# Broadcom 4331 driver problem. RESOLVED

## Mac Tzu

Hi Gentoo Peeps, 

I have just installed gentoo on my MacBook Pro Retina.  Which i have done based on the Gentoo Wiki written by Elv13.  Firstly thank you for the awesome wiki and helping me to put gentoo onto my laptop again.  

But this is my problem. 

1st the wiki called for certain wireless options to be not set, which i have done.  http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Apple_Macbook_Pro_Retina

This is my .config file http://pastebin.com/acBHSHdc

So my wireless card isnt supported by standard BCM-STA drivers.  The wiki uses a ubuntu driver, which i was able to complie.  Altought I had to use a different verison.  

But I am unable to load the modules that I have compilied for the kernel. 

The error message i get is 

```

wl: Unknown symbol lib80211_get_crypto_ops (err 0)

```

Regards 

MacLast edited by Mac Tzu on Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:55 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Gusar

 *Mac Tzu wrote:*   

> So my wireless card isnt supported by standard BCM-STA drivers.

 

If by "standard bcm-sta" you mean the wl driver (broadcom-sta in portage), of course it is. The ebuild contains instructions on what needs to be enabled in the kernel.

The wifi card is even supported by the open-source b43 driver. Emerge b43-firmware to get it working. And of course enable the relevant stuff in the kernel, in particular b43 and bcma.

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## Mac Tzu

 *Gusar wrote:*   

>  *Mac Tzu wrote:*   So my wireless card isnt supported by standard BCM-STA drivers. 
> 
> If by "standard bcm-sta" you mean the wl driver (broadcom-sta in portage), of course it is. The ebuild contains instructions on what needs to be enabled in the kernel.
> 
> The wifi card is even supported by the open-source b43 driver. Emerge b43-firmware to get it working. And of course enable the relevant stuff in the kernel, in particular b43 and bcma.

 

Hi Gusar,

Thank you for the reply.  The information I am going off is from the wiki and was update less than a month ago 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Wireless Drivers
> 
> The wireless drivers are hard to get working. Having a USB Ethernet adapter on hand will be helpful for the install. The wireless will work on the latest daily Ubuntu liveCD but they will not work by default on Gentoo.
> ...

 

Do you have the BCM 4331 card and have you got it working with standard b34 firmware ?

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## 666threesixes666

hi...

you support b43 & wl as an alternative....

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices

wl is sta, though you cannot run both at the same time, they will conflict with each other.

ive had b43 working half way decent for a long time, ive only recently broken it from hammering on my system relentlessly for the sake of the community.

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Comparison_of_recent_drivers

id stick with b43-firmware if i were you

but first before doing anything, check to see if ubuntu's launchpad work around for your exact issue will fix it....

```

sudo modprobe -r lib80211

sudo modprobe wl

```

i vaguely remember having to go into kernel hacking to resolve the issue you originally posted and enable some wireless crypto setting.

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## Gusar

Doesn't matter when that wiki page was last updated, that info is incorrect. The BCM4331 is supported by b43 (well, except maybe 5GHz networks), and AFAIK it's supported by version 5 of broadcom-sta/wl. Though if it's actually true that version 6 is needed, Gentoo ships that too, in ~arch currently.

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## Mac Tzu

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> Doesn't matter when that wiki page was last updated, that info is incorrect. The BCM4331 is supported by b43 (well, except maybe 5GHz networks), and AFAIK it's supported by version 5 of broadcom-sta/wl. Though if it's actually true that version 6 is needed, Gentoo ships that too, in ~arch currently.

 

Ty 666 and Gusar, 

Gusar you misunderstand me, I don't think the wiki is gospel truth.  I was only saying that it was the information i was working from.  Since (EVil) apple has very idiosyncratic hardware i was following the offical wiki info because I found nothing that contradicited it.  You are right thou ~amd64 has broadcom-sta 6.30.  So i have installed that and had limited success.  I can now see the device and the module loads.  

However the device doesn't function.  It automatically assume a ip add of 169.254.240.172.  Which I am unable to successful change.  I have tried ifconfig down but then when I activate the device in wicd it automatically connects to that ip address. (which isn't part of my network configuration) 

So it feels like I am half way there (hopefully) 

Regards

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## 666threesixes666

not to tell you what to do, but i cant connect using wicd & can using network manager.  the 169 ip address is a generic blank (i havent been assigned an ip yet) place holder ip address.  once you connect it will change to what ever the ip is to be.

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## Mac Tzu

 *666threesixes666 wrote:*   

> not to tell you what to do, but i cant connect using wicd & can using network manager.  the 169 ip address is a generic blank (i havent been assigned an ip yet) place holder ip address.  once you connect it will change to what ever the ip is to be.

 

Sorry I have been away for a week.  

So I can see the card, lspci says its using wl driver.  However I am unable to connect the device and it wicd shows no result on network scan.  If i iwconfig all devices are listed with "No wireless extensions".  So Please tell me what to do.  I am just a dude that taught himself linux (which means I bumble my way through probs).  Normally my problems are PEBKAC (problem exist between keyboard and chair). But this time its hardware. 

Thankx again

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