Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 18:09:55

Greetings.

I have gone through multiple installs in order to fix this. Also, please keep in mind I am new to Arch.

I recently installed Arch (2011.08.19 Core Dual) on my laptop. I can provide laptop specs as necessary. It is a 2006 Dell Inspiron e1405.

# uname -a
Linux Arch 3.0-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Aug 17 20:24:07 UTC 2011 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU T2350 @ 1.86GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

I am having issues with WiFi. My card is Broadcom BCM4311.

# lspci | grep Network
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

I installed Arch using the Core disk. Both base and base-devel were selected. Among the automatically selected packages packages, I selected

b43-fwcutter
sudo
wireless_tools
netcfg
possibly others, but I do not remember, nor do I think they are causing issues

Following a combination of directions from:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri … stallation
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/De … eless_1390

I began to prepare packages. As I did not have an internet connection, I downloaded the driver on another computer and placed it on a USB Drive (b43-fwcutter was installed using the core disk). I then installed the driver (I am pretty sure) by mounting the USB drive, and following

tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
    sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o

I believe my Wifi card turns on at boot, as the little green light denoting Wifi turns on. Furthermore, upon boot, I can see the "Starting Network [BUSY]" message (although that takes a good 10 seconds)

From what I understand, to connect to a network, you need to:

# iwlist

lo and eth0 display "no wireless extensions" but wlan0 shows that it is connect to ESSID:"*******". (asterisks shown in place of actual ESSID for privacy) There is other information below it. I can post a picture if needed, because I am NOT typing it out!

# iwlist wlan0 scanning

Scan completes and displays information.

# iwconfig wlan0 essid "*******"

There is the home Wifi network, which is protected with WPA (I believe...It is certainly not WEP)
From what I understand, additional entries need to be made in CLI to connect to WPA network.

For now, I can tether to my phone (unlimited data, and actually sometimes faster than my home WiFi, so not a big deal)
Just for the sake of simplicity, I will connect to my phone, which is broadcasting a network with no protection.

# iwconfig wlan0 essid "*******"

After pressing enter, it just drops to the next line.

Then, input

# dhcpcd wlan0

Output:

dhcpcd[838]: version 5.2.12 starting
dhcpcd[838]: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[838]: timed out

I'm lost after that. I'm positive I am doing something wrong.
I have poked around Google, as well as the Wiki and the forums.

Please note that because I have no internet connection to this Arch box, I have not run pacman -Syu. All packages installed are in the original versions shipped with the (2011.08.19-core-dual) iso.
Please help!

Much appreciated,

[::AP::]

Last edited by Superiorem (2012-01-16 18:33:08)

piratebill · 2012-01-16 18:17:28

Did you try to black list either b43 or b43legacy?

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 18:27:07

Do you mean like this?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

Or something like

# rmmod b43

?

Thanks for the speedy response.

[::AP::]

Gusar · 2012-01-16 18:54:49

No need to blacklist anything, you're on the right track. Except for one thing: If the network is WPA protected, you need to use wpa_supplicant, connecting with iwconfig won't work. The easiest way: create a netcfg profile. Look into /etc/network.d/examples, should be easy to create a profile based on those.

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 19:36:57

Gusar wrote:

No need to blacklist anything, you're on the right track. Except for one thing: If the network is WPA protected, you need to use wpa_supplicant, connecting with iwconfig won't work. The easiest way: create a netcfg profile. Look into /etc/network.d/examples, should be easy to create a profile based on those.

Ok, I will try that next.

First I wish to just connect to the Wifi broadcasting from my phone.
Then I will move on to connecting to my home Wifi, which is WPA protected.

stefanwilkens · 2012-01-16 19:37:33

It's valuable to work your way through the wpa_supplicant documentation, but you might want to have a look at a network manager to deal with the authentication configuration for you. A very simple one is wicd, it comes with a very simple terminal configuration client:

Alternative graphical front-ends for wicd are available, the wikipage is fairly complete:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wicd

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 19:56:12

Gusar wrote:

No need to blacklist anything, you're on the right track. Except for one thing: If the network is WPA protected, you need to use wpa_supplicant, connecting with iwconfig won't work. The easiest way: create a netcfg profile. Look into /etc/network.d/examples, should be easy to create a profile based on those.

Actually, I half understood that.

I am not quite sure what to do.

I started off doing

# nano /etc/network.d/examples

Then I realized that it was a directory. So...

# ls -F /etc/network.d/examples

A list showed up. So then I...

# nano /etc/network.d/examples/wireless-wpa

I can view the file.

Do I then create a file with the same exact format, plugging in my ESSID into

ESSID='MyNetwork'

The WPA key into

Key='WirelessKey'

And leave IP as

IP='dhcp'

???

Where should this file be created, and how should it be named?
Would it be like:

/etc/network.d/SOME-NAME-HERE

?

Thanks.

Varg · 2012-01-16 20:01:59

Jup, just copy one of the example files to /etc/network.d/ and fill everything in.

