Broadcom issues
 

I am having issues with my wireless. I have a Dell Latitude 120L with a updated fresh install of Fedora 7 kernel 2.6.21 or 22 not sure. Not being too familiar with the command line in Linux I have read what other people have tried with and without some success and therefore am able to post the following information.
when login as root and issue the command lspci I get the following output

I turned NetworkManager on for GNOME and it displays a option to enable wirless network.

My card is there my machine and Fedora sees the card this is obvious. Now I have tried the latest ndiswrapper with no success and have tried the bcm43xx-fwcutter with no success. When I got the laptop it was a windows machine and has the keyboard that has the special keys that turn the volume up and down, there is also a special key that enables the wireless card. I have tried to map my keyboard with some success. I got the volume keys to work and the suspend key to work but not the wireless key. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. I am stuck and have no clue on how to fix this. If anyone can help me i would appreciate it. I have also tried the infomation from the GNOME NetworkManager at [HTML]http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/[/HTML] I get commandline errors when trying the 'git' command. I am slowly learning commandline utilities but still have some trouble.

OK, you've got a 4318, which means that ndiswrapper is probably a better approach.

There are likely a couple of reasons for this. On the bcm43xx side, the numbnuts at Fedora have decided to replace bcm43xx with the experimental b43 driver, and I believe this happened in FC7. The issues are that it needs a different firmware file in order to function(see here for the files) and if you want to use ndiswrapper, blacklisting b43 isn't quite straightforward (see the last post in this thread and this thread as well). Since ndiswrapper and b43 will almost certainly interfere with each other if they are both loaded, blacklisting b43 is usually a critical step in getting ndiswrapper to work.

If I have already done the firmware cutter (assuming thats what the 'fw' is for) will that mess me up. If so how do I get rid of it. I gone through the steps on some of the threads I have seen about ndiswrapper and somewhere along the way I usually end up with an error or a bad command in the terminal. It's getting to the point where I am about to go buy a usb wireless thing and quit messing with this. It is really really starting to pi$$ me off I follow the threads that seem to have the most positive results and I end up getting errors. I guess what I really need is a really easy to follow dummies guide to doing this ndiswrapper. Also the last time I tried it I got that the driver that went with my card according to Sourceforge was an invalid driver according to an lspci -l command. I don't want to give up and I dont want to say that I have tried everything I know there is something that will work but alot of the stuff thats out there I have attempted without success.

The short answer is probably not. If you go the b43 route, just adding the correct firmware should do the trick, even if the older version is there. Ndiswrapper doesn't use firmware files, so it isn't affected at all by this.

Ndiswrapper installation is about as easy as it gets, if you're having trouble, post what you're doing and what errors you're seeing and maybe we can get you straighted out.
That could be a big mistake. USB wireless devices are a super colossal gigantic pain in the posterior in Linux. Well, most of 'em anyway.

Have a look at the ndiswrapper wiki (see my sig for the link). Easiest and best instructions available anywhere.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but I suspect you're fighting with your unfamiliarity with Linux as much as anything else. The lspci command should only tell you what devices are plugged into the pci bus, and knows nothing about what drivers are in use.

If you want to pursue this, the best course is to decide what driver you're using and then post details about what you've done and where it is causing trouble. The decision you're facing isn't an easy one however because the 4318 chipset doesn't work very well with the b43/bcm43xx driver and Fedora is probably the most ndiswrapper unfriendly distro there is. If you haven't invested too much in this Fedora install, and if wireless is important, I'd give serious consideration to switching to a different distro.

