Enabling Broadcom Wireless driver in Fedora

[sriram@fedora ~]$ lspci -vnn | grep 14e4
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

System Log :
[18.972382] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
[ 18.974202] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[ 18.974205] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[ 18.974208] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.974210] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.974212] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.974215] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.974217] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.979359] input: HP WMI hotkeys as /devices/virtual/input/input12
[ 18.997954] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[ 18.998141] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[ 18.998159] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[ 18.998177] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[ 18.998190] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS ]
.....
[ 23.261059] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
[ 23.261063] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found
[ 23.261065] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
[ 23.278668] r8169 0000:03:00.0: p3p1: link down
[ 23.279031] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): p3p1: link is not ready
[ 23.297889] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[ 26.179007] r8169 0000:03:00.0: p3p1: link up
[ 26.179300] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): p3p1: link becomes ready


My kernel version : 3.1.0-7.fc16.i686

1) Install b43-fwcutter and broadcom-wl

2) Download and extract the firmware from “http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2″

3) sudo b43-fwcutter -w “/lib/firmware/” ~/broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o

After this, your firmware is loaded automatically.

Refer this : http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

Wireless Issue with Thinkpad E420 in Fedora

When switching ON the Wireless on Fedora 16 (Lenova ThinkPad E420) with RealTek WiFi Adapter, it’ll automatically gone back to OFF (Inactive) state.

Exact Log message from /var/messages :


Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): bringing up device.
Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): bringing up device.
Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora kernel: [ 6147.716574] rtl8192c_common: Loading firmware file rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora kernel: [ 6148.061711] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi hardware radio set enabled
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi hardware radio set enabled
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now enabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now enabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available') [20 30 42]
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available') [20 30 42]
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> unavailable (reason 'none') [30 20 0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> unavailable (reason 'none') [30 20 0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): taking down device.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): taking down device.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora lldpad[956]: l2_packet_receive - recvfrom: Network is down.


Check the state of the rfkill switches (WiFi switch) :

[sriram@fedora ~]$ rfkill list
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
4: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

Then you need to add the acer-wmi to the blacklist to clear this problem (soft blocked state).

To check whether this solution works or not, please run this :

sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi

If you got the wireless networks back, then you can add this following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file :

blacklist acer_wmi

This will permanently solve the wireless problem after a reboot.

Starting Android Development in Fedora

Install the Eclipse from Fedora default yum repository

yum install eclipse-jdt

To install Android ADT plugin, you need eclipse-wst, eclipse-emf and few other packages.

Easiest method is to configure/enable the eclipse update channel and then install that ADT plugin,

Click the ‘Install New Software’ and then Add any of the following eclipse update URL depending on the eclipse version.

For Eclipse 3.5 galileo, http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/
For Eclipse 3.6 helios, http://download.eclipse.org/releases/helios/
For Eclipse 3.7 indigo, http://download.eclipse.org/releases/indigo/

Note : Fedora 16 comes with Eclipse 3.7 by default.

Android SDK
Download the latest Android SDK from
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Extract and Copy it to any path (installation path) like ‘/opt/andorid-sdk’.

Export Android SDK path :

PATH=$PATH:/opt/android-sdk:/opt/android-sdk/platform-tools
export PATH

Open the eclipse and download the platform-tools and sdk-platform (API) using ADT.