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 20:04:10

stefanwilkens wrote:

It's valuable to work your way through the wpa_supplicant documentation, but you might want to have a look at a network manager to deal with the authentication configuration for you. A very simple one is wicd, it comes with a very simple terminal configuration client:
http://ledek.free.fr/images/wicd-curses.png
Alternative graphical front-ends for wicd are available, the wikipage is fairly complete:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wicd

Noting my lack of internet connection, could I install from the core CD? is the wicd package part of base/base-devel? Or will I have to install it via USB drive?

----
ALSO, just to clear things up...
Before connecting to a WPA network, I am hoping to just connect to my unprotected Wifi tether from my phone. Then I'll move on to the WPA network.

Ultimately, I will be running some DE, like XFCE or (possibly) GNOME. We'll see.

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 20:07:14

Varg wrote:

Jup, just copy one of the example files to /etc/network.d/ and fill everything in.

I just made the file in /etc/network.d/
Name: /etc/network.d/NETWORK-NAME
(Where NETWORK-NAME is the network name, as well as the file name)

So...uh...what now?

Thanks for help everyone...I really appreciate it.

Last edited by Superiorem (2012-01-16 20:14:14)

Gusar · 2012-01-16 20:50:09

Superiorem wrote:

So...uh...what now?

You read the documentation on how netcfg works, of course. Basically, "netcfg profilename" will start that profile. If it's set up correctly (essid, key, security) you should get a connection.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-01-16 20:51:54)

stefanwilkens · 2012-01-16 20:58:22

Superiorem wrote:

stefanwilkens wrote:
It's valuable to work your way through the wpa_supplicant documentation, but you might want to have a look at a network manager to deal with the authentication configuration for you. A very simple one is wicd, it comes with a very simple terminal configuration client:
http://ledek.free.fr/images/wicd-curses.png
Alternative graphical front-ends for wicd are available, the wikipage is fairly complete:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wicd
Noting my lack of internet connection, could I install from the core CD? is the wicd package part of base/base-devel? Or will I have to install it via USB drive?
----
ALSO, just to clear things up...
Before connecting to a WPA network, I am hoping to just connect to my unprotected Wifi tether from my phone. Then I'll move on to the WPA network.
Ultimately, I will be running some DE, like XFCE or (possibly) GNOME. We'll see.

No, wicd is part of the extra repository and not available unless you grab the required packages elsewhere. I was just pointing out something useful to replace manual configuration after the initial setup. I should have been more obvious

Quite a few additional dependencies outside of [core] are required, this wouldn't be an easy grab through an external source.

I usually disable encryption for the duration of the installation, grab a network manager like wicd and re-enable configuration. Saves headaches, though not the most informative way out.

Last edited by stefanwilkens (2012-01-16 21:00:02)

Superiorem · 2012-01-16 21:10:41

After reading the documentation, I executed

# netcfg PROFILE

(Where PROFILE is the network profile in /etc/network.d that I created earlier)

Everything seems to be working.

# ping www.google.com

Oh joy! I get a response!

# pacman -Syu

Updating now....

Thank you everyone.

stefanwilkens wrote:

Superiorem wrote:
stefanwilkens wrote:
It's valuable to work your way through the wpa_supplicant documentation, but you might want to have a look at a network manager to deal with the authentication configuration for you. A very simple one is wicd, it comes with a very simple terminal configuration client:
http://ledek.free.fr/images/wicd-curses.png
Alternative graphical front-ends for wicd are available, the wikipage is fairly complete:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wicd
Noting my lack of internet connection, could I install from the core CD? is the wicd package part of base/base-devel? Or will I have to install it via USB drive?
----
ALSO, just to clear things up...
Before connecting to a WPA network, I am hoping to just connect to my unprotected Wifi tether from my phone. Then I'll move on to the WPA network.
Ultimately, I will be running some DE, like XFCE or (possibly) GNOME. We'll see.
No, wicd is part of the extra repository and not available unless you grab the required packages elsewhere. I was just pointing out something useful to replace manual configuration after the initial setup. I should have been more obvious
Quite a few additional dependencies outside of [core] are required, this wouldn't be an easy grab through an external source.
I usually disable encryption for the duration of the installation, grab a network manager like wicd and re-enable configuration. Saves headaches, though not the most informative way out.

Thanks for the information/advice, as well as your time.

As far as I am concerned, the issue has been solved/I learned something.

I will mark this thread "Solved" tomorrow, pending on the chance of further issues (unlikely).

Thanks again everyone.

[::AP::]

Last edited by Superiorem (2012-01-16 21:13:13)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-16 18:09:55

Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#2 2012-01-16 18:17:28

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#3 2012-01-16 18:27:07

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#4 2012-01-16 18:54:49

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#5 2012-01-16 19:36:57

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#6 2012-01-16 19:37:33

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#7 2012-01-16 19:56:12

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#8 2012-01-16 20:01:59

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#9 2012-01-16 20:04:10

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#10 2012-01-16 20:07:14

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#11 2012-01-16 20:50:09

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#12 2012-01-16 20:58:22

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

#13 2012-01-16 21:10:41

Re: Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi Issues

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