Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

Japanlinux · 2010-11-26 06:47:16

Okay, I just gave up on arch, but decided to try Chakra (based on arch) for the heck of it. What I found out is my wireless worked on chakra which had broadcom-wl installed by default. Which means arch's wl drivers work for me, but in the 32 times I've tried installing it i've failed. As I've now rekindled my hopes for arch, Can someone please give me a quick step-by-step on how to install broadcom-wl?

here's what I do:
Install system, update system
install broadcom-wl from AUR
put lib80211 and wl in MODULES (in several of my 32 attempts, I've also put lib80211_crypt_tkip instead)
put !b43 and !ssb in MODULES
rmmod b43
modprobe wl
-----------
Fatal error module wl doesn't exist (something to this effect)
I've not once gotten this wl module working. What am I doing wrong?

I just checked the chakra rc.conf and noticed it DOES NOT have any 80211 reference in modules, only wl. Maybe this is what i've been doing wrong the whole time? In fact, would it be a good idea to take the Chakra rc.conf and copy it over the arch one (just changing the Daemon's to the defaults)?

Last edited by Japanlinux (2010-11-26 06:55:35)

litemotiv · 2010-11-26 09:05:46

One thing to note is that broadcom-wl is compiled against the currently running kernel, so if you update your system and get a new kernel, you need to re-install broadcom-wl after rebooting.

Apart from that, i have:

lib80211 wl !b43 !ssb

In my rc.conf, not sure if all are needed but this works fine.

Another note is that broadcom-wl should be deprecated from kernel 2.6.37 onwards, there will be open source drivers in the kernel then.

Japanlinux · 2010-11-26 09:54:34

ok. here's an update. Doing just wl doesn't work
Also the actual error is

FATAL: Module wl not found

Also, I just finished installing the netbook-kernel

I've add lib80211.

I have to wonder if normally installing the driver and/or installing a netbook-centric kernel doesn't work for me why does Chakra?

maybe i'm missing some really important secondary driver??

tomk · 2010-11-26 10:11:00

Japanlinux wrote:

Also, I just finished installing the netbook-kernel

And you rebuilt/reinstalled wl after that, as advised by litemotiv? Your post suggests you tried wl, then installed kernel-netbook.

More generally - "module <whatever> not found" is a modprobe error message, caused by one of two things - either the module's *.ko file is not installed anywhere under /lib/modules/<kernel_version>, or depmod has not been called after the module was installed. Typically, Arch packages for kernel modules take care of both of these things, but you should check just in case.

litemotiv · 2010-11-26 10:12:55

Does the installation / compilation of broadcom-wl actually succeed? How are you installing it? Can you give the output of the installation?

Japanlinux · 2010-11-26 17:52:41

The wl does succeed. Or at least, it doesn't shown any errors. about the netbook kernel, I did a new install and the netbook kernel has the broadcom-wl BUILT IN and still didn't work By output, you mean the lspci command?

Russss · 2010-11-27 04:02:08

I got broadcom driver to work by downloading the driver from:

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

then compiled it using 'make' which produces a wl.ko file. I then moved that file to:

/lib/modules/<current-kernel>/kernel/drivers/net/wireless and moved to that directory

Next I ran

insmod wl.ko
modprobe lib80211_crypt_tkip
modprobe wl.ko
depmod -a

then I can get internet to work. Good Luck

Japanlinux · 2010-11-27 06:22:36

So I downloaded the package from broadcom.com. I have done "tar xvf" to the file, however make gives me this error:

 make *** /lib/modules/2.6.36-ARCH/build: no such file or directory.  Stop.

I have base-devel installed, which is all I needed i thought. I'm not skilled in compiling from .tar.gz archives, so perhaps you could explain what went wrong?
EDIT: figured it out. I didn't have the kernel headers installed

HOLY COW!!! I cannot say thank you enough!!! Wireless finally works on my laptop after all these weeks. You are a godsend sir

Last edited by Japanlinux (2010-11-27 06:49:59)

Japanlinux · 2010-11-27 07:13:02

Sigh... It seems I jumped to conclusions. According to iwconfig, the new connection is another Ethernet? Well, I am closer than I was before, so I suppose I still have some hope. On this note, I can get neither network-manager-applet nor wicd to show up in either tint2 or lxpanel. I did not use these all at the same time, in case you're wondering

litemotiv · 2010-11-27 15:34:50

Japanlinux wrote:

So I downloaded the package from broadcom.com. I have done "tar xvf" to the file, however make gives me this error:
 make *** /lib/modules/2.6.36-ARCH/build: no such file or directory.  Stop. 

You shouldn't compile from source, just use the AUR package.

EDIT: figured it out. I didn't have the kernel headers installed :lol:

That's why i asked you for output and errors.

Japanlinux wrote:

Sigh... It seems I jumped to conclusions. According to iwconfig, the new connection is another Ethernet?

It's just the name, eth or wlan doesn't make a difference. See the Udev wiki page for statically naming your network interfaces on boot.

Japanlinux · 2010-11-27 15:40:53

By ethernet, I mean the iwconfig shows eth1 (which means nothing as you say) but the description of it mentions ethernet, not once saying anything about wireless. That, and I couldn't get network-manager or Wicd to work for some odd reason, so I could even test if it was wireless

I'll reinstall wicd and try wicd-curses to see if it works, since the applets and gui seem to fail on me)

Last edited by Japanlinux (2010-11-27 15:55:59)

litemotiv · 2010-11-27 16:54:08

You can tell wicd which connection is your wireless, just check the preferences. Or you can see the wiki page i mentioned to change the name to wlan0.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-11-26 06:47:16

Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#2 2010-11-26 09:05:46

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#3 2010-11-26 09:54:34

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#4 2010-11-26 10:11:00

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#5 2010-11-26 10:12:55

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#6 2010-11-26 17:52:41

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#7 2010-11-27 04:02:08

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#8 2010-11-27 06:22:36

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#9 2010-11-27 07:13:02

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#10 2010-11-27 15:34:50

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#11 2010-11-27 15:40:53

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

#12 2010-11-27 16:54:08

Re: Broadcom-wl, maybe i'm installing it wrong??

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