HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards

[stupiduglyfool]

I've noticed in edgy that network-manager-gnome doesn't play well, it'll show the networks in range, and it'll attempt to connect.. but it won't actually connect, and where wpa networks are listed it'll ask for a psk, but it still doesn't do anything.

However, I can connect manually using iwconfig, including using wpa, this guide i found particular useful:

http://www.vollink.com/gary/deb_wifi.html

(although i skipped the part on ifplugd and messing with /etc/network/interfaces)

[calvinthomas]

I've noticed in edgy that network-manager-gnome doesn't play well, it'll show the networks in range, and it'll attempt to connect.. but it won't actually connect, and where wpa networks are listed it'll ask for a psk, but it still doesn't do anything.

However, I can connect manually using iwconfig, including using wpa, this guide i found particular useful:

http://www.vollink.com/gary/deb_wifi.html

(although i skipped the part on ifplugd and messing with /etc/network/interfaces)

I really need to get WPA setup and am having trouble, I went to the link and followed the bit for wpasupplicant (skipping the bit you did) but I don't have the file to do this part:

sudo /etc/init.d/wpasupplicant start

It says command not found, is that file somewhere else? I'm in edgy but I don't think it should make any difference (everything else seems the same) and the guide here works fine for edgy

Calv

[brio_ko]

Ok I have a Dell Inspiron B120 (yes, I know it sucks... Don't Laugh)

Obvioulsy I'm unable to get the wireless working, I had a distro of Kubuntu loaded on the same computer and was able to use the wireless fine. However since loading Ubuntu I'm unable to utilize the wireless. I've gone through the steps at the begining of this Forum with no luck. I'm able get an IP address from my WAP but not able to utilze it. I can use iwlist to scan fine if config works, and I can see the device in the GUI tool, but the WLAN light only flickers on the "crap-top" Laptop and doesn't stay on. I've dual booted into windows and the card works well there also

brian@brian-laptop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:9E:2B:87
inet addr:192.168.69.38 Bcast:192.168.69.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:22ff:fe9e:2b87/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5046 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2866 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4303147 (4.1 MiB) TX bytes:441158 (430.8 KiB)
Interrupt:217

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:A5:4F:2F:BC
inet addr:192.168.69.37 Bcast:192.168.69.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:a5ff:fe4f:2fbc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:105 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:16143 (15.7 KiB) TX bytes:4304 (4.2 KiB)
Interrupt:209 Memory:dfbfe000-dfc00000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:672 (672.0 b) TX bytes:672 (672.0 b)

brian@brian-laptop:~$


Any suggestions would be Great

[stupiduglyfool]

calvin, I don't have that either,

what i did was to get /etc/network/interfaces to do the wpa supplicant stuff by adding this under the wlan0 section:

pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -ieth0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

After that's inplace, I did: sudo ifdown wlan0; sudo ifup wlan0

ps aux | grep wpa lists the supplicant...

Now I ditched the network-manager-gnome, and am just using the standard ubuntu network applet. At first the metric thing goes green, eventually it'll connect and ifconfig shows I have a IP address.. I can ping network addresses etc..

[stupiduglyfool]

brio_ko, I see you have eth0 and eth1, I presume one is wireless and one is wired, I think sometimes this can cause problems so try disabling the wired one.

[calvinthomas]

calvin, I don't have that either,

what i did was to get /etc/network/interfaces to do the wpa supplicant stuff by adding this under the wlan0 section:

pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -ieth0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

After that's inplace, I did: sudo ifdown wlan0; sudo ifup wlan0

ps aux | grep wpa lists the supplicant...

Now I ditched the network-manager-gnome, and am just using the standard ubuntu network applet. At first the metric thing goes green, eventually it'll connect and ifconfig shows I have a IP address.. I can ping network addresses etc..

Ok, i'll try that, however shouldn't that code be:

[CODE]
what i did was to get /etc/network/interfaces to do the wpa supplicant stuff by adding this under the wlan0 section:

pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dndiswrapper -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Since the wireless connects through eth1 and uses ndiswrapper? Or should I just leave it as default?

Also, for the ESSID, should I put the quotation marks around the name or not? Also for the psk should I put that in the word format i.e. password or in the long letter and number format E31356GHTS bla bla bla? Finally should that have the quotation marks around it?

Sorry for being a pain.

Calv

Calv

[calvinthomas]

After putting this code in exactly as you have said it (except eth0 changed to eth1) I get these:

sudo ifdownwlan0

ifdown: interface wlan0 not configured

sudo ifupwlan0

There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 134993416
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
Bind socket to interface: No such device
Failed to bring up wlan0.

So I tried sudo ifdowneth1 and I get:

There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid with pid 5312
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth1/00:14:a4:5d:3f:67
Sending on   LPF/eth1/00:14:a4:5d:3f:67
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth1 to 192.168.1.254 port 67
send_packet: Network is unreachable
send_packet: please consult README file regarding broadcast address.

sudo ifupeth1:

There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid with pid 134993416
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth1/00:14:a4:5d:3f:67
Sending on   LPF/eth1/00:14:a4:5d:3f:67
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.254
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.254
bound to 192.168.1.105 -- renewal in 19635 seconds.

That however is without the protection on, so i'm gonna put it on now and see if anything changes, if i've got anything odd there please let me know, i'll report back with my findings.

Calv

[stupiduglyfool]

I'm not at my ubuntu machine at the moment so I can't confirm what i did with regards to the quotes.

I think for ssid in the wpa_supplicant conf file you need to enclose it in quotes. Psk not in quotes.

The value for psk should be what was generated by the wpa_passphrase tool..

eg.
wpa_passphrase essid psk

In my case, I used that output as the basis for constructing my wpa_supplicant.conf file, and added the extra bits in from the guide I mentioned earlier.

[stupiduglyfool]

Ok in my case my wireless device is known as wlan0, as yours is eth1, you'll need to substitute wlan0 for eth1 where applicable..

[compwiz18]

My two cents:

Put quotes around an essid only if it has spaces: eg an essid of Bob doesn't need quotes, but one called "Bob and Fred" does.

Not sure if this is correct.