HP Pavilion / Broadcom BCM-4313 / Power issue

[timt]

I have just installed Kubuntu 11.10 64 bit on a new HP Pavilion dm1-4020sa laptop. This has a Broadcom BCM-4313 wifi card, with which there are known issues with driver conflicts. I have followed the advice given on various other forums, to install the bcmwl-kernel-source, broadcom-sta-common and broadcom-sta-source packages, and blacklist some other drivers, and, lo and behold, it works.

Well, kind of...

The weird thing is, the wifi card works when the external power is connected. However, if I try to connect to the same network (my home wifi) when running on battery power, I can still see the network (so the wifi card itself is working), but the connection no longer works. According to the Network Manager system tray icon, the connection process either hangs on "Setting network address", or sometimes it actually says "Connected", but there is no real connection (e.g. I can't ping any sites, or connect to any web pages etc). The *only* thing that is different is that I have unplugged the external power cable.

If I plug the external power back in again, the wifi reconnects, and everything works as normal again.

As far as I can see, there is nothing in the Power Management settings that should affect network connectivity when running on batteries.

I'm pulling my hair out. Have I missed something really obvious?

[timt]

I've found the solution to this problem. It turns out it is an issue with power management, although not one that can be fixed by the pm GUI.

The fix was suggested on http://uselessuseofcat.com/?p=67, as pointed to by http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1772267

Simply create the file /etc/pm/power.d/wireless, containing the following:

#!/bin/sh
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 power off

Now my wireless finally works, both with external power and when running on batteries.

[Teunis]

Thanks for coming back with the solution!

[Tobb555]

I have a questions about the process of getting the BCM4313 working. I have a HP DV4 4141us and Ive tried to install bcmwl-kernel-source but is said that it was already installed. Im not really sure how to blacklist items, kind of a linux noob. Im sitting 5ft away from my router with a wall between us and I get 1 bar. Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

[Snowhog]

Welcome to KFN Tobb555.

First, have you checked to see if the proprietary driver for your BCM4313 is installed and being used?

K > System > Additional Drivers

My HP Pavilion g7 has the Broadcom chip, and I'm using the Broadcom STA wireless driver that was identified and installed with the above.

This package contains Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driverfor use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-, BCM4321-,BCM4322-, BCM43224-, and BCM43225-, BCM43227- and BCM43228-basedhardware.

[Tobb555]

It says the driver I'm using is the "Broadcom STA wireless driver" has the little green dot next to it, and at the bottom it is saying the driver is activated and currently in use.

[Snowhog]

Im sitting 5ft away from my router with a wall between us and I get 1 bar. Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

What make/model of router do you have?

[Tobb555]

I have a WRT54G with DD-WRT insalled. I don't have any other issues with wifi devices so I wouldn't think that could be the issue.

[Snowhog]

I have a WRT54GL with Tomato firmware installed.

There are two simple things to check first: the orientation of the antennae on the router, and the vertical orientation of the router to your PC.

Take a look at this thread: Extended Antennas on WRT54GL Router

[Tobb555]

Well I have the anntennas pointing strait up. It doesnt really matter where I take the laptop, if I boot into windows it works like its supposed to, but when I boot into Kubuntu. Nothing. Just a thanks for trying to help me out and responding back so quickly. The forums looks awesome and Im sure that Ill learn alot here. I had Ubuntu installed, then decided to play with XFCE, then installed KDE on top of that. Liked it so much did a fresh install of Kubuntu from the DVD ISO. really like how things are so far. Hope I can get this working.

[Teunis]

I doubt the sensitivity of your laptop is regulated through the Broadcom WIFI driver so I wouldn't pay too much attention to the single bar displayed.
The orientation of the antenna's on the router should for best effect be parallel to the antenna in the computer, in laptops they are often in the top half of the screen, meaning horizontal.

[timt]

Hi Tobb555,

So it sounds like you have successfully installed bcmwl-kernel-source, broadcom-sta-common and broadcom-sta-source. Now, as you say, you need to blacklist some other drivers to make sure that they don't get loaded instead.

I have seen various different discussions on this, each with different suggestions of exactly which other drivers need to be blacklisted, e.g.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/94021...an-asus-1015px
http://askubuntu.com/questions/86662...n-ubuntu-11-10
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/910682

From the last of these links, it sounds like actually you only need to blacklist the brcmsmac driver. To do this, do the following:

cd /etc/modprobe.d/
sudo cp blacklist.conf blacklist.conf.orig
sudo kate blacklist.conf

then add the following line to the bottom of the blacklist.conf file and save the file:

blacklist brcmsmac

If that doesn't do the trick, I suggest trying to blacklist some of the other drivers mentioned in the other links above.

Hope that helps.

[SecretCode]

but when I boot into Kubuntu. Nothing.

Nothing as in no wifi connectivity at all? Rather than just slow throughput?

The 1 bar you mention ... is that in the Network Manager icon in the notification area?

You seem to have the driver installed and active. Does Network Manager say that wireless is enabled and connected, or not?

... It might be something else, not the driver and not the signal strength

[snowflake_nz]

I've also had wifi issues (no wifi option) after a fresh install. I tried this link (esp 1st comment) and no problems
http://almostconnecticut.net/linuxis...-with-kubuntu/