D600 Wifi

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-20 08:21:40

Hey all, I'm playing with an old Dell D600 and having some wifi issues. Theres a wiki entry about this laptop that shows to install ipw2200-fw for the wifi driver, but I'm still not sure how to get the adapter to show. Its not listed in /sys/class/net/ and neither wicd or networkmanager wont detect the wifi device. Any help would be great!

Thanks!

VanillaFunk · 2014-03-20 08:49:10

what is the output of

ifconfig

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-21 02:26:23

The wifi device doesn't show up. I found out its actually a Broadcom chip...

lspci -v

02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
	Memory at fafee000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb

ifconfig

enp2s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.14  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::211:43ff:fe38:7e52  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 00:11:43:38:7e:52  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 369  bytes 99980 (97.6 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 173  bytes 27219 (26.5 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 11  

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 0  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

I tried building the broadcom driver from the AUR but I get an error with makepkg.... hmmm

EDIT: Things changed. I found the exact module I needed for this chip and loaded it, also forgot "base-deve" to use the AUR lol. Any way I have wlan0 now in my ifconfig output but it says "ethernet".. New output:
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:0b:7d:0f:f6:2b txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wicd still doesn't show any wireless networks, and I'm not to sure what to do from here...

thanks

Last edited by darkreaper476 (2014-03-21 18:27:01)

VanillaFunk · 2014-03-21 14:37:33

enp2s0 & wlan0 (that seems odd to me. I would expect it to be a wlp#s0) i havent seen wlan0 in a while

wlp2s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.8  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::3:f5ff:fe98:1af9  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 02:03:f5:98:1a:f9  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 3749  bytes 2852296 (2.7 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 474  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 2965  bytes 410468 (400.8 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

however mine works yet says ethernet as well so I dont believe that is the problem. i do think its odd that the devices are labeled as I mentioned can you enable dhcpcd and connect?

-- edit --

just to make double sure you have enabled wicd in systemd correct?

Last edited by VanillaFunk (2014-03-21 14:38:21)

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-21 15:12:47

Is the 'exact module' you need for this card still broadcom-wl? If so, it may be marked as ethernet because the broadcom sta driver still puts the module in the eth* namespace. Just a guess...

Also @darkreaper476, please please use code tags (and quote tags) when appropriate. Follow the 'BBCode' link below to see how to do these things and much much more.

tomk · 2014-03-21 17:16:05

You need either b43 or b43legacy for that card - these are both provided by the kernel, so no need to build any stuff from the AUR.

b43 is for pci id 14e4:4307, b43legacy for pci id 14e4:4306. Both of these are referred to as BCM4306 by Broadcom, but the first is Rev 3, the second Rev 2. More details here.

If you're confused, that's OK - it's all part of the wonderful experience that is Broadcom Wireless.

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-21 17:23:08

tomk wrote:

If you're confused, that's OK - it's all part of the wonderful experience that is Broadcom Wireless.

Oh god, I know. Though my BCM43228 works fine, it took me a while to wade through all the crap to figure out exactly what I needed. I would have loved if it were supported by brcmsmac or b43, but I have to use the wl module.

Still, the fact that broadcom is pretty decently supported on Linux these days is quite nice. It wasn't too long ago that if you had a broadcom card you were just screwed.

Edit: That page that tomk linked to is probably the most helpful thing I have found in determining what you need for your particular card. The table of supported devices in particular. Even though it is the b43 page, if it isn't supported by the b43 module, that table will tell you which mode it is supported by, which is nice.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2014-03-21 17:25:08)

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-21 18:36:32

Thanks for the replies. The only time I can even get the device to show up is if I install b43 from the AUR then modprobe it. I looked at the chart previously to find that yes it used b43. Maybe having the package installed is messing with things? I'll try and "modprobe b43" with out it. Also I just doubled checked, yes wicd is enabled. Lol BTW this is the BCM4306. Thanks again.

EDIT: Confirmed that with out the AUR b43-firmware package ifconfig shows no wireless device. But with it, it does.

EDIT2: Now after uninstalling and reinstalling b43-firmware I have no wlan0 again.... Damn broadcom, damn dell... Lol

Last edited by darkreaper476 (2014-03-21 18:51:10)

tomk · 2014-03-21 19:21:27

darkreaper476 wrote:

Lol BTW this is the BCM4306.

Rev 2 or Rev 3? Feel free to re-read my previous post.

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-21 22:44:12

If you still have broadcom-wl installed, it ships with a blacklist file that will prevent the b43* modules from being autoloaded.

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-21 22:53:28

Edit: just seen that's its rev3 so 'b43' should just work..

You might be on to something wonderwoofy, I did install broadcom-wl whilst trying to get this thing to work.. When I looked, there was nothing black listed.. What file should I be looking at? Thanks again!
Edit again: I have no files in /etc/modprobe.d/

Last edited by darkreaper476 (2014-03-21 23:00:28)

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-21 23:45:27

Thing that ship with the package will be in /usr/lib/modprobe.d. If you uninstalled the package it should be gone.

tomk is not telling you to just look at the revision. That can be entirely unreliable as you'll notice that the model numbers and PCI IDs are just totally wacky with broadcom wireless cards. You need to ensure that you have the card in question by looking for the hexadecimal numbers in the square brackets in the output of lspci -nn.

