# macbook pro 8.1 wireless b43

## newc0mer

Hi!

I became a mbp 13.3" and have severe trouble with the wireless.

```
echolon ~ # dmesg | grep b43

[    3.667182] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4331 WLAN found (core revision 29)

[    3.667610] b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 9, Type 7, Revision 1)

[    3.667640] b43: probe of bcma0:0 failed with error -95

echolon ~ # lspci | grep Net

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)

02:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader (rev 10)

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)

```

As you see I have the broadcom 4331 wlan card. But no driver works so far: wl, b43, b43legacy. I have also tried several different fw.

```
# emerge --info

Portage 2.1.10.11 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.4.5, glibc-2.12.2-r0, 3.1.0-rc9 x86_64)

=================================================================

System uname: Linux-3.1.0-rc9-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-2620M_CPU_@_2.70GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.3

Timestamp of tree: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:15:01 +0000

ccache version 2.4 [enabled]

app-shells/bash:          4.1_p9

dev-lang/python:          2.7.1-r1, 3.1.3-r1

dev-util/ccache:          2.4-r9

dev-util/cmake:           2.8.4-r1

dev-util/pkgconfig:       0.26

sys-apps/baselayout:      2.0.3

sys-apps/openrc:          0.8.3-r1

sys-apps/sandbox:         2.4

sys-devel/autoconf:       2.13, 2.68

sys-devel/automake:       1.9.6-r3, 1.11.1

sys-devel/binutils:       2.21.1-r1

sys-devel/gcc:            4.4.5, 4.5.3-r1

sys-devel/gcc-config:     1.4.1-r1

sys-devel/libtool:        2.4-r1

sys-devel/make:           3.82-r1

sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.36.1 (virtual/os-headers)

sys-libs/glibc:           2.12.2

Repositories: gentoo

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"

ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"

CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe -msse4.1"

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe -msse4.1"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs ccache distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"

FFLAGS=""

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/gentoo/ ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/gentoo/"

LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"

MAKEOPTS="-j5"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""

SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="GNOME X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 bash-completion berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt cxx dbus dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam firefox flac fortran gdbm gdu gif gpm gtk iconv ipv6 jpeg lcms ldap libnotify mad mmx mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf png policykit ppds pppd python qt3support readline sdl session spell sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg sysfs tcpd tiff truetype udev unicode usb vim-syntax vorbis x264 xcb xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics evdev keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"

Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
```

Any help is appreciated!

cheers!

----------

## alvinwu

Read this forum, it may help:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-891920.html

----------

## newc0mer

hi alvinwu!

thx for the link! I already tried to apply the broadcom patch they talk about.. unfortunately with the patch i cannot even compile the kernel anymore -.-

alvinwu I saw you were able to apply the patch - what have you done? i emerged the git source for 3.1 rc5, stepped into that directory and made: patch -p1 < ../bc.patch and then I tried to compile the kernel but then the errors occured..

----------

## alvinwu

I'm running git-sources-3.1-rc9.

copy my latest b43xxx patch as posted in the forum.

cd into the /usr/src/linux-xxxx directory, cat .../b43xxxx.patch | patch -p0

That should work.

----------

## newc0mer

hi!

thx for the reply.

I had some fails during the application of the patch. was every hunk successfull as you patched it?

for now, I have still no working wlan internface. but it looks better:

```
[    3.706184] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4331 WLAN found (core revision 29)

[    3.706599] b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 9, Type 7, Revision 1)

[    3.706630] b43: probe of bcma0:0 failed with error -95

# uname -r

3.1.0-rc9+

```

How looks your kernel config? b43 and b43legacy as modules or compiled in? what about the General->Networking support->Wireless stuff?

thx!

----------

## alvinwu

Try download the patches from the link:

http://www.eternalit.com/~alvin/download/

I use those patches since git-sources-3.1-rc6 without errors. Refer to the kernel config as posted in that forum. My machine is mbp8,2 15" model. You may need to tune the kernel config to fit your machine such as chipset, hardisk, video cards....etc.

After that, visit the link below to apply the correct firmware:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Follow their instruction.

If that still don't work, you may need to post more details, error info for someone who can help...

----------

## newc0mer

hey alvinwu

this patch for b4331 works like a charm!

thanks a thousand times!

----------

## newc0mer

ok the driver shows me the interface but since the reboot i cannot connect to any AP. it always says "bad username or password"..

----------

## newc0mer

hi alvin

what firmware version do you use? I use 666.2 but i get this:

```
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error

```

cheers!

----------

## alvinwu

The same.

I download (1) b43-fwcutter-015.tar.bz2; (2) broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2;

And follow their instruction to build and extract the firmware into /lib/firmware/b43...

Did you cleanly remove all those previously installed /lib/firmware/b43/xxxxx files?

Here is my dmsg output fyr:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> b43-phy0: Broadcom 4331 WLAN found (core revision 29)
> 
> [   12.072680] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
> ...

 

----------

## newc0mer

alvinwu, it works now  :Smile: 

I had to enable some other bcma drivers to use the apple touchpad support which were also necessary..

----------

## greenhorn1990

Hi, 

can anyone tell me if kernel 3.2 work with wifi without patch the kernel?

I'll install gentoo on my macbook pro 8.1 (13" early 2011)

sorry for my bad english.

Thanks!

greenhorn

----------

## alvinwu

yes, that works on kernel-3.2 without patching the b43 driver, and signal strength shows properly as well..

But I encounter occasional suspend/resume problem, haven't test too in-depeth so far..

----------

## greenhorn1990

Hi,

thanks for the quick answer!

I will install it in the evening with your dokumentation from the other thread!

Thanks alvinwu great work!

newc0mer: can you send me your kernel parameters? or you have the same as alvinwu without radeon-drivers?

Thanks anyway

----------