Okay in this process I have run across the following errors. i got a version that is known to work with the make of my laptop and the make of my card. I get to the point of putting installing the .inf file and it kicks this out to me

You very probably need kernel sources/headers installed before you go about compiling ndiswrapper. Either get those, and start all over, or get ndiswrapper binary package (version 1.47 works for that Broadcom card for sure, newers should also). If you plan installing binary packages, remember to get ndiswrapper and ndiswrapper-utils if they are in separate packages. Anyway, your first goal is to get ndiswrapper installed. After that use ndiswrapper -i to install the driver just like you tried ('ndiswrapper -i filename.inf'). Note that ndiswrapper executable may be in /sbin and that might not be in your $PATH variable, so either use "su -" to become root or execute it with full path, like /sbin/ndiswrapper if it got there. After installing ndiswrapper, installing the driver with it and making sure ndiswrapper module gets loaded during boot, you very probably still need to reboot for this all to work -- and before doing so, blacklist the native bcm43xx or b43 driver so that it does not get loaded during boot. If it does, there's a chance it'll interfere with ndiswrapper and then your card won't work.

That card is easy to get working with ndiswrapper, but you need to do it carefully.
1) either install ndiswrapper (and -utils) binaries, or install kernel source/headers and compile ndiswrapper like you tried to do (see the error).
2) after that blacklist the native driver, "echo blacklist b43 >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist" or equivalent
3) make sure modprobe.conf (or whatever you use) loads 'ndiswrapper' module during boot
4) install the Windows driver with ndiswrapper
5) reboot and try if it works - should

Is there somewhere I can find out how to do the kernel headers that you mentioned. I am not sure on how do to do that.

Well this ndiswrapper thing isnt working, I have tried it on three or 4 different installs. Would be nice if there was like a step by step for this thing or a way it could become fool proof. I imagine it has something to do with what Im doing. It's getting to the point I am about ready to switch back to windows.

You missed a REAL important step in compiling this. I went through the results you posted and you ran like this:

make distclean
make install


The problem is you never ran make, which means that nothing actually compiled. What should have happened is:

make distclean
make
make install

As for the kernel source code, yes it needs to be installed, and there should be an RPM for your kernel available either on your install CD/DVD or from a Fedora repository.

Thank you Hangdog actually the link to your page was a big help I was able to search for what the info I needed on the kernel headers and source.

compiling the kernel
 

I think I am on the right track with getting this figured out. As I understand I have to get the kernel source and header files, recompile the kernel and take the native b43 driver that is throwing the error when I try to activate my wireless card. I did manage to find out that with my Fedora installation there was not a kernel src installed. I got the source from the repo and have attempted to apply it. When I made my ISO it was Kernel version 2.6.21 so since when I boot my system up I see 2.6.22 there has been an update this is where the native b43 comes into play. So the Kernel source rpm that I downloaded from Fedora. I attemtped to install the source code and the following is my output with one error, sorry for the long post...

Since I installed the ndiswrapper without the source code being there is that going to hinder me? will I have to start all over again? and if so should I remove the now present ndiswrapper and all the stuff with it, a simple command that will help with that.

I have another question that is along the same lines. I should not have done this but hindsight is 20/20. some where I had read that wlan0=up would help or something to that effect and I found a file that has something to do with the loading of the kernel and when you boot up you can get the messages and I need to take that out. I think it is interfereing

Under no circumstances should you have to recompile your kernel to use either ndiswrapper or b43. You may need your kernel source to get ndiswrapper running however (more about that later) and if your headers aren't part of the default install, somebody needs to start slapping Red Hat around. You pretty much can't compile diddly without the headers.

What you need to take care about is not having b43 and ndiswrapper modules loaded at the same time. Practically, that means that before loading the ndiswrapper module, you need to either remove the b43 module (with the modrpobe -r command) or you need to blacklist it so it doesn't load in the first place. I believe that there are actually two kernel modules that have to be blacklisted for b43 to be really blacklisted, and there are details in the threads I linked to in my first post.

It looks like the kernel source RPM did install (you can usually ignore warnings) but I'm not sure what this command is for:
Any enlightenment would be appreciated (sorry, I'm allergic to Fedora so I'm not real familiar with all the ins and outs).

