[SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

oztheogre · 2011-02-24 16:07:57

Ok so this has had me puzzled for a while, this is the output from an lspci of my wireless card:

06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

So I load the b43 module and it appears to work fine, iwconfig can see wlan0 and so can ifconfig. My problem is that I cant seem to acutally turn the card on, meaning I cant connect to wireless networks. I know the b43 driver works as this is what I was using in Lubuntu. From what I can tell the only difference I can see between the modules loaded in Arch and Lubuntu (after greping b43) is the led_class (im guessing this deals with the wireless switch on my laptop, which is what I would like to get working). However I cant seem to find it anywhere in the kernel (might be me being a bit stupid) and there isnt a package for it in user repo's.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks,
Oz

Last edited by oztheogre (2011-02-25 16:22:14)

lagagnon · 2011-02-24 16:23:33

Use the command "iwlist" (see "man iwlist") to check if the receiver seems to be finding networks and to check if the transmitter is working.

oztheogre · 2011-02-24 16:56:37

lagagnon wrote:

Use the command "iwlist" (see "man iwlist") to check if the receiver seems to be finding networks and to check if the transmitter is working.

Thats the problem, I cant turn the card on to be able to find a network or even to see if the transmitter is working.

iwlist power
lo        no power management information.

eth0      no power management information.

wlan0     Current mode:off

But thanks for the suggestion

Last edited by oztheogre (2011-02-24 16:57:07)

jelly · 2011-02-24 17:04:42

check rfkill

oztheogre · 2011-02-24 17:45:14

jelly wrote:

check rfkill

Yea I have tried rfkill but with no luck. I can remove the hardblock with the button, however this doesnt turn on the card..

Again thanks for the suggestion.

ewaller · 2011-02-24 19:07:52

oztheogre wrote:

Ok so this has had me puzzled for a while, this is the output from an lspci of my wireless card:
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
So I load the b43 module and it appears to work fine, iwconfig can see wlan0 and so can ifconfig....

I am not certain, but I believe you can do all of that without actually loading the firmware to the NIC. Did you install core/b43-fwcutter ??
Dmesg should have clues as to whether the firmware exists and was (or was not) successful loaded to the card when the driver started.

oztheogre · 2011-02-25 11:22:37

ewaller wrote:

oztheogre wrote:
Ok so this has had me puzzled for a while, this is the output from an lspci of my wireless card:
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
So I load the b43 module and it appears to work fine, iwconfig can see wlan0 and so can ifconfig....
I am not certain, but I believe you can do all of that without actually loading the firmware to the NIC. Did you install core/b43-fwcutter ??
Dmesg should have clues as to whether the firmware exists and was (or was not) successful loaded to the card when the driver started.

Yes i have installed core/b43-fwcutter, and here is what dmesg says:

b43-phy1: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found (core revision 10)
Registered led device: b43-phy1::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy1::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy1::radio
b43-phy1 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
b43-phy1 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
b43-phy1 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Im currently following the instructions on that website and I will report back with the results.

*EDIT*
Ok so I followed the b43 guide from the wireless.kernel.org page, when I go to extract and write the firmware I get this error message

Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by b43-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum 80c7bb743de4025f57ac7166dac7bc4a.

Last edited by oztheogre (2011-02-25 11:53:30)

ewaller · 2011-02-25 15:35:03

Okay, the lack of firmware is definitely your problem.

Can you verify the b43-fwcutter as being version 013 ?? ( check output of: b43-fwcutter -v )
You might try b43-firmware from the AUR

oztheogre · 2011-02-25 16:21:13

ewaller wrote:

Okay, the lack of firmware is definitely your problem.
Can you verify the b43-fwcutter as being version 013 ?? ( check output of: b43-fwcutter -v )
You might try b43-firmware from the AUR

Thank you ewaller that worked a treat. Feel like a bit of a lemon for missing that but I guess thats one of the reasons the forums are here
Again thanks I can now mark this solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-24 16:07:57

[SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#2 2011-02-24 16:23:33

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#3 2011-02-24 16:56:37

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#4 2011-02-24 17:04:42

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#5 2011-02-24 17:45:14

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#6 2011-02-24 19:07:52

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#7 2011-02-25 11:22:37

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#8 2011-02-25 15:35:03

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

#9 2011-02-25 16:21:13

Re: [SOLVED]Cant Turn My WiFi Card On.

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