Wireless Issues

Entombment · 01-12-2008, 04:26 AM

Well, to start things off, I'm using Fedora 8. Now, I've used Linux before, but never on a laptop. Before installation I had looked up to check for any issues that might occur, and was aware of the issues with most wireless cards, and had prepared (or at least thought I had) by making a CD with ndiswrapper, GCC, and a few other things I might need

But, without a way to connect through the ethernet, my only choice is with the wireless. So, while attempting to install GCC from the RPM, it gave me the error that it could not check dependencies, I believe. After that, I attempted to do so from source. I extracted the tar into my /usr/bin folder, and attempted to run ./configure, but giving me this error

Code:

loading cache ./config.cache
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether ln works... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH

What I don't understand is what I can do to solve this without a connection to the internet from the Linux side. I dual boot Fedora 8, and Vista. So I do have a way to use the internet, just not from Linux. But it really gets troublesome having to continuously restart and restart after downloading packages to help, and then ending up needing more and more. Now, I'm not a Linux expert, but I do have my fair share of knowledge. So what confuses me is how I'm supposed to install a compiler that requires a compiler

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Zmyrgel · 01-12-2008, 04:59 AM

You can't compile a compiler from sources if you don't have compiler installed

Fedora repository's should have gcc package which you can install through the default installation system. If you don't have internet connection on your linux you need also download all of gcc's dependency packages. They are probably listed on somewhere in Fedora documents.

Entombment · 01-12-2008, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zmyrgel

You can't compile a compiler from sources if you don't have compiler installed

Fedora repository's should have gcc package which you can install through the default installation system. If you don't have internet connection on your linux you need also download all of gcc's dependency packages. They are probably listed on somewhere in Fedora documents.

Thanks. Are there any other things I'm going to need to install ndiswrapper? I've been working on this for 7 hours, and it got kind of frustrating, so I'm taking a break right now and trying to get everything I need for one final restart

bbfuller · 01-12-2008, 06:20 AM

Hello Entombment

Probably the best way to install ndiswrapper on Fedora is to use the pre-compiled rpm's from their Livna repository here:

http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/8/i386/

When you haven't got an internet connection on the machine in question you need to download the relevant rpm's onto a machine where you have, copy them to the machine you are working on and put them in a folder by themselves. Then cd into the folder and as root issue the command:

Code:

rpm -ivh *.rpm

To find what rpms you need issue the command:

Code:

uname -a

on the machine in question, on this machine I get:

Quote:

Linux atx17.local 2.6.23.9-85.fc8 #1 SMP Fri Dec 7 15:49:59 EST 2007 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

The relevant part for me is the "2.6.23.9-85.fc8" and "i686", so I would be looking in Livna for:

Quote:

kmod-ndiswrapper-2.6.23.9-85.fc8-1.48-15.lvn8.i686.rpm

You will see in the livna lists of rpm's several kmod-ndiswrapper packages one of which will have your numbers in it, probably:

Quote:

kmod-ndiswrapper-2.6.23.1-42.fc8-1.48-15.lvn8.i686.rpm

if it were that one you would also need:

Quote:

kmod-ndiswrapper-1.48-15.lvn8.i686.rpm

note how the 1.48-15 matches the first package, and finally get:

Quote:

ndiswrapper-1.48-1.lvn8.i386.rpm

Those should be all you need.

The advantage of doing it this way is that it will be updated as the Fedora Kernel changes, which it does not infrequently. If you compile it yourself then you will need to redo part of that each time the kernel changes.

Entombment · 01-12-2008, 06:38 AM

Thanks a lot bbfuller, I've download those, didn't have to change anything because the kernels matched. But it's 6:40 am, so I'm gonna go ahead and get some rest, been working on it all night

Hopefully that'll work, if not I'll come back and see if I can get some more help

Entombment · 01-13-2008, 05:24 AM

Well, I have ndiswrapper installed, and have been working since yesterday to attempt and get my wireless card working with no avail. I've checked forums, tried everything, but nothing

When I issue the ndiswrapper -l, it lists bcmwl6 as present. But, the LED light is not on, I've listed the alternate driver (ssb) as blacklisted in the file, and when attempting to activate it via device config, it tells me

Code:

ndiswrapper device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.

I've got the firmware installed and all. Any suggestions? It was okay working on it the first day, but now its just getting ridiculous

bbfuller · 01-13-2008, 05:42 AM

Hello Entombment

I'm not saying it's the answer but you "may" need to blacklist more than ssb.

I don't think we've ever established what your card was but as an example. If you had a broadcom card as well as blacklisting ssb you would also blacklist b43 and/or b43legacy.

If you run:

/sbin/lspci -v

from a terminal and post back the results we may be able to determine what other modules you need to blacklist.

Don't worry about the light for the wireless, they work intermittently under linux at best.

Try looking at the output of commands like:

iwconfig

from a root command line to see if your wireless is being found. Probably it's not, yet, by the way.

EDIT: Sorry, that previous answer was as I was passing the computer and without too much forethought. Of course you have a broadcom card. Your reference to bcmwl6 should have told me that. Give the other blacklists I mentioned a try and see what happens.

