Wireless problems, Karmic, Amilo A1667g, Broadcom BCM4318....

[Euanbuntu]

Hello all,

I've been having the archetypical Broadcom card problems when trying to get my wireless to function. I've looked through many of the other helpful replies to other Karmic users' requests for help but unfortunately I still cannot seem to get it to work.

So far I think I have the bcm43-fwcutter installed, but each time I try to use it from the terminal (am i meant to be fiddling with it that way in order for it to work? I think I am... :s ) the sole result is a complete loss of detection of any wireless capabilities. At the moment network manager is telling me wireless is disconnected.

Would some kind soul out there be willing to help me, and thus any other Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A1667g users in setting up Karmic's wireless capabilities please?

euanbuntu

[Euanbuntu]

a few things I've managed to find whilst in the terminal:

root@scrattop:~# lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:03:0d:38:ea:b2
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=192.168.1.103 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:17 ioport:e800(size=256) memory:febff400-febff4ff memory:febc0000-febdffff(prefetchable)
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64
resources: irq:18 memory:febfc000-febfdfff
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan1
serial: 00:90:4b:e6:90:e5
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

and

root@scrattop:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:0987-6543-21
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

So basically I think I'm asking how do I enable the disabled "*-network"?

[uncaspi]

Try to remove all lines except auto lo and iface lo inet loopback in /etc/network/interfaces and reboot. Se if the network icon shows up in the panel after rebooting. If you upgrade Karmic from an older version of Ubuntu it will still use the old conf files and that could cause problems

[bkratz]

a few things I've managed to find whilst in the terminal:

root@scrattop:~# lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:03:0d:38:ea:b2
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=192.168.1.103 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:17 ioport:e800(size=256) memory:febff400-febff4ff memory:febc0000-febdffff(prefetchable)
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64
resources: irq:18 memory:febfc000-febfdfff
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan1
serial: 00:90:4b:e6:90:e5
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

and

root@scrattop:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:0987-6543-21
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

So basically I think I'm asking how do I enable the disabled "*-network"?

I may be wrong but doesn't this mean that there is switch to turn on somewhere?

[uncaspi]

Network manager doesn't handle cards which are listed in /etc/network/interfaces and it shows a message when you click the network icon that the card is not handled or configured or something like that.
Maybe there is a switch somewhere. I never found it.

[Euanbuntu]

Thank you for your thoughts, uncapsi and bkratz. Please keep them coming if you can?

I should have mentioned that the icon is there and, if you are talking about a physical switch on the outside of the machine, then the switch is on; if you're talking about a virtual switch (i.e. a programmed one), then I have no idea. However, if you do mean the physical one then maybe this is a default message which is displayed because, as there is nothing which is actually controlling the card at the moment (not for long, I hope!!) then there is effectively no power management - once it has a driver, then maybe we might have power management too? Just a thought.

I'm not sure about this message which comes up when you click the icon - I just get a wee menu from a left click giving me the option under the heading of 'Wired Network' to click on 'Auto eth0' and another to disconnect from it. Also the wireless doesn't show up as selectable. What is shown, under 'Wireless networks' is 'wireless is disabled', under that is VPN Connections. Nothing more.

From a right click I can see the usual 'Enable networking', then a non-selectable option to 'Enable Wireless', then 'Connection information', 'Edit connections', and lastly 'About' - but like I say the option to 'Enable wireless' is not highlighted, not selectable.

Not sure if the above helps, but I hope so.

I really do want to get this machine working because it's been out of action for so long (on and off for most of this year in fact, and it's my only machine) due to one thing or another, so I seriously appreciate your help everyone. More importantly than that, your help lets me learn more about Ubuntu and Linux which is something I really want to do (maybe someone'll give me a 'linux for dummies' book this christmas? certainly, it's an apt title, and if no-one does get me one I'm certainly getting one for myself!)

[Euanbuntu]

Try to remove all lines except auto lo and iface lo inet loopback in /etc/network/interfaces and reboot. Se if the network icon shows up in the panel after rebooting. If you upgrade Karmic from an older version of Ubuntu it will still use the old conf files and that could cause problems

Just to let you know, this is a fresh install but I have been playing with it for two days now trying all sorts to get it going. I did install ndiswrapper, but completely removed it after I saw how complicated it was going to be.

I'm doing what you've suggested right now.

11.33am: the sole contents of /etc/network/interfaces is this:
"auto lo
iface lo inet loopback"

I didn't need to change anything, however it's still not working