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-23 04:12:15

Got it,
Its 14e4:4320 BCM4306/3. But that covers both legacy AND b43. lol

Also /usr/lib/modprobe.d/ only has usb-load-ehci-first.conf. So that's clean.

Not too sure where to go from here. Does it need both maybe? This thing is weird.. Lol

Lone_Wolf · 2014-03-23 13:27:08

That chipset should work with the b43 kernel module, BUT you will need proprietary firmware.

check http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri … oned_above
the relevant part for you starts with "If you are using the b43 driver from 3.2 kernel or newer:"

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2014-03-25 10:08:28)

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-24 18:02:20

Ok I followed the steps to the best of my ability. Not sure of Archs' firmware directory, so I used the provided one. Loaded the B43 module then ran ip link set wlan0 up and got "RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill". wlan0 still doesnt show up in ifconfig either, but it does show with ip link.

tomk · 2014-03-24 22:42:36

Forget about ifconfig, it's obsolete.

Read this.

Gusar · 2014-03-24 22:47:12

ifconfig is far from obsolete. I doubt the kernel interface it uses will ever get removed. darkreaper476 did the usual mistake that I've seen *very* often - thinking for some reason that ifconfig shows all interfaces. It doesn't, it never did. ifconfig -a does. It's right there in the manpage.

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-25 05:41:07

Wow, and I thought this would be the first forum I ever posted in that didn't have typical arch user slander..

Does any one else have experience with this kind of problem?

I've "RTFM". Wireless "just works" with Manjaro on this laptop, but I don't like it.. Is there a way to maybe pull things it has to arch or, maybe something it does? Idk just thinking out side the box.

Gusar · 2014-03-25 09:44:45

It's not clear what problem exactly you have. You've installed the firmware, the driver apparently loaded, but the radio is killed. So just unkill it and wifi should work. tomk even provided the relevant wiki link.

Last edited by Gusar (2014-03-25 09:45:25)

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-25 14:37:20

The problem is that I dont know how to unkill. lol I've searched around and found a few different things. None that worked. How do I unkill? What is Killed? wlan0? IDK. It just wont go up because of RFkill....

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-25 15:11:25

tomk linked you the the exact information that you need... I'm not sure why you don't just read that.

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-25 16:40:23

*face palm* Sorry all I saw was a flame war... Should have clicked the link any way.. Well Before I clicked the link I was searching around and came across the brilliant idea to rm /dev/rfkill ......... So now when I "rfkill list" I get "Can't open RFKILL control device: No such file or directory". I tried reinstalling rfkill.. No luck... I seem to be digging myself a deeper and deeper hole...

Slithery · 2014-03-25 16:55:44

Deleting things in /dev shouldn't be an issue, everything it contains gets (re)created every time you boot.

Last edited by Slithery (2014-03-25 16:56:39)

darkreaper476 · 2014-03-25 17:13:50

Well the second time I rebooted, the command worked and I was able to "set wlan0 up". ifconfig still wont show wlan, but ifconfig -a does. Also wicd still doesn't detect it.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-20 08:21:40

D600 Wifi

#2 2014-03-20 08:49:10

Re: D600 Wifi

#3 2014-03-21 02:26:23

Re: D600 Wifi

#4 2014-03-21 14:37:33

Re: D600 Wifi

#5 2014-03-21 15:12:47

Re: D600 Wifi

#6 2014-03-21 17:16:05

Re: D600 Wifi

#7 2014-03-21 17:23:08

Re: D600 Wifi

#8 2014-03-21 18:36:32

Re: D600 Wifi

#9 2014-03-21 19:21:27

Re: D600 Wifi

#10 2014-03-21 22:44:12

Re: D600 Wifi

#11 2014-03-21 22:53:28

Re: D600 Wifi

#12 2014-03-21 23:45:27

Re: D600 Wifi

#13 2014-03-23 04:12:15

Re: D600 Wifi

#14 2014-03-23 13:27:08

Re: D600 Wifi

#15 2014-03-24 18:02:20

Re: D600 Wifi

#16 2014-03-24 22:42:36

Re: D600 Wifi

#17 2014-03-24 22:47:12

Re: D600 Wifi

#18 2014-03-25 05:41:07

Re: D600 Wifi

#19 2014-03-25 09:44:45

Re: D600 Wifi

#20 2014-03-25 14:37:20

Re: D600 Wifi

#21 2014-03-25 15:11:25

Re: D600 Wifi

#22 2014-03-25 16:40:23

Re: D600 Wifi

#23 2014-03-25 16:55:44

Re: D600 Wifi

#24 2014-03-25 17:13:50

Re: D600 Wifi

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