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b43legacy driver limits connection speed to 1 Mbps

(4 posts) (2 voices)

• Started 11 years ago by DT_br
• Latest reply from DT_br
• This topic is resolved

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1. 

   DT_br
   

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   Member

   I am new to linux and using SliTaz installed to my Hard Drive with dual boot with Windows. I have a Dell D600 with Truemobile 1300 pci card. This is a Broadcom 4306 (rev 2) and I have successfully installed the b43legacy package to.

   The problem is that my internet connection is 10 Mbps and when I use the wireless under Linux (I have tried many distros) I am limited to 1 Mbps. When I use the same equipment under windows I get the 10 Mbps speed. I have checked the Ethernet connection with the SliTaz live cd and get the 10Mbps speed. Is there some way I can perhaps use the windows driver or driver from some other source (not b43legacy).

   I hope that I have been clear enough to at least provide you with a starting point in helping me to resolve this.

   Posted 11 years ago #
2. 

   DT_br
   

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   I have been researching this for some time (via Google) and have seen several mentions of this problem but (but no real solution apparently). Also, much of what is discussed involves other distros and my current knowledge of Linux makes it difficult for me to judge what (and how) the different proposals might apply to my specific problem. This link provides an exact description of what I am experiencing. The problem is that the solution suggested (as the user points out) does not really resolve the issue, just improves it slightly. this is the link http://askubuntu.com/questions/99405/bcm4306-slow-speeds-when-set-to-54mbps

   I have also run iwconfig and another command that I found which, I believe, shows what modules are being used for the wifi card. Maybe there is some kind of confilct there. The iwconfig does indicate that the card is only running at 1 mb/s.
   tux@slitaz:~$ iwconfig
   lo no wireless extensions.

   dummy0 no wireless extensions.

   wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Homelink"
   Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:15:E9:6A:56:78
   Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
   Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
   Power Management:off
   Link Quality=55/70 Signal level=-55 dBm
   Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
   Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:4 Missed beacon:0

   tux@slitaz:~$ lsmod | grep "ssb\|wl\|b43\|bcma"
   b43legacy 79383 0
   mac80211 145388 1 b43legacy
   cfg80211 99896 2 b43legacy,mac80211
   ssb 24436 1 b43legacy

   I really do hope that someone can help me as SliTaz is the distribution that is closest to what I have been looking for, and I have tried many.

   Thank-you

   Posted 11 years ago #
3. 

   mojo
   

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   Key Master

   It's a limitation of the b43legacy driver:

   http://lingrok.org/history/linux-2.6-stable/drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy/xmit.c

   b43legacy: Fix failure in rate-adjustment mechanism

   A coding error present since b43legacy was incorporated into the
   kernel has prevented the driver from using the rate-setting mechanism
   of mac80211. The driver has been forced to remain at a 1 Mb/s rate.

   Signed-off-by: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
   Cc: Stable <stable@kernel.org> [2.6.26], [2.6.25]
   Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>

   Posted 11 years ago #
4. 

   DT_br
   

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   Member

   Thank-you for replying. You would think that since 2008 somebody would have dealt with this problem! Even some of the later posts in the link you sent(Oct. 2008 referring to mac80211) seem to indicate that something was/had been done to improve rate changing, but apparently it didn't help this card (it's b/g but not n) even though this card is a pretty common one.

   The card works fine in Windows, so would using the driver(s) from Windows (ndiswrapper?)be an option? I remember seeing something about this on the forum or the documentation but so far can only find the reference to "someday there will be a page about ndiswrapper". I have WinXP on the machine, so it shouldn't be hard to find the driver. I just don't know enough yet to use this method of installing a driver. I will continue looking into this on the internet, but if you can point me to a "how to" using SliTaz it would really help.

   Again, Thank-you and I really appreciate your helping with this.

   Posted 11 years ago #

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