Fresh install of 11.10, wireless won't work, previous solutions don't either

[chili555]

Let's see if the firmware installation went well:

ls /lib/firmware/b43

You don't have to post the whole thing; it either got nothing or it got many. Just tell us which.

Now let's load up b43 and see what happens:

sudo modprobe b43
iwconfig

Now do you have a wireless interface wlan0? If not, let's check the message files and see why not:

dmesg | grep -e b43 -e irmware

If loading b43 manually does the trick, then do:

sudo su
echo b43 >> /etc/modules
exit

[Athena's Owl]

the first command, ls /lib/firmware...

I got a bunch of entries.

then I went to sudo modprobe b43 and then iwconfig and nothing happened in the terminal, but suddenly my wireless card power light came on and it's showing me a list of available networks, so I tried connecting to my router on WPA2 security, but it wouldn't connect. I even unsecured my router and restarted, still won't connect.

Then I decided that I just got too eager and ran sudo modprobe b43, and got this result:

chelsea@Data:~$ sudo modprobe b43
[sudo] password for chelsea:
chelsea@Data:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
         Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
         Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
         Power Management:off
         
chelsea@Data:~$

So i went on to root and did echo b43 etc and restarted. no good. my wireless light comes on, the computer will attempt to connect to my (unsecured) network, but it won’t actually connect.

But I have a wireless card that’s aware of its existence now, so that is good.

[chili555]

Is the ethernet cable detached? It should be.

Let's see what Network Manager is doing and what your network looks like:

sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep etwork | tail -n15
dmesg | grep -e wlan -e b43
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

Thanks.

[Athena's Owl]

Yes it was with the ethernet cable detached. when I run all these commands I don't have the ethernet in, I just plug it in so I can copy-paste the results from the terminal. And speaking of that...

These commands produced a lot of stuff:

chelsea@Data:~$ sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep etwork | tail -n15
[sudo] password for chelsea: 
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Xanadu' requires no security.  No secrets needed.
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'Xanadu'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> scanning
Mar 13 22:16:51 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating
chelsea@Data:~$

chelsea@Data:~$ dmesg | grep -e wlan -e b43
[   22.445079] b43-pci-bridge 0000:06:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
[   22.532447] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
[   22.644609] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[   22.644631] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[   22.644652] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[   25.229225] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
[   25.301409] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 5849.056289] wlan0: authenticate with 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 (try 1)
[ 5849.057873] wlan0: 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 denied authentication (status 1)
[ 5912.328904] wlan0: authenticate with 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 (try 1)
[ 5912.330464] wlan0: 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 denied authentication (status 1)
[ 5975.328879] wlan0: authenticate with 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 (try 1)
[ 5975.330524] wlan0: 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 denied authentication (status 1)
chelsea@Data:~$

I assumed you only needed the information from my (temporarily!) unsecured router, and not the other dozen or so in the area:

chelsea@Data:~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:23:69:8D:F2:38
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-37 dBm  
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"Xanadu"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000005ef5c4ef1
                    Extra: Last beacon: 632ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000658616E616475
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD7E0050F204104A0001101044000102103B00010310470010138140001DD211B29FFFC67E816B4BFB102100074C696E6B73797310230006526F7574657210240007575254353447321042000C43535630314A3345383135351054000800060050F204000110110011576972656C6573732D4720526F75746572100800020084
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F4000000

[chili555]

Man, that is wierd! This all looks great!

<info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Xanadu' requires no security. No secrets needed.
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'Xanadu'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE'
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Mar 13 22:16:50 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> scanning
Mar 13 22:16:51 Data NetworkManager[690]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating

However, over in dmesg, the news is completely different:

[ 5975.328879] wlan0: authenticate with 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 (try 1)
[ 5975.330524] wlan0: 00:23:69:8d:f2:38 denied authentication (status 1)

Please run:

iwconfig

Does it show as Mode: Managed? Next, click the Network Manager icon and select Edit Connections. Are there any settings that you entered trying to get connected? If so, delete them all. If the hardware, driver, NM and wpa_supplicant are doing the job, no human intervention is needed. I am wondering if you set up 'Create New Wireless Network...' which is NM-speak for 'create new ad-hoc computer-to-computer network' which is NOT what you want.

You might also try:

sudo modprobe -rv b43
sudo modprobe b43 nohwcrypt=1

Any improvement? If so, we can write one quick file and make it persistent.

[Athena's Owl]

I was in Mode: managed, and I deleted all my wireless connections and tried to connect again.

No good.

the first command kicked up a few lines of response, but the next one, b43 nowcrypt=1 didn't generate any response, and my wireless is still not connecting. (I didn't plug my laptop in my internet because I'm doing something on the desktop that's dependent on my connection staying connected, but I can quote and paste exactly what the commands said in a bit over an hour.

[Athena's Owl]

I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this, I wound up getting distracted by all sorts of things but here's the results of the commands:

chelsea@Data:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

At this point I did remove all the wireless networks (I only had one, the one to Xanadu) and attempted a reconnect. No good.

Here's the results of the superuser commands you suggested:

chelsea@Data:~$ sudo modprobe -rv b43
[sudo] password for chelsea: 
rmmod /lib/modules/3.0.0-16-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko
rmmod /lib/modules/3.0.0-16-generic/kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko
rmmod /lib/modules/3.0.0-16-generic/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
rmmod /lib/modules/3.0.0-16-generic/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
chelsea@Data:~$ sudo modprobe b43 nohwcrypt=1
chelsea@Data:~$

the second command didn't do anything, and I still can't connect wirelessly. Is there anything else I can try, or have we exhausted the possibilities? do I need to purchase a different router? Replacing the network card isn't something I can do, this is just supposed to be a holdover until the back to school sales in August.

[chili555]

Is there anything else I can try, or have we exhausted the possibilities?

One last thing. You might try the backported modules; there is a newer b43 and ssb in there:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.1-oneiric-generic

Reboot and let's see if things look better:

dmesg | grep -e wlan -e b43

do I need to purchase a different router?

Is yours older? With most store's liberal return policies, it seems worthwhile to buy and try to see if it's actually the router.

Even if you could connect to your current router without WPA2, I wouldn't feel happy or secure.