Re: Need Help Config'ing a Broadcomm Wireless NIC
On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:52:31 -0600
Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
> Celejar wrote:
> > On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:58:57 -0600
> > Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
...
> > 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.
> >
>
> So the "master" is the real interface to the card, and the others are
> "virtual" interfaces, kind of like how VirtualBox or VMWare, etc,
> creates virtual machines on top of real machines? (Sort of....)
But the master interface is not actually usable in any normal way, and
for all practical purposes, the others behave just like ordinary
interfaces. I have no experience with VMs.
...
> > 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 ...
> >
>
> It says "Not-Associated"
>
> (I'm no longer able to cut&paste, as my wired connection has been
> removed (not my choice) and now I'm using another machine for this
> message. Else I'd give you the entire output. One thing I will mention
> is that the ESSID: field just says "".)
Both those things mean, unsurprisingly, that you're not associated.
...
> > running 'dhclient wlan0' should get you an IP
> > address from the router.
> >
>
> Nope; it starts off with "wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801"
> twice, then does some listening and sending and DHCPDISCOVERs until it
> finally quits with "No DHCPOFFERS received".
The "unknown hardware address" business is normal, even for working
systems. The rest is what happens when the wireless card is not
connected; the dhcp client keeps sending out messages and doesn't hear
any responses, since the wireless card isn't sending or receiving.
dhcp doesn't understand anything about the lower lever issues of
whether the wireless stuff is working; all it knows is that it's
passing queries down the protocol stack and that it's not getting back
any responses, and it eventually gives up.
...
> Okay, when I "modprobe -r b43 && modprobe b43", it reports (remember, no
> cut&paste at the moment):
>
> ... Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
> ... Broadcom 43xx driver loaded Feature: ....
> ...
> ... b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 ...
> ...
> ... Registered led device (tx and rx and radio)
> ...
> ... ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
>
> And then trying the "dhclient wlan0" I never get any DHCPOFFERs.
That's because at this point, you're apparently not yet associated.
> "iwlist wlan0 scan" does see my "klonk" ESSID
>
> "iwconfig wlan0 essid klonk mode managed" reports "... wlan0: link
> becomes ready", but does not drop me back to a prompt; pressing the up
> arrow cycles through various "repeats" of the iwconfig command; I settle
> on "iwconfig wlan0" and press ENTER and then I get dropped back to the
> command prompt. Running "iwconfig wlan0" at this point now shows my
> ESSID as "klonk" and my Access Point as a MAC address, and now running
> "dhclient wlan0" I get an address. (Whoa! I wasn't expecting these last
> two things! Now, can I hit the net? Give me a sec.... W00T! Yes! I'm
> pingin' Wired.com!!
Yay!
I suspect that when you say that the first iwconfig doesn't drop you
back to a terminal, what really is happening is that you're seeing the
console message 'wlan0 becomes ready'. This doesn't normally appear
when you invoke iwconfig, but it does go to syslog and to the console.
Had you just hit return, you'd probably also have seen your prompt
again.
> Okay. Whew. Breathe.
>
> Now, how do I automate all this? (Or perhaps, what did I do? Did I hold
> my mouth just right? Did the stars finally line up properly with the
> planets? Was it the floppy disc I offered as a burn sacrifice?)
Put this in your /etc/network/interfaces:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_essid klonk
This really should be all you need at this point. ifup should then
bring up the interface.
> Thank you Celejar! Now I really feel like I'm getting there. I see the
> light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm no longer afraid it's a train!
>
> Yee-ha-a-a-a-a!
:) Let's see if we can reproduce this.
> Kent
Celejar
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