Very troublesome internet connection during install

kevob33 · 2016-01-22 18:57:18

I am an install of Arch Linux which will be dual-booting longside my Windows 10 set up. My laptop has a Broadcom BCM43228 network adapter and a Realtek RTL8111 Ethernet adapter. Upon Googling, it seems this network adapter is very problematic with Linux and will not work unless `broadcom-wl` or `broadcom-wl-dkms` is installed from the AUR.

The ethernet port on my laptop is very dodgey and I have to constantly wiggle it around until I see the lights come on. When I first tried my install, I had an internet connection as soon as these lights come on, but now when the lights are on and `ip link` returns that my ethernet connection is up, I have no internet connection.

I also have a USB Netgear WN111v2 Network adapter. Again, when I first tried using this I could connect no problem. However, now my WiFi shows up in `wifi-menu` and I enter the password but I get no connection. `ip link` returns that this adapter is always down, even when I set it to up.

I am completely lost as to where to go from here in order to simply get an internet connection. I haven't been able to get anything all day.

As a last resort option, is it possible to somehow download the Broadcom AUR package on Windows, put it onto a USB and then boot into the Arch install and install the package from the USB? Or else what other options do I have in order to get a connection with the devices and adapters I have.

Thank you for any help in advance, and let me know what other information you may need.

Last edited by kevob33 (2016-01-22 19:05:57)

Trilby · 2016-01-22 19:38:37

kevob33 wrote:

As a last resort option, is it possible to somehow download the Broadcom AUR package on Windows, put it onto a USB and then boot into the Arch install and install the package from the USB? Or else what other options do I have in order to get a connection with the devices and adapters I have.

It's possible - but it would be far more of a PITA than you could imagine. It would be much easier if you had another achlinux system that you could build the full wl package on, then that would be relatively easy to transfer.

However, forget all that. Your card is supported by B43. The wl driver should really be used only as a last resort as it can cause almost as many problems as it solves. B43 is pretty easy to use. You will need to get the b43-fwcutter package from the repos, and the b43-firmware package from the AUR on the windows computer. But this will be much easier than wl.

teckk · 2016-01-22 19:47:32

Start with the wiki for Arch answers

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … figuration
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … figuration
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netctl
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ge … mendations
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless

As a last resort option, is it possible to somehow download the Broadcom AUR package on Windows, put it onto a USB and then boot into the Arch install and install the package from the USB?

Yes, use the U switch with pacman

pacman -U YourPackage.tar.xz

see man pacman

kevob33 · 2016-01-22 20:54:12

Trilby wrote:

However, forget all that. Your card is supported by B43. The wl driver should really be used only as a last resort as it can cause almost as many problems as it solves. B43 is pretty easy to use. You will need to get the b43-fwcutter package from the repos, and the b43-firmware package from the AUR on the windows computer. But this will be much easier than wl.

Would it be sufficient to boot my same Arch installation USB on a different machine and, if I can get a connection there, download the two B43 packages, write them onto another USB drive and then go back onto my own machine where I would install the B43 packages from the USB during the Arch installation?

kevob33 · 2016-01-22 20:58:35

teckk wrote:

Yes, use the U switch with pacman
pacman -U YourPackage.tar.xz
see man pacman

As Trilby said above, I should only use the broadcom-wl packages as a last resort. If it does come down to this, can I simply download the .tar.xz file in Windows, copy it to a USB and then in my Arch installation I would copy the file from the USB and install it using pacman -U? Forgive my lack of Linux knowledge, but I'm trying to learn so that I can replace Windows.

Last edited by kevob33 (2016-01-22 20:59:45)

loki · 2016-01-22 22:11:50

I will say that another huge help is android tethering, if you have an android and an open usb slot I recommend that as a soultion. I have had very similar problems in the past and this worked for me.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/android_tethering

Just use that to connect temporarliy and pacman whatever you need to get your wifi card working.

Last edited by loki (2016-01-22 22:12:41)

teckk · 2016-01-22 22:41:48

Forgive my lack of Linux knowledge, but I'm trying to learn so that I can replace Windows.

No problem, you'll do yourself a favor to stop and read the wiki's for a while, they are detailed.
Also most linux commands have a man page for them.
Open a terminal and enter

man man

man pacman

You can also get some info with

pacman --help

pacman --help -U

davy_crockett · 2016-01-23 07:02:57

I have a broadcom wl card too and what I did was use an external USB wireless dongle - TP-Link TL-WN722N which works without any drivers or firmware needing to be installed. I connected with that and then downloaded the broadcom-wl driver using yarout from AUR.

In order to connect with your WLAN dongle, try the following; substituting the device names, SSID and key for the correct ones:

ip link set wlan0 up
wpa_supplicant -D nl80211,wext -i wlan0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "SSID" "key")
dhcpcd wlan0

Note: use wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211,wext -i wlan0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "SSID" "key") to send it to the background. You'll probably won't want to use the -B at first because you want to see if it works or not.

