Broadcom STA Wireless driver for bcm4322 silently disconnects frequently

I have exactly the same problem on my 64 bit Karmic running on a Macbook Pro 5,5. Latest firmware update on WRT54G Linksys router. However, reconnect sometimes only works after I enter the WPA2 password.

I downloaded from http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/ the downloaded the bcmwl-kernel-source_5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb file to upgrade from the ubuntu4 version that was giving me the problem you describe. Now it seems to be working again, not disconnecting every 5 minutes. This is on a macbook pro 5.2 MBP17. Hope this helps you too.

For me it still does not work after updating to the ubuntu5 driver, dropping connections every 5 min or so. (Karmic 64, mbp 5,5)

I think this is an important observation: As long as the connection is in use, it is not dropped. For example, if a ping command sends packets every second, the connection does not die. This is also a (somewhat dirty) workaround for the problem.

Maybe the wireless chipset / driver turns off the radio to save energy when not in use?

I would imagine that the driver turns off the wifi card to save power. I tried using iwconfig to disable such features, but it didn't help.

However, I have experienced this problem during times of heavy use because I watch movies over a network share while using wireless. The problem exists then, too.

I'm also affected but my chipset is a BCM4312 802.11a/b/g (rev 02). Problem occurs since I use a new Wireless-Access-Point with Atheros 11n chipset (Atheros AR5416 MAC/BB Rev:2 AR2122 RF Rev:81). AP running OpenWrt with ath9k-driver (Kernel 2.6.30.10).

Connection except of disconnects rocking fast. When I use b43 driver connection is stable but slow (b43 problem).

Problem is not related to AP because other hardware has no problem with it.

Didn't even know that iwconfig works with STA bcmwl-driver. Meanwhile I know better.

"sudo iwconfig eth2 power off"

solved the problem for me.

I have this issue on Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 running on a Dell Latitude 2100, which has a Broadcom BCM4322 wireless adapter. In my case, I've ping tested several times from 4 different (wireless) machines on the same network, including the netbook with the issue. The other thee machines have 0% packet loss (tested 1000 pings), the netbook has between 13 and 25%. So I know it's not the wireless router.

Also, since I'm seeing packet loss with ping testing, the trick of pinging to keep the connection alive, as described by theisu, doesn't seem to work.

I have the bcmwl-kernel-source package driver, version 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4.

on my HP 6735b
lspci
09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
bcmwl-kernel-source:
  Installed: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4 0

i have also the same issues - testet on openwrt(2.4 and 2.6) (different hw, wrt54gl, asuswl500gpv2, pure wrt54gl, some belkin and dlink accesspoints(dwl-900ap+ oder dwl2100ap) and also in our company where we drive different types and where mac and win OS's works fine with...

now i'm bcmwl-kernel-source_5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb testing...i will give some feedback after some workdays

now i'm testing bcmwl-kernel-source_5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb....
shall that mean = o)

I was able to get my issues resolved by using the proprietary drivers available on Broadcom's Linux site, and compiling the driver myself (replacing the one provided by the Ubuntu package): http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

The latest driver (5.60.48.36 as of this writing) worked flawlessly, and the random disconnect issues have been fixed. Ubuntu should be able to just upgrade their package to Broadcom's latest driver and resolve this bug.

Thank you for the information. Broadcom also delivers detailed install instructions. It would be also nice if there is some updated package in the near future.

No change with 5.60.48.36 here. Still silently disconnects, and network-manager still thinks it's connected, so it doesn't try to reconnect.

Confirmed... same findings as well. the broadcom driver does not perform
very well compared to other wireless peripherals.
my device is an hp mini 1116nr with bcm 4312.

On 3/15/2010 3:46 PM, Jeremy Nickurak wrote:
> No change with 5.60.48.36 here. Still silently disconnects, and network-
> manager still thinks it's connected, so it doesn't try to reconnect.
>
>

Confirmed on a up to date Lucid 64 bit; dropping connection, slow connection speeds and a long association time (up to 15 secs after login.

