Sriram's Weblog

Enabling Broadcom Wireless driver in Fedora

Sri Ram — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:18:29 +0000

[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

Sri Ram — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:11:22 +0000

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

Sri Ram — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:49:16 +0000

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.

Steve Jobs

Sri Ram — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:46:57 +0000

Steve Jobs, the best technical and business man on this planet was passed away this morning. Still I can’t recognise this. A man who created world’s best products and defined the failures another meaning “success” through his story.

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”

From Apple’s Official Site :
“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor, Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

The death of Steve Jobs has provoked the biggest online reaction of any event in recent history, with social media monitoring firm SR7 expecting official Twitter figures to come in at 10,000 tweets per second.

Installing and Configuring Squid Proxy Cache Server

Sri Ram — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:57:47 +0000

Squid is a proxy caching server. You can use squid in effective way, so that you can control the internet access over your network.

In Fedora, you can install the squid proxy cache server by just typing the following command, its available in the fedora main repo itself.

$ sudo yum install squid

Before starting the squid server you need to configure it with the help of this configuration file in ‘/etc/squid/squid.conf’.

In this scenario, I have a proxy server running in background which will respond to specific ip’s (LAN) and forward to a defined gateway. Using the gateway, all the hosts from my all LAN can reach internet.

What my system (proxy server) has to do is, to listen in a specified port ’3128′ and forward the requests to the gateway.

My Gateway : 10.2.4.85
My IP Address : 192.168.1.4

Add the following things to that ‘squid.conf’ :
>>
acl localnet src 192.168.1.0/24
http_access allow localnet
http_port 3128
<>
acl RestrictedSites dstdomain “/etc/squid/restricted_sites”
http_access deny RestrictedSites
<<

#cat /etc/squid/restricted_sites
facebook.com
orkut.com
twitter.com
youtube.com