The answer is that it depends. If you compiled ndiswrapper from source code, then not having the kernel source installed is a fatal error, and nothing would have compiled. In this case it is safe to simply start from the make distclean step and keep going. If you installed ndiswrapper from a pre-compiled RPM, then you actually wouldn't need the kernel source at all, however there must be an exact match between the kernel version your running and the version ndisrwapper was compiled against. In this case, I would remove the RPM file and compile ndiswrapper from source.

By the way, since ndiswrapper is a kernel module, every time your kernel is upgraded it is likely that you will need to recompile ndiswrapper.

Yeah, you probably should remove that, I don't think it is something the kernel would understand. What you might have see was the ifup command which would be run like this:

ifup wlan0

The ifup command runs the DHCP client and requests an IP address and then brings the interface up for use.

Thank you for clearing things up, there is still a little bit I am fuzzy on but I think I am slowly learning as I go along. I am a little unclear on what this means


this came from the ndiswrapper wiki for install. When they say this does this mean that I have to tell it to "make distclean, make, make install /lib/modules/2.6.22-76.fc7"??? I think this might be a crucial step in getting this to work right for me. Sorry for this to be so time consuming. Along with the help I am receiving from LQ I have a book that is covering the rest of the little stuff for me as I go. The book covers FC5 and there is a chapter for installing the source code when the source is not present on the system. Book says

Lets see if I can clear some of this up.....

The directory /lib/modules/KERNELVERION is where all of the compiled modules are stored for that version of the kernel. So say you're running a 2.6.5 kernel, the compiled modules would be stored in /lib/modules/2.6.4/. If you then upgrade to 2.6.22, a new directory would be created (/lib/modules/2.6.22) to hold all of the compiled modules for 2.6.22 but /lib/modules/2.6.4/ would remain untouched. This is how you can have multiple kernels available to boot, and also why you have to recompile ndiswrapper every time you switch kernels. A running kernel is aware of what directory it should use when looking for modules, so if you went through this kernel switch without recompiling ndiswrapper, there would be ndiswrapper in /lib/modules/2.6.4 but not in /lib/modules/2.6.22 so the 2.6.22 kernel wouldn't be able to use it.

The make distclean command simply cleans up any previous attempts at compiling ndiswrapper. This is done in case you've switched kernel versions, but are using the same ndiswrapper version. On a clean install, this really doesn't do anything, but it also isn't harmful, so you may as well run it.

The make command actually causes the source code to be compiled into functional programs (or in this case, a kernel module). However, the make command leaves all of the newly compiled files in the directory containing the source code.

The make install command is responsible for moving the binary files created in the make step to the proper directories in the rest of the system. Usually this is the only command in this series of steps that must be run as root since you're usually installing the program to privileged parts of the system like /usr, /etc or /bin. I'm guessing that their adding the /lib/modules/2.6.22-76.fc7 bit in an attempt to tell make install exactly where to put things, however usually that isn't necessary. By default, the make install step for ndiswrapper installs into the /lib/modules/kernelversion directory for the running kernel, so unless you are compiling for a different kernel, you probably don't have to worry about adding anything to make install.

All of these variations of the make command derive their "intelligence" from the Makefile you'll find in the top level of the directory with the source code. This file contains all of the instructions for how the program is to be compiled and where to put things. For something relatively simple like a kernel module, Makefiles are usually fairly simple and can be pre-configured by the team developing the kernel module. For stand-alone programs where there are likely to be dependencies on other things like libraries, before you can run any of the make steps, you first have to run a ./configure program which will inventory your system for available libraries and then create a custom Makefile for that program on your system.

I'm not entirely sure what they're getting at here, but my best guess is that they're talking about where the kernel source code is located. Usually on Linux systems, you'll find the source code for the running kernel in /usr/src/linux. Now many flamewars have been fought over whether you should actually have the source code in /usr/src/linux or whether /usr/src/linux should be a soft link pointing to the kernel source code, and the source is actually located somewhere else. It looks to me like RedHat stores a bunch of information in the /user/src/redhat/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec file that relates to where the source code is actually installed. My guess is that you can probably not worry about this particular detail as long as there is something in /usr/src/linux.

