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Demind

Member

Registered: 2007-07-10

Posts: 111

[SOLVED] BCM4313: broadcom-wl problem, I can not set any ESSID

Hi guys I'm experiencing a weird problem with my laptop wireless card, a Broadcom 4313. I have installed the broadcom-wl driver as suggested in the Wiki and everything went smoothly during the installation, I can properly load the module with modprobe

[marco@zonzock ~]$ lsmod | grep wl
wl                   1944193  0 
lib80211                3966  2 wl,lib80211_crypt_tkip

And checking the system log for any possible kernel error (with dmesg) I get:

wl 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
wl 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP'
eth1: Broadcom BCM4727 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 5.60.48.36 

So everything seems fine, in fact if I try a sudo iwconfig I get:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:8 Mb/s   Tx-Power:24 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

And now the weird thing, I can't choose any ESSID!!Look at this:

[marco@zonzock ~]$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid test
[marco@zonzock ~]$ sudo iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:8 Mb/s   Tx-Power:24 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

So I can't do anything...I'm stuck there, and I couldn't solve my problem even googleing around.
Just to do some further test I have tried to change the power management mode (if you look before is set to off and as you can see below I can change the mode without problems so in some way the driver is partially working

[marco@zonzock ~]$ sudo iwconfig eth1 power on
[marco@zonzock ~]$ sudo iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:8 Mb/s   Tx-Power:24 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Managementmode:All packets received
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

 

What can I do to solve this problem?On windows 7 I can connect without problems, the laptop is new and I'm a but frustrated now..I'm not using my NVIDIA hybrid graphic card since linux support isn't provided, I wouldn't like having other problems with the wireless too...

I am sorry for the long post but I wanted to give you as many informations as I can on this problem!Thanks a lot

Last edited by Demind (2010-08-29 23:35:35)

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: [SOLVED] BCM4313: broadcom-wl problem, I can not set any ESSID

The Broadcom driver is buggy and incomplete, you might not see the essid in ifwconfig output but it does associate. Here is my current output while i'm browsing the forums:

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  Nickname:""
          Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Link Quality:5  Signal level:202  Noise level:165
          Rx invalid nwid:0  invalid crypt:0  invalid misc:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

(i've mapped eth1 to wlan0)

What is you actual problem? Are you using any kind of networkmanager?

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ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

Demind

Member

Registered: 2007-07-10

Posts: 111

Re: [SOLVED] BCM4313: broadcom-wl problem, I can not set any ESSID

The Broadcom driver is buggy and incomplete, you might not see the essid in ifwconfig output but it does associate. Here is my current output while i'm browsing the forums:

You are right, it's buggy and incomplete...:(

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  Nickname:""
          Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Link Quality:5  Signal level:202  Noise level:165
          Rx invalid nwid:0  invalid crypt:0  invalid misc:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

You need to be root to see your essid, if you are not root the driver does not show you all the informations...this is a problem i.e. for programs like conky.

(i've mapped eth1 to wlan0)

What is you actual problem? Are you using any kind of networkmanager?

I've solved this problem one hour ago...using other boards I could set any essid I wanted even if I didn't  set any keys, with this driver in order to set the essid I need to set the key before...just for the record network manager works far better than wicd when using this driver

Thanks for your answer!

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: [SOLVED] BCM4313: broadcom-wl problem, I can not set any ESSID

You need to be root to see your essid, if you are not root the driver does not show you all the informations...this is a problem i.e. for programs like conky.

You're right, good one..

I've solved this problem one hour ago...using other boards I could set any essid I wanted even if I didn't  set any keys, with this driver in order to set the essid I need to set the key before...just for the record network manager works far better than wicd when using this driver

Good to hear, please mark your topic solved.

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ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