[SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

Ben9250 · 2010-06-11 15:41:22

Hi there, I've just installed Arch on my laptop with dual boot Ubuntu. I have no wireless but when I boot up with a cable connected those default network settings connect me - I tested by pinging www.google.com as it says in the beginners guide. I've had a good read around the forum and wiki but as this is the first time trying to attempt something like this I'm a tiny bit stuck.

Reading the beginners guide wiki on configuring a wireless network after reboot I used the commands

# iwconfig

and it returned:

lo         no wireless extensions.

eth0     no wireless extensions.

Which is odd as

lspci | grep Network

returns

0b:00.0 Network controller: Boradcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)

and its logical name I know from Ubuntu is eth1.

Now I took this to mean the driver wasn't working, this is a Broadcom BCM 4328 802.11a/b/g/n so it needs firmware. In Ubuntu I downloaded the bc43-fwcutter package thing ad it extracted the firmware and got the driver and card and everything working. So during the install from core CD (or USB in my case) I marked that package for install so I'm a bit unsure of how to proceed. I considered following the instructions here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 62#p773362 and then continuing with the beginners guide to getting everything working. But I realise there are also instructions on setting up wireless for such as my card but there are BCM43XX, b43, and broadcom-wl (the method used in the HOWTO), so three different but still similar things listed in the wiki. So I'm really a bit unsure of how to proceed.

The output from lspci -v for my card is:

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM 802.11a/b/g/n (rev03)
                       Subsystem: Del Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card 
                       Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
                       Memory at f9efc000 (64bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16k]
                       Memory at f000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=1M]
                       Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                       Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
                       Capabilities [e8] MSI: Eable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                       Capabilities [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
                       Capabilities [100] Advanced Error Reporting
                       Capabilities [13c] Virtual Channel
                       Capabilities [160] Device Serial Number 7f-9b-e1-ff-ff-c5-00-1f
                       Capabilities [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
                       Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
                       Kernel modules ssb

I just included this as a few other forums I looked at with people who had wireless issues have asked for it.
Thank you sooooo much in advance to anyone who can help save my sanity (I'm doing all this as root)

{EDIT} I entered

dmesg | grep firmware

to see if there was any error regarding firmware ad my wireless car and there was nothing returned. =S really very very confused now.

Last edited by Ben9250 (2010-07-05 21:48:02)

Gargamel1 · 2010-06-12 07:18:59

Sorry if you have, but have you already looked at this wiki page?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_BCM4312

tomk · 2010-06-12 08:10:34

You should try b43 first - that's the recommended driver for Broadcom devices, provided by the kernel package. If that doesn't work, try the wl driver.

bcm43xx is obsolete, and is no longer provided in recent kernels.

Ben9250 · 2010-06-12 11:41:32

Ok, I was stuggling to decide which to go for, either b43 or the wl one. A guy got my same model card working with the wl, but I was going to attempt both. A furthur question, he extracted and got broadcom-wl with yaourt, which I understand does the package building for you automated. In the b43 wiki it talks about getting b43-firmware, or b43-firmware-newest for newer cards, or b43-firmware-legacy for older cards. And presents a suggested method for a step by step in the terminal for what I take as installing said firmware, would it be possible for simply doing yaourt to do this? I haven't got around to reading about the AUR and how it works yet because reading about the wireless has taken most of my attention. Similarly is there a likewise way to get the driver mentioned on this page: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_BCM4312 from AUR?

Last edited by Ben9250 (2010-06-12 11:45:12)

Ben9250 · 2010-06-12 15:26:08

Hey I decided to go with the broadcom-wl option and I think it appears to have worked, I followed the instructions at http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=59148 and when I use the commands to get the outputs he generated I get the following:

lspci:

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)

lsmod | grep wl:

wl          1944142  0
lib80211                3942  2  lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl

iwconfig:

lo     no wireless extensions.
eth0     IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"" Nickname:""
            Mode: Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
            Bit Rate: 2Mb/s   Tx-Power: 24 dBm
            Retry min limit:7   RTS thr: off   Fragment thr: off
            Encryption key: off
            Power Managementmode:All packets recived
            Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
            Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0 Rxinvalid frag:0
            Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0    Missed beacon:0
eth1     no wireless extension.

I think this means it's worked as I can see the 802.11abgn code that matches my wireless card. I also added eth1 to the rc.conf file:

eth1="dhcp"

and

INTERFACES=(eth0 eth1)

I hope this is correct?

Last edited by Ben9250 (2010-06-12 16:03:15)

nss_archer · 2010-06-12 23:18:49

your wirless interface is eth0 and not eth1

to connect try

ifconfig eth0 up
iwconfig eth0 channel auto
iwconfig eth0 essid "YOUR_ESSID"
dhcpcd eth0

Or try installing the network manager

pacman -S network-manager-applet

Last edited by nss_archer (2010-06-12 23:19:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-11 15:41:22

[SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

#2 2010-06-12 07:18:59

Re: [SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

#3 2010-06-12 08:10:34

Re: [SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

#4 2010-06-12 11:41:32

Re: [SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

#5 2010-06-12 15:26:08

Re: [SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

#6 2010-06-12 23:18:49

Re: [SOLVED] Problem with Wifi

Board footer