Broadcom driver loading issue

[Mike Easter]

Do I have a systemd-related problem? (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)

I have a Lenovo x131e laptop that I'm using w/ Mint 19.2 Cinnamon live
USB w/ persistence made by mkusb. Its wifi is Broadcom BCM43228. I
have installed the Broadcom STA driver ware bcmwl-kernel-source from the
driver manager and it also shows as installed in synaptic. I have
blacklisted numerous broadcoms* and enabled the wl driver in etc/
modprobe.d and modules-load.d*. In spite of that, a blacklisted driver
bcma is loaded along w/ the proper wl driver, seen in lspci -vv, and the
driver shows as the inoperative result bcma-pci-bridge in inxi and
lspci. So after booting I have to modprobe remove the bcma and wl
drivers and modprobe the wl driver back to get proper wifi function.
I'm reading that one of the ways blacklisted driver can get loaded
(anyway) is because of a systemdctl function*.

The remedy is supposed to be systemctl disable
pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service (*), but there is very little written
about this, in spite of all kinds of problems w/ people trying to get
the proper broadcom driver loaded in search results. I don't
understand; if this systemd function can override blacklisted drivers
and screw things up, why there isn't more info about it.


*
etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist bcma-pci-bridge
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist bcma
blacklist b44

etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf
wl

lspci
Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n
    Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge
    Kernel modules: bcma, wl

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/511570/blacklisted-broadcom-drivers-are-still-loaded
So it turned out the blacklisted modules were explicitly loaded by one
of Systemd / Network Manager services: pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service.
I simply disabled the suspicious service via systemd call:
systemctl disable pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service
and rebooted ..and voilà ..b43 drivers are not loaded anymore; ssb, b43,
b43legacy, mac80211; only wl is present.

--
Mike Easter

[Mike Easter]

Mike Easter wrote:
> Do I have a systemd-related problem?  (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)

I found an item in journalctl that says "Broadcom 43xx driver loaded
[features: PNL]"

There is also stuff in there about bcma.

What are the 'conditions' under which the blacklisted drivers (such as
bcma) can be loaded anyway?

How do I interpret this:

> Blacklist only prevents loading of module due to hardware autodetection (strictly speaking, it tells modprobe to ignore internal aliases provided by module). It does not prohibit loading of module by any other means (explicit modprobe, install line in modprobe.conf, explicit alias in modprobe.conf).

What is 'explicit' modprobe? Does that have anything to do w/
pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service ? I don't see anything wrong in my
modprobe.conf. I also don't see anything in journalctl about the
pullin-bcm... action.

Where does one find a 'list' of the things that systemd does eg about
network service?

--
Mike Easter

[Mike Easter]

Mike Easter wrote:
>> Do I have a systemd-related problem?  (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)
>
> I found an item in journalctl that says "Broadcom 43xx driver loaded
> [features: PNL]"
>
> There is also stuff in there about bcma.
>
> What are the 'conditions' under which the blacklisted drivers (such as
> bcma) can be loaded anyway?
>

I was able to prevent the bcma driver from being loaded (or rather
prevent it from being used or conflicting) by using the command
parameter modprobe.blacklist=bcma (in addition to it also being
blacklisted in blacklist.conf).

Now inxi -Nni shows the wl driver; lspci shows /both/ kernel modules
bcma, wl and/but kernel driver in use: wl.

I /am/ able to find some palaver about blacklisted drivers being loaded
anyway, but I don't yet have a comprehensive grasp of the problem or cause.



--
Mike Easter

[Carlos E.R.]

On 25/10/2019 19.39, Mike Easter wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>> Do I have a systemd-related problem?  (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)
>
> I found an item in journalctl that says "Broadcom 43xx driver loaded
> [features: PNL]"
>
> There is also stuff in there about bcma.
>
> What are the 'conditions' under which the blacklisted drivers (such as
> bcma) can be loaded anyway?

Calling a command to load that module will load it, even if blacklisted.
It can be systemd, it can be network manager, it can be you, it can be
init.d....

The only thing blacklisting achieves is that the *kernel* will not try
to load it on its own, when it sees the hardware.

So you either delete the module from the system, or find out who/what is
loading it and disable it there.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Mike Easter]

Carlos E.R. wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>> Mike Easter wrote:
>>> Do I have a systemd-related problem?  (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)
>>

As well as I'm able to tell, I don't have the
pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service problem that was causing a problem for
someone else. My problem is 'something else'.

>> I found an item in journalctl that says "Broadcom 43xx driver loaded
>> [features: PNL]"
>>
>> There is also stuff in there about bcma.
>>
>> What are the 'conditions' under which the blacklisted drivers (such as
>> bcma) can be loaded anyway?
>
> Calling a command to load that module will load it, even if blacklisted.
> It can be systemd, it can be network manager, it can be you, it can be
> init.d....
>
> The only thing blacklisting achieves is that the *kernel* will not try
> to load it on its own, when it sees the hardware.
>
> So you either delete the module from the system, or find out who/what is
> loading it and disable it there.

