Broadcom-STA "wl" wifi drivers

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peebee
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Delta files for Slacko 5.3.7.1 k3.2.33-4g & k3.4.17-PAE

#21 Post by peebee »

The delta files for the Beta version of the next version of Slacko:
  • Slacko 5.3.7.1 with Kernel 3.2.33-4g and with Kernel 3.4.17-PAE
are attached.

This is another "new generation" pup that does NOT need the rerwin fixes pet.

To install the Broadcom WL driver onto Slacko 5.3.7.1
  • 1. install the (correct!) delta file attached to this post

    2. install the multi-kernel pet in post #1

    3. reboot
Attachments
broadcom_wl_delta-k3.2.33-4g.pet
WL Delta for k3.2.33-4g
(42.26 KiB) Downloaded 1597 times
broadcom_wl_delta-k3.4.17-PAE.pet
WL Delta for k3.4.17-PAE
(42.4 KiB) Downloaded 1614 times
Last edited by peebee on Wed 07 Nov 2012, 09:08, edited 12 times in total.
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New version uploaded

#22 Post by peebee »

Version 9 uploaded on 25 Aug 2012 - from download 343 onwards - see post #1.

For this version I have taken most of the delta files out of the Multi-Kernel pet and provided them individually as posts to the thread - the main pet still directly supports the official release puppies Wary and Slacko.

As before, there are no changes to the actual driver from this change so if you've downloaded and are using a previous version you can stick with it.

Cheers
peebee
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Precise 5.2.72 & 73 delta added

#23 Post by peebee »

I've added the delta file to support Precise 5.2.72 & 5.2.91 k3.2.28-pae as just released by BarryK - see http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 5&start=10
Last edited by peebee on Wed 05 Sep 2012, 09:00, edited 1 time in total.
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#24 Post by peebee »

Reserved for future use
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#25 Post by peebee »

The delta file for the next Slacko 5.3.5.3 with k3.2.28-4g has been uploaded:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 5&start=20

Cheers
peebee
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Tman
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#26 Post by Tman »

Hi Peebee,

I just wanted to ask you if I compile the newer STA drivers,
and install the pet, will it overwrite the older wl driver, or do I have to somehow remove the older wl driver?

Also, I will be compiling for Solidpup (Wary 5.1.1 kernel 2.26.32.28 )
Will I need any special patches for the older kernel?

Great work with the drivers. :wink:

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#27 Post by Tman »

Peebee,

I forgot to ask you, is it okay for the B43 drivers and the STA drivers to exist alongside one another? I don't have a broadcom wireless adapter, I just want to include the drivers for other forum members.

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#28 Post by peebee »

Tman wrote:Hi Peebee,

I just wanted to ask you if I compile the newer STA drivers,
and install the pet, will it overwrite the older wl driver, or do I have to somehow remove the older wl driver?

Also, I will be compiling for Solidpup (Wary 5.1.1 kernel 2.26.32.28 )
Will I need any special patches for the older kernel?

Great work with the drivers. :wink:
Hi Tman

Great to have your interest - I'll do my best to answer your questions.

The wl.ko driver has to be compiled specifically for each kernel - as you can see from post #1 the multi-kernel pet directly supports Wary 5.3 with k2.26.32.59 so there should be no problem with Solidpup. The source I use does have a set of patches applied - mainly for later kernels - the patches are attached to: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 5&start=16.

If you like I can download Solidpup + devx + kernel sources and make a delta pet for k2.26.32.28 - and also test that it works on my laptop with b43 wifi.....

or I can send you the patched source by pm so you can compile your own driver and tell you what you need to do to make the delta yourself.

The delta is tiny so can be built into the iso if you feel so inclined, so that people just need to load the multi-kernel pet.

I'm not sure how to answer your queries about "new" drivers overwriting "old" drivers - other than to say the pets include uninstall logic which should remove the drivers if you uninstall the pet and revert you to the situation before you loaded the pet.
Assuming you used my pets as the blueprint for your pet then there should be no overwriting situations to take care of.
The delta file creates the driver for your kernel dynamically.

Hope this helps
Cheers
PeeBee
Last edited by peebee on Thu 20 Sep 2012, 15:50, edited 2 times in total.
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#29 Post by Tman »

peebee wrote: If you like I can download Solidpup + devx + kernel sources and make a delta pet for k2.26.32.28 - and also test that it works on my laptop with b43 wifi.....

or I can send you the patched source by pm so you can compile your own driver and tell you what you need to do to make the delta yourself.
That would be fantastic if you could make a delta pet and test it out for me, thank you. The download links are -> here

But please send me the patched source as well, so that I can duplicate your work to make sure that I know how to do it for next time. I already compiled a broadcom STA driver, included in the February 2012 versions of Solidpup, but I have no hardware to confirm if it's working or not.

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#30 Post by peebee »

Tman wrote:That would be fantastic if you could make a delta pet and test it out for me, thank you.
Hi Tman

Not a success report I'm afraid....
Looks like Wary5.1.1 has a different module loading mechanism than later Woof2 pups....
The Broadcom wl driver compiled OK on solidpup from my patched source but when it was loaded together with the rerwin logic in the multi-kernel pet it did not install.

The driver is fine - I substituted your wl.ko with the wl.ko that I had compiled and it worked fine - the only change of any significance is that the device created is wlan0 rather then eth1 on my laptop. It is the same version of the Broadcom source.

Dmesg shows that both with your in-built driver and my version that both b43 and wl are loaded but in my case wl "wins" the battle and is used.