Thank you for the 101, this believe it or not has been very helpful. When I had my class on Linux Systems the Linux OS we setup was FC4 and unfortunately the instructor was some what lazy so I walked away from the class only learning that it was different operating system. Shows you learn more if you get in it and teach your self.

Another quick question. If I login as Root and do all this for the ndiswrapper and then login under my username will that affect anything?

Nope, that shouldn't affect a thing.

That said, one of the Linux habits you should consider picking up is only using root when you absolutely, positively have to. That gets you using tools like su or sudo.

Oh, but there are. Lots of. Here at LQ you'll find many Broadcom + ndiswrapper how-tos and threads with solutions; you'll find wpa_supplicant howtos as well (to get WPA encryption working). I have to admit most of them are not "good" in the sense that, after trying them out one by one when I got my first wireless laptop, they look good and basically have everything you need, but it's just either represented so that you don't really understand it well enough unless you already know how it's working, or then the writer just got it working somehow, wrote some commands s/he remembered to have issued and said this is how it works.

NDISwrapper isn't distribution-specific. It's installation is, but it should not be a problem. Once it's installed properly, it's usage is (including wpa_supplicant now that I studied it a bit) very easy. I know the frustration that comes when you don't get it working, you don't understand it well enough to figure out what's wrong (especially with wpa_supplicant) and in the end just start thinking it's crap (no it isn't).

If I find enough time somewhere (still looking) I'll try to write a clean, short and understandable how-to for ndiswrapper installation and usage (maybe I'll use bcm43xx as an example card, because it seems to be problematic for many people -- though it isn't when you learn how it's done). Until then you can feel free to IM me and I'll give you step-by-step instructions in real time, as long as I'm not in a rush at that moment. I even happen to have the source packages for ndiswrapper (and Broadcom 43xx Windows driver files), so if there are no binaries available for your distribution it can still be sorted out.

Your primary place to get packages is your package manager - yumex/yum (Fedora), synaptic/apt-get (Ubuntu, Debian) and so on. Be it kernel source/headers or ndiswrapper[-utils], that's the place to go. And if you can't find anything there, then you'll start working with the source code..

Got it installed
 

Okay I got the kernel stuff taken care of and all that got the ndiswrapper installed cause when I do ndiswrapper -l i get I have also added b43 and the ssb to the black list rebooted and turned off wpa_supplicant and I still get that my hardware wont work... what Am I doing wrong.

A few questions:

- Where did you get the drivers? If you look your card up on the ndiswrapper wiki, they will likely link to a driver known to work. If that comes up dry, try getting the latest XP drivers from the manufacturers web site.

- Were there any errors when you ran ndiswrapper -i? Were the bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files in the same directory when you ran ndiswrapper -i?

- Are there any errors when you load the ndiswrapper module?

Also be sure to look in your system logs (/var/log/syslog and /var/log/messages) and the output of the dmesg command and see if ndiswrapper is complaining about anything.

More than likely you've just got a version of the Windows driver that ndiswrapper doesn't like. That used to happen a LOT with ndiswrapper.

So close, well I will give these a look later on tonight its time for me to fight the traffic thanks for the help guys I will get a chance to look at these later on tonight.

Digging through the log files
 

At the advice of Hangdog to look through the log files particularly syslog and messages. I looked in /var/log unfortunately I only saw one of the former '/var/log/messages' looking through this I did find out some of the error messages that I see have detailed explanations.

I also found this

Digging through this, and seeing the ling to linuxwireless dot org I am taken again to the solution of using the firmware cutter tool.

