Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

anta40 · 2011-02-08 04:19:40

I already upgraded Arch several times, and didn't have the problem with wifi.... until last week.
I did "iwconfig", and my wireless card (Broadcom) wasn't detected, so I had to build broadcom-wl again.

It worked (detected as eth1). So I changed wlan0 into eth1 in the rc.conf

Now every time I run wicd or "iwlist eth1 scan", no wifi network detected. Any idea?

Varg · 2011-02-08 10:51:00

What kind of broadcom card do you have ? It might be compatible with the brcm80211. I find that one less troublesome then the broadcom-wl module.

Broadcom-wl tends to swap the interface names. Next time you boot eth1 might be eth0... You'll have to change rc.conf many times unless you fix it with this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Br … dcom-wl.29

Did you try to scan as root ? Broadcom-wl has some strange permission issues. "iwconfig" doens't show all info as a normal user but works fine as root, etc...

anta40 · 2011-02-08 11:19:20

Hmm...

$ lspci -vnn | grep 14e4
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1713] (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)

Guess it should be supported by broadcom-wl.

BTW, I tried "sudo iwlist eth1 scan" several times. Sometimes the result is "No scan results", and sometimes it gives several access points available on my place.
Weird...

.:B:. · 2011-02-08 16:00:10

That's a plain 802.11b/g card. Why are you using broadcom-wl? B43 is reported to support it without problems.

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

I'm very well aware it might not help you solve your problem, but at least that's one less level of complexity.

anta40 · 2011-02-09 03:24:29

Well broadcom-wl used to work (now... it behaves weird, cannot scan for access points until the LAN cable is plugged).

Nevermind. Let my try b43, and I'll give the report A.S.A.P...

anta40 · 2011-02-09 11:42:04

OK I just installed b43, and still no luck.
Still cannot scan for access points I plug the LAN cable in.

Dans564 · 2011-02-09 16:16:50

try looking into network manager instead of network daemon. It is far easy especially with wifi. An article of how to install it is in the wiki just search "network manager"

joven · 2011-02-09 16:55:23

I have found that when I run iwlist as any user besides root it returns no results. Running it as root produces the expected results. I have no idea why ....

anta40 · 2011-02-16 10:48:08

OK this is my rc.conf

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
# in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="Asia/Jakarta"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(fuse battery lib80211 !b43 !ssb)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="panopticon"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
#
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
eth1="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0 !eth1)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
NETWORKS=(main)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal @ntpd fam dbus networkmanager wl netfs crond wicd alsa)

The problem still persist...

Varg · 2011-02-16 12:43:55

You 're using the b43 driver now ? It's blacklisted in your modules.
It's not a good idea to put both networkmanager and wicd in your rc.conf, you can only use one. So !networmanager or !wicd.

anta40 · 2011-02-17 13:00:53

Like this?

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
# in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="Asia/Jakarta"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(fuse battery wl lib80211 b43 !ssb)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="panopticon"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
#
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
eth1="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0 !eth1)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
NETWORKS=(main)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus hal @ntpd fam !networkmanager wl netfs crond wicd alsa)

Even if I logged in a root, I couldn't get wireless scan result...

Varg · 2011-02-17 13:40:44

There is "wl" in modules and in daemons. When you use the b43 driver you should remove both "wl" entries. Normally "wl" shouldn't be in daemons anyway, it's a module.
lib80211 is only required by the wl driver, so you can remove that one to.
The wiki suggests to also blacklist b43legacy.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Br … nel_module

I hope that I didn't miss anything. Wireless problems are really annoying...

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-08 04:19:40

Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#2 2011-02-08 10:51:00

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#3 2011-02-08 11:19:20

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#4 2011-02-08 16:00:10

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#5 2011-02-09 03:24:29

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#6 2011-02-09 11:42:04

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#7 2011-02-09 16:16:50

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#8 2011-02-09 16:55:23

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#9 2011-02-16 10:48:08

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#10 2011-02-16 12:43:55

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#11 2011-02-17 13:00:53

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

#12 2011-02-17 13:40:44

Re: Cannot scan for wifi (Dell Vostro 1400)

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