We would need to ask for rerwin's help if you wanted to get his logic working on Wary5.1.1....

I think the best thing to do is for me to send you the patched source in a PM so you can compile it yourself. The wlan0 change is a good one to have as SNS seems to work better in some circumstances if it finds wlan0.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Have you thought of moving to a Wary 5.3 k2.6.32.59 base??

Cheers
peebee
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#31 Post by Tman »

peebee wrote: Not a success report I'm afraid....

Oh, that's too bad. :( ... are you saying that the wl driver is loaded on your system, but it doesn't work? Or is it supposed to load the b43 driver for your system, instead of the wl?

This is just a shot in the dark, would deleting the file named "/root/Startup/00-broadcom-sta.sh" make any difference?

If it doesn't work, I will send Rerwin a PM and go from there. If all else fails, I gues I can trying switching kernels using jrb's method. But I dunno if it's the kernel version that's the problem.

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#32 Post by peebee »

Tman wrote:This is just a shot in the dark, would deleting the file named "/root/Startup/00-broadcom-sta.sh" make any difference?
Hi Tman

The pinstall.sh in my pet already deletes that file....

On my system - and they're all different it seems - the wl driver if present is used in preference to b43 - but b43 also works.

On solidpup - your wl driver loads and works but there is evidence in the dmesg that b43 is also trying to load and this shouldn't happen.

I think you're right about the kernel not being the problem - I think that module loading changed somewhere between wary5.1.1 and wary 5.3.

Rerwin is very helpful but also very busy so he may not have time to support older versions of wary now that they are not "main stream".

So the wl driver works fine on my HP550 laptop but the rerwin logic in my pet to select between wl and b43 does not work on wary5.1.1 and causes wl to not work.

If you stick to your current build state - i.e. wary5.1.1 - then I would suggest you just compile a new version of wl.ko and replace the present one and stick with the logic you already have.

Hope this helps clarify.
Cheers
peebee
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#33 Post by Tman »

Thanks for the feedback, Peebee.

So if I get this, right; Solidpup users can use the wl driver by manually blacklisting the b43 driver and manually loading the wl ... if the wl driver isn't loaded first. Please forgive my ignorance; I've been using straight wired LAN connection since... forever. :wink:

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Delta file for Solidpup 5.1.1

#34 Post by peebee »

Tman wrote:Solidpup users can use the wl driver by manually blacklisting the b43 driver and manually loading the wl ... if the wl driver isn't loaded first. Please forgive my ignorance; I've been using straight wired LAN connection since... forever. :wink:
Hi Tman

Not quite I'm afraid - the file "/root/Startup/00-broadcom-sta.sh" which I think comes from piratesmack's original pet is pretty heavy handed and circumvents the module loading system completely and force loads wl no matter what - it should really only be there if a need for the wl driver has been identified.

There are therefore 3 problems with your current build:
1. the fight between b43 and wl on bootup which leads to (I think):
2. any connection created by wl is not persistent between boots
and 3. eth% is created instead of wlan%

However, I have success to report ;-) - yippee

If I load an experimental pet that rerwin supplied recently for testing AFTER loading the delta pet and the multi-kernel pet from post #1 then I get a working, persistent through reboots connection on wlan0.

This has given me the impetus to discuss with rerwin incorporating the Experiment 8 logic into the Multi-kernel pet - I'll do that shortly hopefully.

Cheers
PeeBee
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Re: Delta file for Solidpup 5.1.1

#35 Post by Tman »

peebee wrote: However, I have success to report ;-) - yippee
Yeesss! That is good news, indeed. That was some terrific troubleshooting. Thanks for helping me out with this, Peebee.. broadcom wifi owners should be pleased. :)

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Re: Delta file for Solidpup 5.1.1

#36 Post by peebee »

Tman wrote:
peebee wrote: However, I have success to report ;-) - yippee
Yeesss! That is good news, indeed. That was some terrific troubleshooting. Thanks for helping me out with this, Peebee.. broadcom wifi owners should be pleased. :)
Rerwin is now working on the official release of the Experiment 8 solution - when he finishes it there will be a new stripped back to basics multi-kernel pet which just installs the driver. I'll test the result on solidpup when its available. Thanks for giving the impetus to get this sorted. The aim will then be to get the Rerwin pet accepted for inclusion in woof so that all new woof based pups will have it built in.

Watch this space!
Cheers
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#37 Post by peebee »

Reserved for future use
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Logic changes incorporated into woof

#38 Post by peebee »

Heads up...

BarryK has announced:
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02995
that rerwin's rerwin_woof_fixes-delta-3f.pet has been added to woof.

This means that new woof based pups from now on will come ready equipped with rerwin's pup_event_backend_modprobe with extended preference processing

At the same time Barry has also decided to move the various "firmware" packages out into separate pets which pup builders will need to include in their pup builds. (although the theory is they can be "retrofitted" if the builders forget them or choose not to include them).

In preparation, I will shortly rearrange post #1 to make the rerwin_woof_fixes-delta-3f method the "preferred" one.

[EDIT] 21 September 2012 - this has now been done.[/EDIT]

Cheers
peebee
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#39 Post by peebee »

Post superceded
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Slacko 5.3.6.0 Broadcom wl delta uploaded

#40 Post by peebee »

01micko has uploaded the next beta version of Slacko - 5.3.6.0 with kernel 3.2.30-4g

This is another "new generation" pup that does not need the rerwin fixes pet.

The delta file is attached to:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 5&start=20

[EDIT]Added the delta file for the PAE version - k3.5.5-PAE[/EDIT]

Cheers
peebee
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