Wirless network woes (is my card working)

mccloudm · 05-06-2007, 04:55 AM

I just installed Fedora Core 6 and I love it. Finally a version that installs what I need right from the start. (Except for Mp3 support and a few other minor things). It installed everything from my video drivers to my USB drivers.

I was looking at my network settings. Sure enough, both the Ethernet and wireless network (Broadcom 4306) was installed, but inactive. I messed around with the Ethernet to make sure it works. I assigned it an IP address, activated it, ping and SUCCESS!

Now on to the wireless. I tried to just activate it, and I get

"Cannot resolve IP address: Check cable?"

So I assign it an IP address of 192.168.1.9 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 I try again to activate and I get this...

"SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or folder"

Even if I could get it to ping itself, I'm not sure how I would go about connecting to any wireless network. I do not see any sort of "wireless network list" or anything. Any help would be appreciated. Here are all my specs.

Fedora 6 Core: i686
HP Pavilion ze5570us
Broadcom BMC 4306 wireless Ethernet

Simon Bridge · 05-06-2007, 05:00 AM

While your broadcom card is recognised, there don't appear to be open source drivers for it. You need to use ndiswrapper with the windows inf file.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=433752

mccloudm · 05-06-2007, 05:16 AM

I tried to install ndiswrapper, but couldn't get the package to make. During the ./configure command, it give me a error (which I don't have on me right now.) and then I tried the next step of " make " and it comes back with :There is nothing to do here...

I have no idea what this means or what I should do to fix it.

mccloudm · 05-06-2007, 05:36 AM

I will try and install the ndiswrapper again. It will take me some time, I am at work right now. I will post what happens when I get a chance to. Thanks for looking out.

Simon Bridge · 05-06-2007, 08:23 AM

You have a network connection already - install ndiswrapper via yum.
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...20&postcount=4

Quote:

Another way of getting ndiswrapper instead of building it is, add Livna repository to /etc/yum.repo.d with

Code:

rpm -ivh http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/5/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm

edit /etc/yum.repo.d/livna.repo and change enabled=1 to enabled=0
then

Code:

yum --enablerepo=livna install ndiswrapper kmod-ndiswrapper

mccloudm · 05-06-2007, 11:16 AM

I can't use yum. I have no connectivity where I am at the moment, and prolly won't for a few more months. Hoping to have this all set before I get home.

mccloudm · 05-07-2007, 12:21 AM

Still can't get it to work. It says it can't find my core files.

mccloudm · 05-07-2007, 09:08 AM

attempting to reintall Fedora 6 and try again.

I have nothing but time.

mccloudm · 05-07-2007, 11:44 PM

After the reinstall I tried to reinstall ndiswrapper. Success! ndiswrapper installed with no problems. I loaded the widows driver using the

Quote:

nidswrapper -i '/root/wireless/bcmw15.inf'

command. It loaded the driver the the /ect/ndiswrapper/bcmw15/ folder. I used,

Quote:

diswrapper -l

to check everything and I get the following messege.

Quote:

[root@localhost ~]# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4320) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

Although the driver is now compiled on my system, I do not believe that my wireless device is using this new driver. any thoughts on how I force it to use the new driver?

here is a word document of everything I did.
http://www.terminal-humanity.com/ndis.doc

mccloudm · 05-08-2007, 03:28 AM

After reviewing several Threads, I relized I had a little more to do with ndiswrapper and the system. Here is what I did.

After the first install on the driver (ndiswrapper -i driver.inf) I made sure that the driver was installed under /ect/ndiswrapper/driver folder.

next, I had to write the modprobe by.

Quote:

ndiswrapper -m

then write the module alias to /lib/modules/2.6.17.13/modules.alias by

Quote:

ndiswrapper -ma

then write the module to /lib/modules/2.6.17.13/modules.conf file by

Quote:

ndiswrapper -mi

Quote:

Just for good measure, go to the /lib/modules/2.6.17.13 directory and type "depmod". This step will insure that the [ndiswrapper] modules are installed and set up properly.

-thanks pappy_mcfae

now restart.

Your device should activate now.

after that, I set the device to adhoc, gave it a IP address, connected to the hadhoc network and ping another system to check to connectivity, TADA replies out the yin-yang.

Thank you all for the advise and links. You may now add one more Fedora user to your tally.

Simon Bridge · 05-09-2007, 01:35 AM

post #1: I messed around with the Ethernet to make sure it works. I assigned it an IP address, activated it, ping and SUCCESS!

#3 I tried to install ndiswrapper, but couldn't get the package to make

#6 I can't use yum. I have no connectivity where I am at the moment
... not even via ethernet huh... but how did you get hold of the ndiswrapper tarball?

#10 Thank you all for the advise and links. You may now add one more Fedora user to your tally.

... well, that's all right then.

It is not uncommon to use a netcafe or similar for the initial connection.

mccloudm · 05-09-2007, 02:17 AM

#6 answer. I downloaded the ndiswrapper from my work computer and saved it to a thumb drive. I can not hook up my linux system here for fear that the powers to be will kick my ass.

It was during the re-install that I relized that my build files were never loaded for some reason.