Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

Hi Folks,
I'll try and keep this long story short, and explain the subject line, ....

Yesterday I was given a Compag Presario F700 laptop. It was running
Vista with problems of intermittant hanging.

I tested the memory with memtest86+ for 6+ hours (11 complete passes,
no errors). I checked out the harddrive (120GB SATA) with smart and it
only has 1 remapped sector, and no other obvious problems.

So, I installed F14.x86_64. Vanilla install, wiped everything else off
the computer, let the installer partition/format/install what it needed to.

Seemed to work, the system booted, but the wireless was not working.
lspci showed it to be a Broadcom 4311 (rev 2) chip. Some Googling
around showed that I needed to install the wl driver, so I configured
rpmfusion repos and installed it. After a short period, NM found it and
showed me the surrounding networks, so I disconnected the ethernet and
connected to my wireless. I worked for 5+ hours on this laptop before
suspending it for the night (I closed the lid, that suspended the laptop).

When I got up today and restored from suspend, the wireless remained
disabled. A couple of reboots did not bring the wireless connection
back! After some fruitless re-installs of kmod-wl, I discovered that
lspci no longer tells me that I have a wireless chip. Indeed, when I
look back into /var/log/messages for the latest reboot, there is no
longer any detection of the chipset when I boot. Yet, I can clearly see
where the chipset was detected yesterday when I booted before installing
the wl drivers! I've played with the enable/disable wireless switch on
the front of the laptop, but nothing I do seems to lets the latest F14
kernel detect the wireless controller anymore.

My first question is: Could this be heat related?
My second question is: Could this be due to me suspending
the laptop last night instead of just
shutting it down?
My third question is: How can I get it back????

--
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome@verizon.net
cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On 08/11/2011 01:26 PM, Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> I'll try and keep this long story short, and explain the subject line, ....
>
> Yesterday I was given a Compag Presario F700 laptop. It was running
> Vista with problems of intermittant hanging.
>
> I tested the memory with memtest86+ for 6+ hours (11 complete passes,
> no errors). I checked out the harddrive (120GB SATA) with smart and it
> only has 1 remapped sector, and no other obvious problems.
>
> So, I installed F14.x86_64. Vanilla install, wiped everything else off
> the computer, let the installer partition/format/install what it needed to.
>
> Seemed to work, the system booted, but the wireless was not working.
> lspci showed it to be a Broadcom 4311 (rev 2) chip. Some Googling
> around showed that I needed to install the wl driver, so I configured
> rpmfusion repos and installed it. After a short period, NM found it and
> showed me the surrounding networks, so I disconnected the ethernet and
> connected to my wireless. I worked for 5+ hours on this laptop before
> suspending it for the night (I closed the lid, that suspended the laptop).
>
> When I got up today and restored from suspend, the wireless remained
> disabled. A couple of reboots did not bring the wireless connection
> back! After some fruitless re-installs of kmod-wl, I discovered that
> lspci no longer tells me that I have a wireless chip. Indeed, when I
> look back into /var/log/messages for the latest reboot, there is no
> longer any detection of the chipset when I boot. Yet, I can clearly see
> where the chipset was detected yesterday when I booted before installing
> the wl drivers! I've played with the enable/disable wireless switch on
> the front of the laptop, but nothing I do seems to lets the latest F14
> kernel detect the wireless controller anymore.
>
> My first question is: Could this be heat related?
> My second question is: Could this be due to me suspending
> the laptop last night instead of just
> shutting it down?
> My third question is: How can I get it back????

Try a power cycle...not just a reboot. Also check the wireless enable
switch (if there is one) and make sure it's on.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, C2 Hosting ricks@nerd.com -
- AIM/Skype: therps2 ICQ: 22643734 Yahoo: origrps2 -
- -
- I'm afraid my karma just ran over your dogma -
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On 08/11/2011 05:36 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
>> My first question is: Could this be heat related?
>> My second question is: Could this be due to me suspending
>> the laptop last night instead of just
>> shutting it down?
>> My third question is: How can I get it back????
>
> Try a power cycle...not just a reboot. Also check the wireless enable
> switch (if there is one) and make sure it's on.

Yeup, no luck. I let it sit OFF for > 4 hours. I booted it up, and no
luck, no wireless. The switch is as far to the right as it will go (I'm
assuming that to the right is ON and to the left is OFF...). The light
to the right of the switch remains amber (instead of blue when the
wireless was working, but them again, I remember that the LED was amber
right up until I successfully loaded the kmod-wl module.

It seems to be that the module won't load unless the system detects the
chipset, and the system isn't detecting the chipset right now....

