Arch Linux

Kopachris

Member

Registered: 2009-11-15

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

It took me a while, but I eventually figured out the installation of Arch PPC on my 17" PowerBook G4 and installed and used b43-fwcutter to install the firmware for my wireless card (BCM4318, Airport Extreme).  I plugged the computer directly into the router for all of that.  Right now, my wireless card is kind of working; it will connect to our network and get a dhcp lease, but can't ping any computers either on our local network or on the internet.  I need some help, please, if anyone is willing to help me.

I can follow given instructions as long as they're pretty explicit.  I tried installing and configuring netcfg to try to get wifi working.  I think the card, driver, and firmware are alright, but I'm just not configuring it correctly (yes, I tried reading the manual).  If you want, I can post my rc.conf and the netcfg configuration I'm using (/etc/network.d/wifi).  I can also completely reinstall if I you think I totally messed things up.  Just please help me help you help me.

There seems to be very little useful documentation regarding Linux on PPC computers, especially when it comes to wireless networking, and I'm pretty new to it.  I know my way around, but diagnosing problems isn't my forte.

EDIT: Btw, it's not a Wireless-B/G problem, the router is set to use both.

Last edited by Kopachris (2009-11-20 00:41:32)

cobra2

Member

From: deep in Dixie with Arch64

Registered: 2009-09-10

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

can you toss up a 'lspci -n' of your card? I want to see if it is the same as mine. I also have a BCM4312 but in a HP. My only solution was to install the 'wl' blob driver from AUR. I'm no expert, but this might be the same card.

09:00.0 0280: 14e4:4315 (rev 01)

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Hardware is like a parachute.... works best when open.

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

In the dmesg output there is nothing that could help you?

Kopachris

Member

Registered: 2009-11-15

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

I made a mistake, I have a 4318 in my PowerBook.  The lspci -n entry for it is:

0001:10:11.0 0280: 14e4:4318

I have no clue what it means, but you can be sure I'll try to find out.  I'll try installing that wl blob driver you spoke of.  Can I get a little more info, or an Arch wiki link please?

The only interesting thing dmesg returns is:

wlan0 (b43): not using net_device_ops yet

Last edited by Kopachris (2009-11-19 01:26:37)

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

You have a know card, you can run fine the b43 module. Have you read [1] ?

Have you downloaded / installed firmware?

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Kopachris

Member

Registered: 2009-11-15

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

You have a know card, you can run fine the b43 module. Have you read [1] ?

Have you downloaded / installed firmware?

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Yes, I've read that link and I installed the firmware—I plugged my computer directly into our wireless router with an ethernet cable to install b43-fwcutter.  From what it does, it seems like the driver and firmware are fine, but I'm not configuring the wireless correctly.  This is what I did:

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "poison"
# dhcpd wlan0

Which should work as far as the instructions on the ArchWiki go—connect to the network "poison" and get an address from dhcp—right?  After I do that, it asks for and receives a dhcp lease from the router, and seems fine until I try to ping something and I get 100% packet loss.

Kopachris

Member

Registered: 2009-11-15

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] 17" PowerBook G4, need wifi help

What a stupid mistake! When I was setting up the wireless in rc.conf, I neglected to read the bit about "...to be activated on boot (in this order)...", so I had eth0 in first, and it would time out because there was no connection.  I don't exactly know why, but unplugging the ethernet cable before running netcfg seemed to do the trick.  Now all I need to do is set up internet sharing, then I can get on with my total migration to Linux.