Also weird behavior networkmanager for braodcom STA users. See Bug #539300 (Connection with no connection icon / wireless connection not listed in network manager popup). Perhaps different symtoms of a connected problem?

I have filed a separate bug report for the networkmanger bug, 511425.
After doing a bit of testing it has only happened when in a WPA
security. I have not tried under WEP

On Mar 30, 2010, at 11:11 AM, 323232 <323232@12move.nl> wrote:

> Confirmed on a up to date Lucid 64 bit; dropping connection, slow
> connection speeds and a long association time (up to 15 secs after
> login.
>
> Also weird behavior networkmanager for braodcom STA users. See Bug
> #539300 (Connection with no connection icon / wireless connection not
> listed in network manager popup). Perhaps different symtoms of a
> connected problem?
>
> --
> Broadcom STA Wireless driver for bcm4322 silently disconnects
> frequently
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488340
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “bcmwl” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: bcmwl-kernel-source
>
> This is not the same problem as bug/427102 as that was apparently
> resolved by moving from Net Manager to WICD. Switching to WICD did
> not work for me.
>
> My problem is that my Macbook Pro 5,5 running Karmic 64 is silently
> dropping connections, and then, slowly, reestablishing them. The
> outages usually last less than 120 seconds, so, eventually, my
> existing connections come back to life without disconnection. The
> disconnections are quite frequent, I would say once every five
> minutes.
>
> To resolve this, I am using a USB 802.11b device and both Net
> Manager and WICD work with this flawlessly.
>
> I then tried to use IWCONFIG to tweak settings on the bcm4322 but
> nothing changed the behavior.
>
> I may try building the driver myself, but this will be the first
> time I've had to muck with kernel stuff under Ubuntu, so I might
> just chicken out and continue to use the 802.11b device.
>
> apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
> bcmwl-kernel-source:
> Installed: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Candidate: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Version table:
> *** 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4 0
> 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>
> 03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/
> n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/488340/+subscribe

Hi all,

problem was solved here:
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Release Candidate, 64-bit
- Broadcom driver: bcmwl-kernel-source 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3 (shipped with Ubuntu)

Applied Jens Janssen's suggestion:

sudo iwconfig ethX power off

(ethX = your wireless network interface)

...and it worked! No more dropped connections or "dirty" workarounds with continuous 'pings'.

Cheers!

In Lucid (STA driver version 5.60.48.36) I get disconnects every minute. In addition the new driver is painfully slow. Speed cut by half. In Karmic (older version of STA driver) there were no problems at all. Sometimes a disconnect but not to mention.

So "iwconfig ethX power off" is the only solution I know to resolve the disconnects problem (slow speed is still persistent problem). I put that in "/etc/rc.local".

Tried b43 and get the full speed back. So with BCM4312 I'm in the comfortable situation to choose between the drivers. Lucid is the first Ubuntu with stable and fast running b43 driver for this chipset.

I haven't try b43 drivers yet, but STA driver is not working for me either, the speed is very slow...
STA was compiled from source, I hope b43 will fix the problem

Anyone who still has problems (with the STA drivers and WPA networks) might want to try this solution: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/572777/comments/35

I have a question about the "solution". If I give "sudo iwconfig eth2 power off" this is persisten or I have repeat to any system startup? sorry for bad english.

Same problem here with MacBookPro4,1, using the STA driver does not change the problem :

$ sudo iwlist eth1 scanning
eth1 Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

b43 does not seems to work...

Commenting on #22 by Kilian Valkhof:

I have a ubuntu 10.04 on a MBP 4,1 and the wireless randomly (continuously) loses connection with a wpa2 connection.

I've download these 3 files. Installing one of the libs works, but gdebi crashes on the libssl that you've linked to:

root$ gdebi libssl0.9.8_0.9.8o-1_amd64.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Building data structures... Done
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gdebi", line 83, in <module>
    if not debi.open(args[0]):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/GDebi/GDebiCli.py", line 86, in open
    if not self._deb.checkDeb():
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/GDebi/DebPackage.py", line 368, in checkDeb
    if not self.checkBreaksExistingPackages():
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/GDebi/DebPackage.py", line 283, in checkBreaksExistingPackages
    'depversion' : dep.version}
TypeError: not enough arguments for format string
root$

Is this because of the strange naming convention "o-1"?

