[SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

schimpfj · 2008-03-20 15:29:01

Hi All,

I am a newby on wifi and trying to setup a wireless internet connection for the very first time. B43 driver got installed and I assume it is working correctly - at least no errors are logged, but I cannot find any 'b43' or 'broadcom' hint in the log files either to confirm success. This was done as per part i of http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

As per part ii I am now trying to get wifi working using netcfg2 http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_Profiles but failing already on the pre-requisits, "Gather information":

ifconfig shows me 'lo' and 'eth0' interfaces. The same are shown using iwconfig, obviously both without wifi:

[root@limob ~]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

What happened to my wifi interface?

Appreciate someone can give me a kick-start. No idea how I can get the wifi interface to work.

My config:
Kernel 2.6.24
BCM4312

> hwd -s
  Ethernet   : MCP65 Ethernet module: forcedeth
  Network    : BCM4312 802.11a/b/g module: b43-pci-bridge

B43 modules loaded

[root@limob ~]# lsmod | grep b43
b43                   108320  0
ssb                    29188  1 b43
rfkill                  5904  1 b43
pcmcia                 32556  2 b43,ssb
mac80211              117132  1 b43
input_polldev           3720  1 b43
pcmcia_core            32664  2 b43,pcmcia

rc.conf

...
MODULES=(dm-crypt aes-i586 sha256_generic forcedeth b43 ppp-generic snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore powernow-k8)
...
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0)
...
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
...

I know that there must be at least two or three hubs around - I can see them when logged on with Vista, but nothing with Linux (iwscan).

Thanks in advance,
Jochen

Last edited by schimpfj (2008-03-23 08:50:55)

bgc1954 · 2008-03-20 17:30:51

are you using any encryption--wpa or wep? If you are you need to setup wpa_supplicant to handle the encryption. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wpa_supplicant

On my thinkpad using a pcmcia card with b43 and needed to add SECURITY="wpa-config" and then you can comment out key="" as wpa-config defaults to your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file. The b43 by the way show up on my thinkpad as wlan0.

schimpfj · 2008-03-20 18:24:46

I will be using encryption going forward, but I am not even getting that far yet. It seems my wifi is not recognized at all and scanning for hubs it does not list anything.

dunc4n · 2008-03-20 19:31:01

I think I had to put "eth1" for my wireless device in the interfaces of the rc.conf manualy before it would work. Not sure if it is right or not, but thought I'd share.

Also Network Manager is the only app. that would activate it.

Good luck.

bgc1954 · 2008-03-20 20:09:45

If your computer is anything like my thinkpad the internet interface was wlan0 with b43. If you've followed the wiki and extracted the firmware to /lib/firmware ifconfig should show your interfaces.

When using netcfg scripts you should comment out any references to network devices--eth0 in your case and bang out lo and eth0 in INTERFACES in /etc/rc/conf as this is handled by the profiles. You should be able to start it up with netcfg2 profile_name. What does it give you when you try to start manually with netcfg2?

Also perhaps check this post. I now remember that the bcm43xx driver was interfering with b43. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=43952

in /etc/rc.conf MOD_BLACKLIST=(bcm43xx)

Last edited by bgc1954 (2008-03-20 20:25:10)

schimpfj · 2008-03-21 01:38:14

Thanks for the feedback so far, but there was no joy: I have added eth1 and wlan0 manually to rc.conf but just getting errors when re-booting (eth1/wlan0 unknown).

The firmware got installed into /lib/firmware/b43:

[jochen@limob ~]$ sudo ls /lib/firmware/b43
Passwort:
a0g0bsinitvals4.fw   a0g1initvals13.fw    b0g0initvals4.fw    ucode11.fw
a0g0bsinitvals5.fw   a0g1initvals5.fw     b0g0initvals5.fw    ucode13.fw
a0g0initvals4.fw     b0g0bsinitvals13.fw  lp0bsinitvals13.fw  ucode4.fw
a0g0initvals5.fw     b0g0bsinitvals4.fw   lp0initvals13.fw    ucode5.fw
a0g1bsinitvals13.fw  b0g0bsinitvals5.fw   pcm4.fw
a0g1bsinitvals5.fw   b0g0initvals13.fw    pcm5.fw

lsmod shows no bcm43xx driver loaded in parallel, hence there should be no interference.

Because ifconfig cannot even identify the wlan I have not event tried to proceed, i.e. use any netconf2 scripts/config.

bgc1954 · 2008-03-21 11:16:53

Sorry I didn't notice this sooner, but if you go back to the original wireless wiki re: b43 the linuxwireless.org site says that BCM4312 is not supported. That's probably why your card isn't even recognized. If I find something else out, I'll post again.

Edit: Well apparently lots of people have problems with the 4312 in linux so you're not alone. If your wireless works in Windows, though, you might want to give ndiswrapper a try. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ndi … supplicant

Last edited by bgc1954 (2008-03-21 11:36:38)

schimpfj · 2008-03-21 13:01:59

The information re b43 on the original wireless wiki is a bit contradictive: BCM4312 is listed as supported and unsupported - though I read that as unsupported re 801.11a

Thanks for the tip re ndiswrapper. I will give that a try and see if I can get it working.

schimpfj · 2008-03-21 15:53:38

Have given ndiswrapper a go, but not working either. BTW: Vista driver does not work for ndiswrapper, seems XP driver driver neither for me.

Maybe I will try to install another distro in parallel and see whether there is anything I can copy to archlinux - would sincerely regret to give up archlinux. I rather might want to stick to the wire...

schimpfj · 2008-03-23 08:49:50

Finally got that bcm4312 working on my laptop (hp dv6000): Seems there are different windows drivers out there which can/must be used - see ndiswrapper wiki http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joom … id,list_b/ ; item 40.

I got it now working using sp34512.exe instead of 33008.exe. Sadly I have just returned my wlan/wifi router, so I will have to re-purchase it next week before I can proceed.

Thank you to all which have shared their experience and expertiese, in particular to bgc1954!

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-20 15:29:01

[SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#2 2008-03-20 17:30:51

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#3 2008-03-20 18:24:46

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#4 2008-03-20 19:31:01

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#5 2008-03-20 20:09:45

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#6 2008-03-21 01:38:14

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#7 2008-03-21 11:16:53

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#8 2008-03-21 13:01:59

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#9 2008-03-21 15:53:38

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

#10 2008-03-23 08:49:50

Re: [SOLVED] Asking for initial help on wifi

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