Re: Need Help Config'ing a Broadcomm Wireless NIC
On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:58:57 -0600
Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
> Celejar wrote:
> > On Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:23:07 -0600
> > Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
...
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo aptitude install b43-fwcutter
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Reading extended state information
> Initializing package states... Done
> Reading task descriptions... Done
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
> b43-fwcutter
> 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 52 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B/16.4kB of archives. After unpacking 69.6kB will be used.
> Writing extended state information... Done
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> Selecting previously deselected package b43-fwcutter.
> (Reading database ... 160197 files and directories currently installed.)
> Unpacking b43-fwcutter (from .../b43-fwcutter_1%3a011-5_i386.deb) ...
> Processing triggers for man-db ...
> Setting up b43-fwcutter (1:011-5) ...
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Reading extended state information
> Initializing package states... Done
> Writing extended state information... Done
> Reading task descriptions... Done
>
> This didn't do any downloading and cutting like my earlier run of
> bcm43xx-fwcutter; do I need to be concerned about that?
>
> Do I need to uninstall bcm43xx-fwcutter?
>
That does seem a bit odd; if there's trouble down the line, I suppose
you could try purging both the cutters and then reinstalling
b43-fwcutter, but it seems from the subsequent output that we won't
need to.
...
> > These two are your Broadcom interfaces. wmaster0 is a sort of
> > placeholder for the hardware, and is of almost no practical use to
> > you. wlan0 is a regular interface, usable like other network
> > interfaces.
> >
>
> I don't really understand that, but I can live with my fuzzy knowledge
> if I can get it to working.
I don't understand it fully myself, but the way to think of it is that
each hardware device that's supported by the mac80211 kernel code that
underlies many modern drivers gets a wmaster interface created for it,
and then the individual drivers can create one or more normal, usable
network interfaces. [There can indeed be more than one; you can have
wlan0 in managed (client) mode, and mon0 in promiscuous, scanning
monitor mode, both based off a single wmaster0 "interface".] On my
system, I have an internal Broadcom card, as well as a PCMCIA Atheros
card that I sometimes use. When they are both plugged in, I'll have
wmaster0 for the Broadcom and wmaster1 for the Atheros, and eth0 for
the normal Broadcom client mode interface (renamed from wlan0 by udev),
perhaps mon0 for the Broadcom in monitor mode, ath0 for the Atheros in
client mode, etc.
...
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
> wlan0 Scan completed :
> Cell 01 - Address: 00:12:17:CD:47:AB
> ESSID:"klonk"
> Mode:Master
> Channel:6
> Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
> Quality=43/100 Signal level=-69 dBm Noise
> level=-60 dBm
> Encryption key:off
> 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; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
> 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
> Extra:tsf=00000003bc243004
> Cell 02 - Address: 00:1B:5B:FB:BD:A1
> ESSID:"2WIRE387"
> Mode:Master
> Channel:1
> Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
> Quality=36/100 Signal level=-76 dBm Noise
> level=-60 dBm
> Encryption key:on
> Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
> 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
> 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
> Extra:tsf=00000004501d2181
>
>
> Sweet! This means the wireless card is basically working, since it sees
> my network ("klonk"), right? (I have no idea who has the 2WIRE387
At least somewhat working :).
> network (it's not a default name in my wireless card, talking to itself,
> is it? Surely it's a neighbor's network?)
From
http://www.wirelessroomservice.com/2wire-homeportal-1000-series-adsl-broadband-wireless-access-gateways
Default SSID on 2Wire Routers: 2WIRExxx (where xxx is the last three
digits of the products serial number that can be found on the bottom of
the your 2Wire HomePortal.
So someone's probably running a 2Wire router near you, and has left it
on its default settings. Bad idea.
> > You can also try manually bringing up the card:
> >
> > iwconfig wlan0 essid your-essid mode
> > ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.10
> >
> > essid and IP address as appropriate, and assuming again that you aren't
> > using encryption.
> >
> >
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid klonk mode
> Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
> too few arguments.
Sorry, the iwconfig command should be:
iwconfig wlan0 essid your-essid mode managed
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.105
> I'm currently connecting remotely, so I don't want to bring down the
> eth0 interface; is there any way to test the wlan0 connection without
> bringing eth0 down?
The key question here is whether 'iwconfig wlan0' will show that you
are now associated. If the second line contains 'Access Point:
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:', you're good. If it says 'Not-associated', not so
good ...
What IP range does your AP use? If it's on a different subnet from
your eth0, then pinging it should tell you whether you're connected
properly, and I suppose that you could always do 'ping xxxxxxxx -I
wlan0' to ensure that you're using the right interface, although I
don't have any experience with that option. BTW, when I suggested that
you give the card an arbitrary IP address, I think that that will only
work if you use the proper IP scheme relative to your AP's. The
documentation of the AP should tell you what IP address and subnet it's
using. Most SOHO APs do DHCP out of the box, so if the connection to
the AP is okay, then running 'dhclient wlan0' should get you an IP
address from the router.
> > Please supply the output of 'dmesg | grep b43', executed following
> > 'modprobe -r b43 && modprobe b43'.
> >
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo dmesg | grep b43
> [ 12.841339] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
> [ 16.714574] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input6
> [ 16.796363] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
> [ 16.850180] firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw
> [ 16.861368] firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
> [ 16.871329] firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
> [ 16.996036] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26
> 15:32:10)
> [ 18.016540] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
> [ 18.016616] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
> [ 18.016687] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
This looks okay, but you seem not to have b43 debugging on (it's an
option in the kernel, in the b43 driver section). The devs often gripe
about distros that don't enable it on their stock kernels, thereby
causing people to bug them with insufficient debug information. I use
custom kernels, hewing pretty closely to the Kent West 10 step
procedure :)
> westk@evoljasen:~$ modprobe -r b43 && modprobe b43
> -bash: modprobe: command not found
> westk@evoljasen:~$
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 && modprobe b43
> -bash: modprobe: command not found
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo aptitude install modprobe
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Reading extended state information
> Initializing package states... Done
> Reading task descriptions... Done
> Couldn't find any package matching "modprobe". However, the following
> packages contain "modprobe" in their description:
> efibootmgr
> Couldn't find any package matching "modprobe". However, the following
> packages contain "modprobe" in their description:
> efibootmgr
> No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 52 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Reading extended state information
> Initializing package states... Done
> Reading task descriptions... Done
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo aptitude search modprobe
> westk@evoljasen:~$
$ dpkg -S modprobe
...
module-init-tools: /sbin/modprobe
$ apt-cache show module-init-tools
Package: module-init-tools
Priority: important
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 288
...
Description: tools for managing Linux kernel modules
This package contains a set of programs for loading, inserting, and
removing kernel modules for Linux (versions 2.5.48 and above). It
serves the same function that the "modutils" package serves for Linux
2.4. Homepage: http://www.kerneltools.org/
Tag: admin::kernel, implemented-in::c, interface::commandline,
role::program, scope::utility
> Thanks for you help! I'm feeling hopeful! W00t!
You're very welcome. Let's do it!
> Kent West <")))><
Celejar
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