcom BCM4311 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4312,"Broadcom BCM4312 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4320,"Broadcom BCM4306v1 802.11 Wireless Lan"},
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4321,"Broadcom BCM4306v2 802.11 Wireless Lan"},
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4325,"Broadcom BCM4306v3 802.11 Wireless Lan"},
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4324,"Broadcom BCM4309 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4318,"Broadcom BCM4318 802.11 Wireless Lan" },
{ PCI_VENDOR_BROADCOM, 0x4319,"Broadcom BCM4319 802.11 Wireless Lan" }

[allbanddxer]

This is great news, thanks for the help.

[richardpl]

I've tried to compile driver against -current and as richardpl said it has some issues with new 80211 stack. So every one who is willing to try bwi need to downgrade to at least 7-STABLE
Or he/she can download bwi from perforce (older files revisions, because latest one I tested are broken) and it have support for vap. Just open correct branch ;-)

[SaveTheRbtz]

Just open correct branch ;-)
mmm... correct branch? Can you post link on perforce to that branch?

[richardpl]

http://perforce.freebsd.org/depotTreeBrowser.cgi?FSPC=//depot/projects/vap/sys/dev/bwi&HIDEDEL=NO
http://perforce.freebsd.org/depotTreeBrowser.cgi?FSPC=//depot/projects/vap/sys/modules/bwi&HIDEDEL=NO

For firmware: bwifw.ko use same one already posted

[SaveTheRbtz]

If anyone needs... here is bwi_v4 firmware kernel module sources. (based on 4.80.53.0)
http://opticomspb.ru/~savetherbtz/freebsd/bwi/bwifw_v4.tar.bz2
Specs for it can be found here:
http://bcm-v4.sipsolutions.net/

Does anybody want to write driver? =)

[paradox]

>SaveTheRbtz
try this forum review http://forum.lissyara.su/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10250 about Broadcom wifi
is a russian forum

[bsdsys_x86]

I am currently using a Broadcom BCM4401 with FreeBSD 7

pciconf -lv | grep BCM4
device = 'BCM4401 Broadcom NetLink 4401 10/100 Ethernet NIC'

I am using the builtin bfe driver. Worked the first time durring install. I even did a FTP install.

bfe0: <Broadcom BCM4401-B0 Fast Ethernet> mem 0xef9fe000-0xef9fffff irq 17 at de vice 0.0 on pci3

[SaveTheRbtz]

BCM4401 is not a Wireless Card.
Here we are talking generaly about BCM43XX family

[bsdsys_x86]

BCM4401 is not a Wireless Card.
Here we are talking generaly about BCM43XX family

Oops... missed the 43XX part!

[veilside]

will this driver also work on 6.4?

[veilside]

ok, i gave it a try and it does not work for 6.4.
will try 7-stable too.

[ultraquix]

I compiled the drivers into the kernel (that helped)

device bwi
device wlan
device wlan_wep
device wlan_ccmp
device wlan_tkip
device wlan_amrr
device firmware

I put this in my /etc/rc.conf (it's in the documents)
wlans_bwi0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="ssid MYNAME WPA DHCP"

still had to run dhclient wlan0

Loren Cannon

[ultraquix]

The ports/net/bwi-firmware-kmod port needs to be installed before ifconfig(8) will work.(1)

1. bwi man page

:OOO

[ultraquix]

Oh yeah, BCM4311

[Angered_Kabar]

Oh yeah, BCM4311

Is the firmware port v4? I had some trouble with v3 on my 4311 when I tried installing FreeBSD 8-Release on my laptop back in January.

I'd love to be able to use FreeBSD on it.

[ultraquix]

It's from ports
bwi-firmware-kmod I think.
make install clean
I believe it is version 3

cd /usr/ports/net/bwi-firmware-kmod
make install clean

[ultraquix]

I think 8.1 is a different story.

[ultraquix]

device bwi
device firmware

are the two lines you have to add. The rest already seem to be in the kernel configuration file.

[ultraquix]

dhclient wlan0 sometimes has to be run more than once.

[ultraquix]

PC-BSD doesn't seem to switch from ethernet to wireless without a reboot.

[DutchDaemon]

ultraquix, format your posts, please: Posting and Editing in the FreeBSD Forums (http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=8816)

[unicyclist]

fwiw, I'm on freebsd 8.0, with an 4318. Got it all working about 2 days ago.
Just boot, log in, and go.
Quite pleased :)

[ma]

Hello,

I have a new laptop Acer Aspire One D250 with the chip:

none2@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0xe01b105b chip=0x431514e4 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'BCM4310 USB Controller'
class = network

It seems that there is no driver in FreeBSD for this card (not even in HEAD) and the Windows 7 has the driver as BCMWL6.SYS which is unsupported NDIS API-6.

Any ideas what I could do? Any BCMWL5.SYS driver with support for this chip? Thanks in advance

Matthias <guru@unixarea.de>