The size and the MD5 checksum are the same as mentioned by Debian.

Refering to my question #24:

I've managed to install the libssl and the wpa_supplicant by using "dpkg -i" instead of gdebi. Don't understand why, though....
Now the wireless has been stable since the reboot (half an hour), so I hope it's solved now.

Referring to my #26:
it STILL doesn't work properly!!! With the libssl 0.9.8.o-1 and wpa_supplicant 0.6.10-2 I still get (irregular) drop-outs of the wireless network connection. It then takes 10sec-60sec to reconnect and sometimes (randomly) it pops up the window again with all the WPA2 options+user+password before it can reconnect. Reconnecting works.

(#26 referred to #25 and not to #24)

On my Macbook 5.1, Jens' suggestion (deactivating power management) seems to work around the issue in a reliable manner.

same problem here (BCM4322) none of the proposed workarounds works

Earlier I'd commented that the problem was resolved, but I'm still seeing the issue. I've performed a clean installation of Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix on my Dell Latitude 2100 netbook. The silent disconnect issue is persistent; I can't maintain a stable connection to any of the wireless networks I use without issues with other devices. I'm using the Ubuntu provided drivers, bcmwl-kernel-source 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3. I wonder if Broadcom is aware of this issue, as this is a proprietary driver, so the Canonical folks can't consult the source to debug issues.

Is this package not being maintained anymore? It hasn't been assigned to anyone and a lot of people are having this problem.

@Matthewgrinnan: to answer your question, yes, the package is still maintained however there is very little we can do to fix the issue because the driver is proprietary. You can try to send Broadcom an email using the address listed on the following page:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Same problem with two dell laptops featuring different Broadcom wireless chips.
Making ubuntu pretty much useless.

@reason: broadcom uses firmware that is exclusive to microsoft. I think
the easiest way to solve this is switch to a generic atheros or intel wifi
card. The broadcom driver is proprietary hence it will take longer to
resolve since broadcom does not seem to put sense of urgency to fix this.

On Jul 22, 2010 6:56 AM, "Reason" <email address hidden> wrote:
> Same problem with two dell laptops featuring different Broadcom wireless
chips.
> Making ubuntu pretty much useless.
>
> --
> Broadcom STA Wireless driver for bcm4322 silently disconnects frequently
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488340
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “bcmwl” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: bcmwl-kernel-source
>
> This is not the same problem as bug/427102 as that was apparently resolved
by moving from Net Manager to WICD. Switching to WICD did not work for me.
>
> My problem is that my Macbook Pro 5,5 running Karmic 64 is silently
dropping connections, and then, slowly, reestablishing them. The outages
usually last less than 120 seconds, so, eventually, my existing connections
come back to life without disconnection. The disconnections are quite
frequent, I would say once every five minutes.
>
> To resolve this, I am using a USB 802.11b device and both Net Manager and
WICD work with this flawlessly.
>
> I then tried to use IWCONFIG to tweak settings on the bcm4322 but nothing
changed the behavior.
>
> I may try building the driver myself, but this will be the first time I've
had to muck with kernel stuff under Ubuntu, so I might just chicken out and
continue to use the 802.11b device.
>
> apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
> bcmwl-kernel-source:
> Installed: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Candidate: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Version table:
> *** 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4 0
> 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>
> 03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n
Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/488340/+subscribe

I know it's more a Broadcom issue then it is an Ubuntu one, but that doesn't change the fact is doesn't work.
Even more so it worked perfectly fine under 9.10.
Using different hardware is a quick fix not a solution. Especially in a laptop where replacing hardware is practically impossible.