There were no messages about ndiswrapper. when I ran the install it did throw some messages about kmod but i took care of that by using the 1.47 not 1.46 I had a friend that was helping me with the other stuff for the kernel and he had stated was worried about the 4k stack so try the 1.46

Hm. The errors you posted are definitely related to b43/bcm43xx and NOT ndiswrapper. Nidswrapper isn't affected by the firmware, so if you're sticking with it, you can pretty safely ignore these. Of course if you do use b43 at some point, you will need to install the correct firmware because this definitely shows you don't have the proper firmware to run b43.
Believe it or not that is probably a good thing. It means that the most likely path is to concentrate on finding a Windows driver for your card that ndiswrapper can live with.

Your friend is somewhat off base. The 4K stack is most definitely an issue to worry about, particularly in Fedora since this is the root of most of their problems with ndiswrapper. However, switching versions of ndiswrapper doesn't affect this problem at all since it is the stack space needed by the Windows driver that determines whether the 4K stack is a problem or not.

The good news: The most common "symptom" of a 4K stack problem is a complete system lock-up when you load the ndiswrapper module. That doesn't seem to be happening to you (at least not yet) so I don't think we have to worry about it right now.

The bad news: If it becomes a problem, you'll have to either install a new kernel that has a bigger stack (there are some 3rd party kernels for Fedora that do this, particularly the NTFS kernels) or you'll have to compile your own kernel. Or throw Fedora in the nearest dustbin and try a better distro.


So at this point, I would try a couple of different Windows drivers and see if one works.

Trying different drivers
 

Whats wild is that I downloaded that driver from the Dell website put in the model and the Xp os there were two version of drivers for the card. Intel(PROWireless) and the Broadcom. I guess I'll try the Intel one this time see if it works. I have the kind of keyboard that has the 'fn' key and it turns on like the volume and the wireless in xp there a tool or util to turn this function on for my keyboard.

Windows Drivers
 

I downloaded these drivers for the intel and extracted them to a folder on the desktop. there are two '.inf' and '.sys' files.

somewhat working
 

this would have been alot easier if I had known the mistakes I was making in the beginning. So, needless to say I am at the point I have the driver installed it see's it and doesn't throw any errors below is the output of 'ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf'

What has me confused is this part below, after receiving this I looked at this message in the specified directory.

This is starting to look good!

As for the mail message, that is likely spurious, but logging in as root and checking your mail might be useful. Or not.

The big things are: 1) is ndiswrapper in the lsmod output after you've loaded it and 2) do you have a wireless card visible to iwconfig? If you do, try configuring it for your AP and see if you can connect.

lsmod output
 

according to the output from lsmod there is only b44 which if I am not mistaken that is the module for my lan port. the wiki from the ndiswrapper faq states that if there is an alternate driver to run rmmod. i ran this command

Working but can't connect to encrypted network
 

not sure what happened but it works now. I have a wireless config in my wired network. It is displaying 5 different available networks, tried connecting to my offices' wireless network with the shared key enabled and put in the network key but it wouldn't let me on. This however is a much better state then what it was before. My only question is do I have to do the 'modprobe ndiswrapper' everytime I boot my machine up and want to use my wireless card?

If you've blacklisted b43/ssb, then no, you don't have to do anything else. That message from ndiswrapper -l is a little misleading, it only means that an alternate driver exists, not that it is loaded.

Actually, that's good. Modprobe only gives feedback when something goes wrong. If it all worked, then it is silent.

That should have deleted the module. Maybe you ran it already? However, as long as ssb doesn't load (check lsmod to be sure) you don't have to worry about it. I've got both ndiswrapper and bcm43xx on my laptop, but I only use one at a time.
Congrats!
Are we talking WEP, WPA or what here? How did you enable the key?
Yup, you do. There are a couple of ways to automate this however. Check out this post by Lenard. I know he is a CentOS user, so this is probably better than anything I'll come up with.

Thanks for your help Hangdog42. This is a big help now I can use my schools AP. SWEET! thanks again

Hey, you did all the heavy lifting. Pat yourself on the back for sticking with it.