EDIT 2: You also mention that "It was okay working on it the first day". You do realise I assume that there are two ways of controlling a wireless card with Linux. The native, built in drivers that you are now trying to blacklist and the ndiswrapper method.

Usual advice is not to go anywhere near ndiswrapper until you have tried the built in drivers and they have failed.

Have you tried the b43/b43legacy drivers?

Entombment · 01-13-2008, 05:49 AM

I have also blacklisted b43 and bcm43xx. But, after looking through the files that are in Windows for the drivers, I've noticed it contains bcm43xx.cat. When ndiswrapper installed, I only saw it listed as b43, so I'm now thinking that I have the wrong firmware installed. So I'm going to attempt to install that while trying those commands, though when I've issued 'iwconfig' before, it gave me a bash error, so I don't think the wirelesstools set is installed either

I'm gonna restart into Fedora and try those commands, install that firmware, and post the results back here. You've been a great help so far, and I hope to get this resolved soon

Entombment · 01-13-2008, 06:21 AM

Here are the results from the commands you wanted. Since there were no results from iwconfig, I went ahead and did an ifconfig

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/lspci -v
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [44] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface
        Capabilities: [e0] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [44] #00 [00fe]
        Capabilities: [fc] #00 [0000]

00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
        Memory behind bridge: b3000000-b30fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0000
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/1 Enable+
        Capabilities: [60] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping
        Capabilities: [80] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0

00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 00004000-00004fff
        Memory behind bridge: b4000000-b7ffffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000d01fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0000
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/1 Enable+
        Capabilities: [60] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping
        Capabilities: [80] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0

00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 [Geforce 6150 Go] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
        Memory at b2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at b1000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 50000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-

00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [44] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface
        Capabilities: [e0] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0

00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 10
        I/O ports at 3040 [size=64]
        I/O ports at 3000 [size=64]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:0a.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PMU (rev a3)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        Memory at b0040000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]

00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
        Memory at b0004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at b0005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [44] Debug port
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev f1) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
        Subsystem: Unknown device f03c:30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        I/O ports at 3080 [size=16]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev f1) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
        I/O ports at 30b0 [size=8]
        I/O ports at 30a4 [size=4]
        I/O ports at 30a8 [size=8]
        I/O ports at 30a0 [size=4]
        I/O ports at 3090 [size=16]
        Memory at b0006000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [b0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/2 Enable-
        Capabilities: [cc] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=64
        Memory behind bridge: b8000000-b80fffff
        Capabilities: [b8] Subsystem: Gammagraphx, Inc. Unknown device 0000
        Capabilities: [8c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at b0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask+ 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
        Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
        Memory at b0007000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at 30b8 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
        Flags: fast devsel
        Capabilities: [80] HyperTransport: Host or Secondary Interface

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
        Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
        Flags: fast devsel

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
        Flags: fast devsel
        Capabilities: [f0] #0f [0010]

01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1363
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        Memory at b3000000 (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

05:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
        Memory at b8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

05:09.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
        Memory at b8000800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

05:09.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
        Memory at b8000c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

05:09.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
        Memory at b8001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

05:09.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30b5
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
        Memory at b8001400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:D3:98:40:FB  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0x2000 

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:2033 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2033 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2975932 (2.8 MiB)  TX bytes:2975932 (2.8 MiB)

EDIT: If you mean from the linuxwireless site, using fw-cutter and what not, then yes I have. If not, then I'm not exactly sure. I haven't used Linux in a while before this, and before that was Ubuntu, so I'm having to readjust

bbfuller · 01-13-2008, 06:54 AM

Hello Entombment

I would suggest that there is nothing wrong with your firmware installation if ndiswrapper -l is giving that output.

I presume you have done the:

Code:

ndiswrapper -ma

step? Does:

Code:

/sbin/lsmod | grep ndis

then show the ndiswrapper module as loading?

Have you added:

Code:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

to the file /etc/modprobe.conf?

If you are trying to configure your wireless card by means of device config then you should have NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher disabled in the "Service" module. Much better though to make sure your card is not set to Activate on Boot in device config and to use NetworkManager to control the card.

Entombment · 01-13-2008, 07:02 AM

I've done the aliasing and what not. Not sure if the 'a' after '-m' is an error, if so then yes, if not then no

Code:

/sbin/lsmod | grep ndis

Shows it as loaded

bbfuller · 01-13-2008, 09:13 AM

Hello Entombment

I've always used ndiswrapper -ma but if you've got the module showing as loaded then it may not be necessary.

You do need to be sure though that only one method is being used to try to control the device.

jiml8 · 01-13-2008, 12:21 PM

I would be looking a bit higher in the system. Looks like the broadcom wireless card is being detected.

I have not fiddled with fedora in this regard, but I have wrestled with several other distros regarding wireless.

Are you running network-manager or knetworkmanager?

edit: also what is output of lsmod? Might try lsmod | grep broadcom to thin the output down a bit.

Entombment · 01-13-2008, 05:50 PM

Just got back from work so its time to work on it some more

NetworkManager is running, and all the associated services are running

I'm gonna boot in Fedora in a minute, and I'll post the output