I agree. :)

On Jul 22, 2010 7:31 AM, "Reason" <email address hidden> wrote:
> I know it's more a Broadcom issue then it is an Ubuntu one, but that
doesn't change the fact is doesn't work.
> Even more so it worked perfectly fine under 9.10.
> Using different hardware is a quick fix not a solution. Especially in a
laptop where replacing hardware is practically impossible.
>
> --
> Broadcom STA Wireless driver for bcm4322 silently disconnects frequently
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488340
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “bcmwl” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: bcmwl-kernel-source
>
> This is not the same problem as bug/427102 as that was apparently resolved
by moving from Net Manager to WICD. Switching to WICD did not work for me.
>
> My problem is that my Macbook Pro 5,5 running Karmic 64 is silently
dropping connections, and then, slowly, reestablishing them. The outages
usually last less than 120 seconds, so, eventually, my existing connections
come back to life without disconnection. The disconnections are quite
frequent, I would say once every five minutes.
>
> To resolve this, I am using a USB 802.11b device and both Net Manager and
WICD work with this flawlessly.
>
> I then tried to use IWCONFIG to tweak settings on the bcm4322 but nothing
changed the behavior.
>
> I may try building the driver myself, but this will be the first time I've
had to muck with kernel stuff under Ubuntu, so I might just chicken out and
continue to use the 802.11b device.
>
> apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
> bcmwl-kernel-source:
> Installed: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Candidate: 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4
> Version table:
> *** 5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4 0
> 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>
> 03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n
Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/488340/+subscribe

I believe I'm affected by this bug on Maverick, BCM4312, using STA driver from Restricted Drivers Manager.
My comments:
1. Ethernet connection works flawlessly.
2. Wireless connection works very well as long as I'm connected to power source.
3. When disconnected from power source, connection becomes unstable, working but very slow.
4. I can replicate it on either i386 and amd64.

Same here on a Dell Mini 9 with a fresh Maverick installation. As long as I'm connected to a power source, wifi works well. As soon I'm run with battery power, the connection is about 1kb/s and is very unstable. The workaround with "iwconfig ethX power off" does not work for me.

For all affected to the bug with slow connection while on battery power, here is the correct bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/651008

After doing this to remove the bcm packages my wireless runs much better. My wireless does not get disconnected continuously anymore.

This command lists the bcm packages installed on your system.
dpkg -l | grep bcm

These commands remove the bcm packages installed on your system.
sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-soure
sudo dpkg -r bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo dpkg --purge bcmwl-kernel-source

sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-modaliases
sudo dpkg --purge bcmwl-modaliases
sudo dpkg -r bcmwl-modaliases

This problem affects me on my Macbook 5,1 running Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit

Running on battery does not make this problem worse for me. Using wicd as well as network manager helps a lot, but does not solve the problem.

I followed #40 but that made it impossible for me to connect using eth1 (my wireless) with network manager and wicd. I had to immediatly reinstall those packages.

I noticed in dmesg that eth1 periodically complained about IPv6 routers not being present, so I disabled IPv6. The error stopped but the problem didn't get better.

To all 4312 owners: Please respect that this bug is about the 4322 chipset.

Commenting that things work (for 4312 chipset) is at best confusing (at worst misleading) to whoever is interested in this bug (regarding 4322 chipset).

I also have a 4322 chipset on HP 6735b and the STA driver (5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3) on 10.04 is unstable even with "sudo iwconfig eth1 power off"

Jarl

Is there a deb guru around that could create a PPA for a more recent version of the STA driver, so that the rest of us could test it? I can see that as of today Broadcom has version 5.60.246.6 available.

Jarl

I have just tested Broadcoms latest driver (5.60.246.6) but it still have this problem. a ping to google.com results in around 50% packet loss and sporadic large latencies as well.

Jarl

Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 32 bits
Dell Studio 1555 with Broadcom 4322
04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
When i'm on AC the netowork works OK. The problem begins when i switch to batteries.
Disabling power management with "iwconfig ethX power off" works fine.

I hope this helps.

i'm running Natty 11.04 64 bit. I built and installed that latest Broadcom STA driver version 5.100.82.38. My speed drops approximately 75 % when switching from AC to battery. HP DV6-2170US BCM43225. Wireless N is also not recognized. I did not notice this issue while running the open source brcn80211 driver, but the kernal panic were too sporadic.