Re: Kernel 2.6.20 and bcm43xx driver
Thanks for your reply Freddy. I usually configure my wireless card with a self written bash script. It's very simple to use- especially if you don't want your wireless interface to come up by itself. In your opinion, will wpasupplicant make it easier to configure an interface? I use WEP encryption and not WPA encryption.
Does anyone else have an idea on what I need to do to get this working?
On 3/1/07, Freddy Freeloader <
fredddy@cableone.net> wrote:Mr Alk3 wrote:
> Here is where I am at:
> I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 running Debian Etch. I have a
2.6.20 custom
> kernel with the bcm43xx module support. As far as I can tell, when I
> boot
> the module is loaded and the output of iwconfig only shows eth0 and lo
> interfaces with now wireless extensions. When I do a 'modporbe
> bcm43xx' the
> wlan0 interfaces appears and seems to work. I am confused though,
> because
> when I do and 'iwconfig wlan0 essid <ap name>' it doesn't work. Here
> is the
> output when I tried to configure iwconfig essid:
> +++++++++++++++++
> # iwconfig wlan0 essid "byteme"
> # iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"b" Nickname:"Broadcom 4311"
> Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
> RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
> Encryption key:off
> Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
> +++++++++++++++++
> It only lets me use 5 characters and lowercase for my AP name. My ap
> essid
> is actually "ByteMe"
> +++++++++++++++++
> # iwconfig wlan0 essid "bytem"
> # iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"bytem" Nickname:"Broadcom 4311"
> Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
> RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
> Encryption key:off
> Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
> +++++++++++++++++
> I dont understand. do I need to rename my AP essid to lesser/lowercase
> characters? What could be causing this?
>
> I usually just run a script that modprobes the module, configures my
> wireless interface from iwconfig and then runs 'dhclient wlan0'.
> Should I
> be using /etc/network/interfaces or does it matter?
>
>
> On 3/1/07, Freddy Freeloader <fredddy@cableone.net> wrote:
>>
>> Mr Alk3 wrote:
>> > Here is the output of 'lspci -v' for the NIC
>> > =====================
>> > 0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390
>> WLAN
>> > Mini-PCI Card (rev 01)
>> > Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 0007
>> > Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
>> > Memory at efdfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>> > Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
>> > Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit-
>> > Queue=0/0 Enable-
>> > Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
>> > Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
>> > Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
>> > =====================
>> > I have never used the bcm43xx module to run a broadcom chipset
>> > wireless card
>> > and have a few quick questions:
>> >
>> > If I do a 'modprobe bcm43xx' as root, is that all I need to do to
>> get my
>> > 'ethX' interface to show up?
>> >
>> > Is there anymore configuration needed?
>> >
>> > At boot up I get this when the wireless card is found:
>> > =====================
>> >
>> > bcm43xx driver
>> > bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4311, rev 0x1
>> > bcm43xx: Number of cores: 4
>> > bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x11, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0xa, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x817, rev 0x3, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x820, rev 0x1, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: PHY connected
>> > bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 4, Type 2, Revision 8
>> > bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2)
>> > bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>> > bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>> > bcm43xx: set security called, .active_key = 0, .level = 1, .enabled
>> = 1,
>> > .encrypt = 1, .auth_mode = 0
>> > bcm43xx: PHY connected
>> > bcm43xx driver
>> > bcm43xx driver
>> > bcm43xx driver
>> > bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4311, rev 0x1
>> > bcm43xx: Number of cores: 4
>> > bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x11, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0xa, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x817, rev 0x3, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x820, rev 0x1, vendor 0x4243
>> > bcm43xx: PHY connected
>> > bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 4, Type 2, Revision 8
>> > bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2)
>> > bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>> > bcm43xx: Radio turned off
>> > bcm43xx: set security called, .active_key = 0, .level = 1, .enabled
>> = 1,
>> > .encrypt = 1, .auth_mode = 0
>> > bcm43xx: PHY connected
>> > bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x13f, pl 0x66 (2005-10-15 22:46:19)
>> > bcm43xx: set security called, .active_key = 0, .level = 1, .enabled
>> = 1,
>> > .encrypt = 1, .auth_mode = 0
>> > bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x13f, pl 0x66 (2005-10-15 22:46:19)
>> > bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x13f, pl 0x66 (2005-10-15 22:46:19)
>> > bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x13f, pl 0x66 (2005-10-15 22:46:19)
>> > bcm43xx: Microcode rev 0x13f, pl 0x66 (2005-10-15 22:46:19)
>> >
>> >
>> > Does 'Radio turned off' mean I need to do something more to get the
>> card
>> > active?
>> >
>> > I have the firmware, the NIC doesn't show up as 'ethX'. 'wlan0
>> shows up
>> > even without ndiswrapper installed. So, I tried to connect to an AP
>> > and I
>> > try to enter the essid and its a no go, with wlan0. My AP name is
>> > "ByteMe"
>> > and I can only enter in lowercase and up to 5 characters, so: "bytem"
>> >
>> > What is my problem? The driver is loaded and the hardware is
>> recognized,
>> > what else is there?
>> >
>> > I just joined this mailing list and do not have the time to search for
>> > this
>> > topic, sorry if this has already been answered.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance!
>> >
>> > Alk3
>> >
>> I've seen the "radio off" message in dmesg on my system too when I was
>> playing with the bcm43xx module. For some reason that module starts,
>> then stops, and then restarts the radio.
>>
>> If you used fwcutter-bcm43xx to extract the software it should have
>> placed the firmware in the correct location.
>>
>> As to your problem entering the ssid I'm not sure where you are doing
>> this. I always configure my network connections in
>> /etc/network/interfaces, and if I am going to use a secured AP, in
>> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.
>>
>> You can find the documentation for configuring wpa_supplicant in
>> /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant. There are example configurations given
>> there.
>>
>>
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>>
>
I'm a relative noob to wireless as I never owned a laptop until about a
year ago.
What I have done to configure my wireless connections is:
1. I run ifconfig -a to see what interfaces show up.
2. Edit /etc/network/interfaces to add the appropriate entry for the
wireless card.
3. If using wpa_supplicant on the wireless interface edit
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf with the appropriate network
information for home, office, and roaming sites.
Here is my /etc/network/interfaces entry for my wireless card. It shows
up as eth0 for some reason, but that's no biggie to me.
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
wpa-driver wext
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface home inet dhcp
iface roam inet dhcp
Here is my entry in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group-wheel
network={
ssid="my_ssid"
id_str="home"
psk="my_secret"
key_mgmt-WPA-PSK
}
network-{
ssid=""
id_str="roam"
key_mgmt=NONE
}
I could put a priority on the interfaces but I haven't needed to yet as
there are no wireless networks close enough to my home to confuse the
system. It takes a little while when roaming for the system to give up
on "home" but then it picks up any open wireless network I choose using
the KwifiManager. (I use Gnome but have full installations of both
Gnome and KDE so the full complement of software is available to show
people. I also have several gui's available for people to look at too.)
Hope this helps. I'm running Sid rather than Etch, but I think Etch
will use the same syntax as Sid as I think it uses the same version of
wpa_supplicant. If it isn't just look up the documentation in
/usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant.
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