Last edited by davy_crockett (2016-01-23 07:03:53)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-01-23 11:06:32

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … net_access

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 14:56:53

loki wrote:

I will say that another huge help is android tethering, if you have an android and an open usb slot I recommend that as a soultion. I have had very similar problems in the past and this worked for me.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/android_tethering
Just use that to connect temporarliy and pacman whatever you need to get your wifi card working.

This is such an simple solution! Thank you for that, I have got my installation done but still cannot get my wifi working.

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 14:59:00

Trilby wrote:

However, forget all that. Your card is supported by B43. The wl driver should really be used only as a last resort as it can cause almost as many problems as it solves. B43 is pretty easy to use. You will need to get the b43-fwcutter package from the repos, and the b43-firmware package from the AUR on the windows computer. But this will be much easier than wl.

As suggested above, I used Android tethering to finally complete my installation. I have downloaded the two B43 backages, but I still cannot get my wireless adapter to change state to up. Any ideas on what I can attempt?

Trilby · 2016-01-23 15:16:09

kevob33 wrote:

I have downloaded the two B43 backages...

How exactly did you do this? Did you install them with pacman?

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 16:41:19

Trilby wrote:

How exactly did you do this? Did you install them with pacman?

Yes, one with pacman and the other with yaourt.

Trilby · 2016-01-23 17:01:44

What module is currently in use for the card (`lspci -k` output)? What modules are loaded (`lsmod` output)?

Have you blacklisted b43legacy and bcma?

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 18:12:49

Trilby wrote:

What module is currently in use for the card (`lspci -k` output)? What modules are loaded (`lsmod` output)?

'lspci -k' shows that the kernel module for my Network controller is 'bcma' and then 'lsmod' shows that 'bcma' is used by 'b43'. Is this the information you are looking for or should I post the entire output of the two commands?

Trilby wrote:

Have you blacklisted b43legacy and bcma?

I really don't know what ''blacklisting'' is, I'll look into it now. Should I have blacklisted them or not?

Last edited by kevob33 (2016-01-23 18:13:47)

Trilby · 2016-01-23 19:07:53

Yes you should. Please follow the links I provided. At least one of them points to a section with the link to how blacklisting works.

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 19:50:04

Trilby wrote:

Yes you should. Please follow the links I provided. At least one of them points to a section with the link to how blacklisting works.

I used the command 'mkinitcpio -M' to display all the detected modules and the list contained b43 and bcma but not b43legacy. So I will blacklist bcma, but will I not blacklist b43legacy if it is not detected? Or should I just blacklist it anyway to make sure?

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 20:17:47

I have blacklisted and disabled both modules but still no luck. Previously when I called 'wifi-menu' it would say ''scanning for networks'' and then time out, however now it says ''invalid interface specification".

Trilby · 2016-01-23 21:53:55

What is the output of `ip a` with b43legacy and bcma blacklisted (and after the reboot)?

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 22:30:03

Trilby wrote:

What is the output of `ip a` with b43legacy and bcma blacklisted (and after the reboot)?

2: enp2s0f2: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 20:6a:8a:fe:35:80 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Trilby · 2016-01-23 22:32:06

That's not the full output. I assume the 'LO' is the only entry you left out?

kevob33 · 2016-01-23 23:12:19

Trilby wrote:

That's not the full output. I assume the 'LO' is the only entry you left out?

I just realised that my comment above is the status of my ethernet connection, not the wireless adapter. Now that I think about it, I don't think the wireless adapter even showed that time I ran 'ip a'. Yesterday there was an interface there which was named 'wlp...' which was obviously the wireless adapter, but I'm certain that it wasn't there the last time.

Yes, LO was there as well as my Android tethering interface.

I'm not at my computer now so I'll have to check later.

Last edited by kevob33 (2016-01-23 23:14:48)

kevob33 · 2016-01-24 00:19:39

kevob33 wrote:

I'm not at my computer now so I'll have to check later.

I just checked and there is no wireless interface showing at all anymore.

Trilby · 2016-01-24 01:26:10

Just to make sure we're talking about the right card, can you post the output of the following:

lspci -vnn | grep -i net

kevob33 · 2016-01-24 10:47:57

Trilby wrote:

Just to make sure we're talking about the right card, can you post the output of the following:
lspci -vnn | grep -i net

'-vnn | grep -i net' returns:

02:00.2 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0a)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]

'ip link' returns:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKOWN mode DEFAULT group default
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp2s0f2: <BROADCAST,MUTLICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
   link/ether 20:6a:8a:fe:35:80 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: enp0s20u2 <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisk fq_codel state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 3e:38:c4:c9:ed:4e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Arch Linux

#1 2016-01-22 18:57:18

Very troublesome internet connection during install

#2 2016-01-22 19:38:37

Re: Very troublesome internet connection during install

#3 2016-01-22 19:47:32

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#4 2016-01-22 20:54:12

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