# No wireless interface, Broadcom BCM4306, bwi-driver



## Korger (Apr 26, 2016)

Hello,

I'm trying to get Wi-Fi to work on an old Dell Inspiron 2200, which uses the BCM4306 chipset.

Installed version (`uname -a`):


```
FreeBSD dagobah 10.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE #0 r297264: Fri Mar 25 03:51:29 UTC 2016  root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
```

Installed wlan controller (`pciconf -lv`):


```
none2@pci0:2:3:0:   class=0x028000 card=0x00031028 chip=0x432014e4 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
  vendor  = 'Broadcom Corporation'
  device  = 'BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller'
  class  = network
```

Installed driver (`pkg info`):


```
b43-fwcutter-015  Extracts firmware for Broadcom Wireless adapters
bwi-firmware-kmod-3.130.20  Broadcom AirForce IEEE 802.11 Firmware Kernel Module
```

Content of /boot/modules:


```
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  103608 Apr 25 22:58 bwi_v3_ucode.ko
```

At this point I can do `kldload bwi_v3_ucode` and it loads without a problem.  But now if I type `kldload if_bwi`, I get the following message:


```
bwi0: <Broadcom BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless Lan> mem 0xdfdfe000-0xdfdfffff irq 19 at device 3.0 on pci2
bwi0: BBP: id 0x4306, rev 0x3, pkg 0
bwi0: MAC: rev 5
bwi0: PHY: type 2, rev 2, ver 2
bwi0: RF: manu 0x17f, type 0x2050, rev 2
bwi0: invalid antenna gain in sprom
bwi0: can't create parent DMA tag
device_attach: bwi0 attach returned 12
```

After this, the wlan interface is still not listed in the output of `ifconfig -l`, and I'm stuck.  What is the meaning of that "can't create parent DMA tag" message, and how could I resolve it?

Any ideas are highly appreciated.


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## kpa (Apr 26, 2016)

Driver problems are best addressed at the freebsd-wireless mailing list, the "invalid antenna gain in sprom" line is a clear sign that this is either a too new revision of the hardware for the driver or there is a regression in the bwi(4) driver on FreeBSD 10.3.


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## Korger (Apr 27, 2016)

Thanks!  The problem was that bwi(4) can't handle BCM4306 *rev3*, only *rev2*.  I've changed the driver to bwn(4) and now it's working.  In fact, I'm posting this message from that machine, my first FreeBSD installation!


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