I haven't been able to figure out who/what is loading it.

Strangely, it seems to me, if I eliminate it in the boot parameter w/
modprobe.blacklist=bcma, it no longer 'conflicts' w/ wl, even tho' lspci
says bcma is (still) a kernel module along w/ wl, but the 'effective'
driver is wl, which works.

Without the boot parameter, it seems that the two conflict and I end up
w/ Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge, which I don't know what that
means, but it doesn't work; and it also doesn't work to try to modprobe
remove bcma-pci-bridge. Whatever that means, modprobe can't remove it.


--
Mike Easter

[Carlos E.R.]

On 27/10/2019 14.39, Mike Easter wrote:
> Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> Mike Easter wrote:
>>> Mike Easter wrote:
>>>> Do I have a systemd-related problem?  (pullin-bcm43xx-firmware.service)

...

>> So you either delete the module from the system, or find out who/what is
>> loading it and disable it there.
>
> I haven't been able to figure out who/what is loading it.
>
> Strangely, it seems to me, if I eliminate it in the boot parameter w/
> modprobe.blacklist=bcma, it no longer 'conflicts' w/ wl, even tho' lspci
> says bcma is (still) a kernel module along w/ wl, but the 'effective'
> driver is wl, which works.
>
> Without the boot parameter, it seems that the two conflict and I end up
> w/ Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge, which I don't know what that
> means, but it doesn't work; and it also doesn't work to try to modprobe
> remove bcma-pci-bridge.  Whatever that means, modprobe can't remove it.

That means that it is done very early, from inside the initrd image that
grub loads for the kernel during boot. You have to modify that image.

In openSUSE, I would run "mkinitrd" after doing the modifications on the
system, and try boot (without that parameter in the kerrnel command line).

But if the modified kernel command line works, just use that.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Paul]

Mike Easter wrote:

> Without the boot parameter, it seems that the two conflict and I end up
> w/ Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge, which I don't know what that
> means, but it doesn't work; and it also doesn't work to try to modprobe
> remove bcma-pci-bridge. Whatever that means, modprobe can't remove it.

According to this, seeing "bcma-pci-bridge" is an indicator the
driver detection and install didn't go well. That's not
an "intentional choice", more a side effect of some sort.

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/broadcom-wifi-driver-fails-to-install-properly/46316/9

A poster there claims the issue can also be seen on the
Windows side - which means some Broadcom-donated code
likely plays a part.

Paul

[Phil Barkto]

On Sun, 27 Oct 2019 17:06:03 -0400, Paul <nos...@needed.invalid>
wrote:

So Linux is still having problems with WiFi and in particular Broadcom
chipsets.

No wonder Linux sucks so much.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/366910/broadcom-wifi-nightmare?noredirect=1&lq=1

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/7700ha/the_linux_wifi_nightmare/

[Wildman]

On Sun, 27 Oct 2019 18:01:29 -0400, Phil Barkto wrote:

> On Sun, 27 Oct 2019 17:06:03 -0400, Paul <nos...@needed.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>>Mike Easter wrote:
>>
>>> Without the boot parameter, it seems that the two conflict and I end up
>>> w/ Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge, which I don't know what that
>>> means, but it doesn't work; and it also doesn't work to try to modprobe
>>> remove bcma-pci-bridge. Whatever that means, modprobe can't remove it.
>>
>>According to this, seeing "bcma-pci-bridge" is an indicator the
>>driver detection and install didn't go well. That's not
>>an "intentional choice", more a side effect of some sort.
>>
>>https://forum.manjaro.org/t/broadcom-wifi-driver-fails-to-install-properly/46316/9
>>
>>A poster there claims the issue can also be seen on the
>>Windows side - which means some Broadcom-donated code
>>likely plays a part.
>>
>> Paul
>
> So Linux is still having problems with WiFi and in particular Broadcom
> chipsets.
>
> No wonder Linux sucks so much.

What does an MS shill get paid these days?

--
<Wildman> GNU/Linux user #557453
"Bite my shiny metal ass!"
-Bender Bending Rodríguez

[Carlos E.R.]

shill
/ʃɪl/

informal•North American
noun
noun: shill; plural noun: shills

an accomplice of a confidence trickster or swindler who poses as a
genuine customer to entice or encourage others.
"I used to be a shill in a Reno gambling club"
a person who pretends to give an impartial endorsement of
something in which they themselves have an interest.
"a megamillionaire who makes more money as a shill for corporate
products than he does for playing basketball"

verb
verb: shill; 3rd person present: shills; past tense: shilled; past
participle: shilled; gerund or present participle: shilling

act or work as a shill.
"your husband in the crowd could shill for you"

Origen
early 20th century: probably from earlier shillaber, of unknown origin.


--
Cheers, Carlos.