--
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome@verizon.net
cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On Thursday, August 11, 2011 02:26:45 PM Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> I'll try and keep this long story short, and explain the subject line,
> ....
>
> Yesterday I was given a Compag Presario F700 laptop. It was running
> Vista with problems of intermittant hanging.
>
> I tested the memory with memtest86+ for 6+ hours (11 complete passes,
> no errors). I checked out the harddrive (120GB SATA) with smart and it
> only has 1 remapped sector, and no other obvious problems.
>
> So, I installed F14.x86_64. Vanilla install, wiped everything else off
> the computer, let the installer partition/format/install what it needed to.
>
> Seemed to work, the system booted, but the wireless was not working.
> lspci showed it to be a Broadcom 4311 (rev 2) chip. Some Googling
> around showed that I needed to install the wl driver, so I configured
> rpmfusion repos and installed it. After a short period, NM found it and
> showed me the surrounding networks, so I disconnected the ethernet and
> connected to my wireless. I worked for 5+ hours on this laptop before
> suspending it for the night (I closed the lid, that suspended the laptop).
>
> When I got up today and restored from suspend, the wireless remained
> disabled. A couple of reboots did not bring the wireless connection
> back! After some fruitless re-installs of kmod-wl, I discovered that
> lspci no longer tells me that I have a wireless chip. Indeed, when I
> look back into /var/log/messages for the latest reboot, there is no
> longer any detection of the chipset when I boot. Yet, I can clearly see
> where the chipset was detected yesterday when I booted before installing
> the wl drivers! I've played with the enable/disable wireless switch on
> the front of the laptop, but nothing I do seems to lets the latest F14
> kernel detect the wireless controller anymore.
>
> My first question is: Could this be heat related?
> My second question is: Could this be due to me suspending
> the laptop last night instead of just
> shutting it down?
> My third question is: How can I get it back????

You might want to check out this page on linux wireless:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
I think you need to install the firmware for that chip. The method used is on
the above page. I have never used the RPMFusion method so I can not comment
on that, but with the information on this page I was able to get my b43 chip
working properly.
Peter
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On 08/12/2011 09:00 AM, Peter Reed wrote:
> You might want to check out this page on linux wireless:
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Fascinating page. Just when I thought I had simplified what to do, this
complicates things again with another choice. B^)

> I think you need to install the firmware for that chip. The method used is on
> the above page. I have never used the RPMFusion method so I can not comment
> on that, but with the information on this page I was able to get my b43 chip
> working properly.

Unfortunately, in order to use this page, I need to be able to see my
hardware with lspci, but that is one of my problems. lspci no longer
shows me the Broadcom 4311 chipset! My question has be to:

Where did it go????
What happened to it??
Why can't lspci find it anymore?

> Peter

--
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome@verizon.net
cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Kevin J. Cummings
<cummings@kjchome.homeip.net> wrote:
> On 08/12/2011 09:00 AM, Peter Reed wrote:
>> You might want to check out this page on linux wireless:
>> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
>
> Fascinating page. *Just when I thought I had simplified what to do, this
> complicates things again with another choice. *B^)
>
>> I think you need to install the firmware for that chip. *The method used is on
>> the above page. *I have never used the RPMFusion method so I can not comment
>> on that, but with the information on this page I was able to get my b43 chip
>> working properly.
>
> Unfortunately, in order to use this page, I need to be able to see my
> hardware with lspci, but that is one of my problems. *lspci no longer
> shows me the Broadcom 4311 chipset! *My question has be to:
>
> * * * *Where did it go????
> * * * *What happened to it??
> * * * *Why can't lspci find it anymore?

One of:
1. It somehow got turned off in the BIOS.
2. The wireless switch is set incorrectly
3. Hardware failure: either the connector to it or the Broadcom chip itself
or whatever feeds power to it or the motherboard is dying by parts or ...

> --
> Kevin J. Cummings
> kjchome@verizon.net
> cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
> cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
> Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
> --
> users mailing list
> users@lists.fedoraproject.org
> To unsubscribe or change subscription options:
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users
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>



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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On 08/12/2011 02:15 PM, Dale Dellutri wrote:

> One of:
> 1. It somehow got turned off in the BIOS.

I already looked. I couldn't find anything relating to the WiFi in the
CMOS setup when I looked.

> 2. The wireless switch is set incorrectly

Yeah, it doesn't strike me as a high quality switch. Its a slide switch
on the front of the case next to an LED. I've tried it in both
positions with no change.

> 3. Hardware failure: either the connector to it or the Broadcom chip itself
> or whatever feeds power to it or the motherboard is dying by parts or ...

And that's the answer I don't want to hear about, and can't test for.
But its been in the back of my mind. I'm wondering if I can swap out
the WiFi internal card for an Intel card from my broken laptop which was
working just fine. Are these cards standardized in any way? The HP
specifications web page for this laptop says its "user replaceable".

--
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome@verizon.net
cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
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Broadcom 4311 went missing?
 

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 1:23 PM, Kevin J. Cummings
<cummings@kjchome.homeip.net> wrote:
> On 08/12/2011 02:15 PM, Dale Dellutri wrote:
>
>> One of:
>> 1. It somehow got turned off in the BIOS.
>
> I already looked. *I couldn't find anything relating to the WiFi in the
> CMOS setup when I looked.
>
>> 2. The wireless switch is set incorrectly
>
> Yeah, it doesn't strike me as a high quality switch. *Its a slide switch
> on the front of the case next to an LED. *I've tried it in both
> positions with no change.
>
>> 3. Hardware failure: either the connector to it or the Broadcom chip itself
>> * or whatever feeds power to it or the motherboard is dying by parts or ...
>
> And that's the answer I don't want to hear about, and can't test for.
> But its been in the back of my mind. *I'm wondering if I can swap out
> the WiFi internal card for an Intel card from my broken laptop which was
> working just fine. *Are these cards standardized in any way? *The HP
> specifications web page for this laptop says its "user replaceable".

Look at the hardware manual for the laptop, probably available on
the manufacturers web site. "User replaceable" probably means you
can replace it yourself with exactly the same kind of card.

> --
> Kevin J. Cummings
> kjchome@verizon.net
> cummings@kjchome.homeip.net
> cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
> Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)

--
Dale Dellutri
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