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produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

[solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Hi there,
I have a Thinkpad E135, and I needed to replace my HDD.
I installed a frech arch to the machine, and my problem is, that WLAN isn't working with that fresh install.

I have a Broadcom-chip

$ lspci | grep Broad
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43142 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

and thus installed the broadcom-wl-dkms package and NetworkManager.
This is how it worked before I put in a new HDD.

After reboot, nw shows all existing wifi-networks of the neighbourhood. But If I try to connect to a wifi-network, nw states: "connection closed" - and wont connect to any network.
Connection via LAN or USB-(tethering) works just fine

$ ifconfig 

eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.15.87  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.15.255
        inet6 fe80::9aeb:de75:b01b:f2dc  prefixlen 64  scopeid  0x20<link>
        ether 08:9e:01:91:b4:f7  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 45  bytes 4952 (4.8 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 13  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 36  bytes 3873 (3.7 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 2352  bytes 185680 (181.3 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 2352  bytes 185680 (181.3 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlan: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 62:ed:60:50:01:da  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 44
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 17  

The MAC-Address of my wifi is  00:90:a2:ca:f5:ab.
But ifconfig states it is 62:ed:60:50:01:da. After a reboot, ifconfig will even show a new and different MAC-Address for wlan.

I dont know what is going on here and really look forward to someone giving me a hint on how to fix/debug this issue.

Greetings
Joe

Last edited by produnis (2017-03-23 20:38:35)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Which broadcom chip do you have?  Post the output of the following:

lspci -vnn | grep -i net

EDIT: nevermind, it seems the 43142 chip id is unique.  And it looks like wl is the only choice for that one.  Are you blacklisting the other broadcom modules?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Hi Trilby,
I did a:

$ sudo rmmod b43
rmmod: ERROR: Module b43 is not currently loaded

$ sudo rmmod sbb
rmmod: ERROR: Module sbb is not currently loaded

$ sudo modprobe wl
$ sudo rmmod wl
$ sudo rmmod wl
rmmod: ERROR: Module wl is not currently loaded

$ sudo modprobe wl
$ sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

but that didn't change anything....

produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Hi again,
I did a

journalctl -u NetworkManager

and found this text:

(...)  NETWORKNAME has security, but secrets are required. (...)

I then clicked on NW  "connect to hidden wifi" and entered the wifi-name and the password, and.... THAT WORKED!

So, somehow - if a wifi-networks needs a passphrase - my NW won't ask for this password but just closes the connection.

Does anybody know why NW won't ask for the password // what can I do about that?

Greetings
joe

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,017

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Which NM frontend / desktop environment do you use?

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Hi seth,
I'm using xfce4 with the  network-manager-applet

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,017

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … nager#Xfce

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

I had it  installed:

$ sudo pacman -S xfce4-notifyd
warning: xfce4-notifyd-0.3.6-1 is up to date -- reinstalling

$ ps axf|grep notifyd
 5846 ?        Ssl    0:01  \_ /usr/lib/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
 7329 pts/0    S+     0:00          \_ grep notifyd

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,017

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

Then I'm out of ideas (using neither xfce nor networkmanager, i cannot even easily test) - I suggest to mark this thread as solved (since you figured the original problem) and open a new one to reflect the remaining issue.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

produnis

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-09-29

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] WiFi networks recognized, can't connect (broadcom-wl)

yeah, I did so...
thx for your help anyway!