Bug 899784

Summary: No network on HP Mini 210
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE Tumbleweed Reporter: Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj <forgotten_4nRIhKadYj>
Component: BasesystemAssignee: E-mail List <bnc-team-screening>
Status: RESOLVED FEATURE QA Contact: E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity: Normal    
Priority: P5 - None CC: bwiedemann, Larry.Finger
Version: 13.2 Beta 1   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86   
OS: Other   
Whiteboard:
Found By: --- Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---
Attachments: output of lspci -nn. Exactly the same on suse and knopix
Output of ip a on suse
output of ip a on knopix (no changes to hardware or bios settings)

Description Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-05 10:04:47 UTC
I installed the beta software on HP Mini 210. The wireless network adapter was not detected. I cannot connect to the network. 

Only the wired interface was detected. When I run e.g. knoppix on the same hardware - the wi-fi connectivity works and networks are automatically detected.

Moreover - when I run yast network config - the system responds very slowly. When I click a button - the response is after many ten of seconds. The laptop is powerfull enough to run e.g. large open office documents, so the problem is not in the hardware. Top shows increase in memory usage from 500 MB to 700 MB.

If any additional information/checks is necessary from my side - please let me know.
Comment 1 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-05 19:20:26 UTC
Regarding the yast problem - the graphical environment I installed is xfce.
Comment 2 Bernhard Wiedemann 2014-10-06 20:26:20 UTC
Some information on the WLAN hardware would be useful,
e.g. run as root: lspci -nn

google suggests, it could be a
RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe [1814:3090]

> was not detected

Does that mean that there is no wl... listed in the output of "ip a" ?
Then that probably means that driver (or firmware) were missing


I'd leave the performance topic aside here to keep things simple.
Comment 3 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-06 22:35:44 UTC
Created attachment 609116 [details]
output of lspci -nn. Exactly the same on suse and knopix
Comment 4 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-06 22:36:29 UTC
Created attachment 609117 [details]
Output of ip a on suse
Comment 5 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-06 22:37:46 UTC
Created attachment 609118 [details]
output of ip a on knopix (no changes to hardware or bios settings)
Comment 6 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-06 22:42:38 UTC
Many thanks for your action.

I have attached the output of lspci -nn. The wifi hardware seems to be Broadcom Corporation BCM4312.

Also - please find attached the outputs of ip a on the opensuse beta, and the output of the same command on a knopix, which I booted on exactly the same computer (the same hardware, no changes to any setting).

The difference is the presence of wlan0 device, which is missing in opensuse.

If I can provide any additional information please let me know.
Comment 7 Larry Finger 2014-10-07 03:46:13 UTC
Please check dmesg for missing firmware messages. I am reasonably certain the 

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

will fix your problem. I have that exact wireless device running on 13.2 Beta 1, and it works OK. I did install the firmware.
Comment 8 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-07 20:47:28 UTC
Thank you very much, now it works!

Would it be a big problem that this hardware is installed automatically at install time or at startup? I must say that getting it installed was a bit difficult - I had to find a cable, and use the wired connection to download the legacy drivers. I think quite a lot of people these days do not even have the cable.. I most importantly I did not know that this script should be run until you let me know.

If you need any help - I might devote a bit of my time. I used to be quite deep into linux in the nineties - compiling the kernels, creating new console fonts, configuring first X window servers, etc.
Comment 9 Larry Finger 2014-10-07 21:32:18 UTC
The hardware was always installed, and the driver is part of every kernel for many years. What was not available was the firmware. The reason that the firmware is not included in the openSUSE distribution is that Broadcom forbids the redistribution of such firmware. To include it would lead to lawsuits. That script is as close to providing the firmware as openSUSE can get.

To avoid future problems, copy the files that are now in /lib/firmware/b43/ onto a thumb drive, or some other removable medium. If you need to reinstall *any* distro from scratch, just restore those files as the last step, and your wireless will work. Doing a 'sudo zypper upgrade' from 13.1 to 13.2 (for example) will preserve those files and you will not need to reload them.
Comment 10 Larry Finger 2014-10-07 21:33:57 UTC
Not a bug - just a misunderstanding of what was required.
Comment 11 Bernhard Wiedemann 2014-10-08 04:46:19 UTC
I wonder if for these firmwares we could do something similar to
pullin-fluendo-mp3
pullin-flash-player
fetchmsttfonts

which allows to get the software onto user's machines 
without SUSE redistributing it (because the user downloads it automatically
from the vendor's site)
Comment 12 Larry Finger 2014-10-08 15:23:44 UTC
That is *exactly* what the script is doing.
Comment 13 Forgotten User 4nRIhKadYj 2014-10-08 20:38:14 UTC
You are right. Unfortunately it does not solve the cable problem - until the firmware is downloaded the user has to connect a cable.

Also I believe the following scenario would be helpful:

1. The installation script detects that the broadcom interface is present
2. A screen is shown, presenting something like this:
'Broadcom BCM4312' was found on this system. It requires to download a firmware to function properly. It can be done by running
sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
3 The user clicks OK, possibly noting down the name of the script to run

At least to me that would help a lot. The same could be done for a couple of key software which face the same legal problem.

As stated before - I could devote some of my time, if you pointed me to the script which shall be modified.
Comment 14 Larry Finger 2014-10-10 17:43:30 UTC
The scripts that control this are part of the installation, and I have never looked at these. You could place a feature request for 13.3.

I'm not sure how much one can do. The "open" in openSUSE prevents including any material that is not licensed for redistribution, thus the network connection is still going to be a requirement. As a result, only the NET install media would be assured of being able to detect that the install script needs to be run, *and* have the possibility of it working.

There are solutions that allow the necessary files to be downloaded on another system and then installed on openSUSE. You will find those methods on the openSUSE wireless forum. I do not think you looked there.