You should be so clued.

Gnome runs on Slackware, so Slack + Gnome would make it wireless-friendly by your metric.

The issues with wireless are mostly related to modules. There are many chipsets, some obfuscated intentionally or otherwise by manufacturers. In some cases, there are multiple module choices for the same wireless device. Modules are kernel level, and not related to the desktop environment like Gnome or KDE, but of course, you knew that.

Some distros build and load every possible module automatically. That approach is a trade-off not all choose to make. One such "huge" kernel is included in Slack 11.0. I'm sure you're aware of that.

Point & click configuration tools serve to mask the configuration files doing the real work and breast feed those who need it. Editing the file or running something so insanely complex as iwlist eth0 scan is actually simpler than clicking through three or four layers of menus for the uninitiated.

Before you disparage a distro that many are successfully using with wireless, do your homework. Meanwhile, enjoy your Bunturific, GUIfied eXPerience.

I have gotten 3 wireless cards working on Slackware without too much problems. You just have to read sometimes and sometimes read a lot.

ganooch,

Have you followed the instructions from Eric Hameleer's Wiki?

If so, what is the output of (followed by my examples):
"/sbin/lspci"
"lsmod" (only the ethernet modules)
"/sbin/ifconfig" (don't post output for the loopback interface - lo)
"cat /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf"

Post these and we'll go from there...

Ganoch:

What is the model of your box and wireless card?

try

ifconfig wlan0 up

What does that give you?

Hey Guys,

Sorry, I still don't have my wireless connection working. I do not have a wired ethernet connection available so I had to save these outputs on my USB drive and retrieve them with Winblows. Here we go:

Output of /sbin/lspci

root@chris:~# /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 0e)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 0e)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon Mobility X600]
0b:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
0b:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0b:00.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
0b:00.4 Class 0805: Texas Instruments PCI6411, PCI6421, PCI6611, PCI6621, PCI7411, PCI7421, PCI7611, PCI7621 Secure Digital (SD) Controller
0b:02.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0b:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
root@chris:~#


Output of lsmod

root@chris:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_seq_dummy 2948 0
snd_seq_oss 29056 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6016 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 43856 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 6540 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 14976 1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6 225248 12
ndiswrapper 173968 0
capability 3464 0
commoncap 5504 1 capability
lp 9928 0
parport_pc 24260 0
parport 30152 2 lp,parport_pc
psmouse 35464 0
sg 26780 0
pcmcia 30372 0
sdhci 15372 0
mmc_core 18960 1 sdhci
evdev 8192 0
yenta_socket 24204 1
rsrc_nonstatic 10880 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 34064 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_intel8x0 28572 2
snd_ac97_codec 86944 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2176 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 67720 4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 19460 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 42724 11 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd _timer
soundcore 7264 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7816 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
intel_agp 19740 1
agpgart 28208 1 intel_agp
bcm43xx 421760 0
8139too 21632 0
serio_raw 5380 0
pcspkr 2560 0
i2c_i801 6924 0
mii 4992 1 8139too
ieee80211softmac 25600 1 bcm43xx
ieee80211 30152 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 4480 1 ieee80211
shpchp 33052 0
root@chris:~#

Output of cat /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.config

root@chris:~# cat /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
# /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
#
# This file contains the configuration settings for network interfaces.
# If USE_DHCP[interface] is set to "yes", this overrides any other settings.
# If you don't have an interface, leave the settings null ("").

# You can configure network interfaces other than eth0,eth1... by setting
# IFNAME[interface] to the interface's name. If IFNAME[interface] is unset
# or empty, it is assumed you're configuring eth<interface>.

# Several other parameters are available, the end of this file contains a
# comprehensive set of examples.

# =============================================================================

# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]=""
USE_DHCP[0]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""

# Config information for eth1:
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""

# Config information for eth2:
IPADDR[2]=""
NETMASK[2]=""
USE_DHCP[2]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""

# Config information for eth3:
IPADDR[3]=""
NETMASK[3]=""
USE_DHCP[3]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[3]=""

# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY=""

# Change this to "yes" for debugging output to stdout. Unfortunately,
# /sbin/hotplug seems to disable stdout so you'll only see debugging output
# when rc.inet1 is called directly.
DEBUG_ETH_UP="no"

## Example config information for wlan0. Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your info. (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)

IFNAME[1]="wlan0"
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[1]="yes"
#DHCP_IPADDR[1]=""
WLAN_ESSID[1]="wireless"
WLAN_MODE[1]=Ad-Hoc
##WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
##WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="auto"
##WLAN_KEY[4]="D5AD1F04ACF048EC2D0B1C80C7"
##WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=7B1ABEEB5D197741923ED26727569C365E31212096A0EAFAD563B268BAD01CAF TxRate=0"
#WLAN_WPA[1]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[1]="ndiswrapper"

## Some examples of additional network parameters that you can use.
## Config information for wlan0:
#IFNAME[4]="wlan0" # Use a different interface name nstead of
# the default 'eth4'
HWADDR[1]=" 00:14:A5:23:BD:6B" # Overrule the card's hardware MAC address
#MTU[4]="" # The default MTU is 1500, but you might need
# 1360 when you use NAT'ed IPSec traffic.
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes" # If you dont want /etc/resolv.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes" # If you don't want ntp.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes" # If you don't want the DHCP server to change
# your default gateway
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]="" # Request a specific IP address from the DHCP
# server
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=DARKSTAR # Here, you can override _any_ parameter
# defined in rc.wireless.conf, by prepending
# 'WLAN_' to the parameter's name. Useful for
# those with multiple wireless interfaces.
#WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=thekey TxRate=0"
# Some drivers require a private ioctl to be
# set through the iwpriv command. If more than
# one is required, you can place them in the
# IWPRIV parameter (space-separated, see the
# example).
root@chris:~#


Output of ifconfig eth1 up

root@chris:~# ifconfig eth1 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory


This is what iwconfig looks like:

root@chris:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"" Nickname:"chris"
Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

root@chris:~#



I have since upgrades to Slack 11.0 to see if it would help this situation, but it appears that I have taken a huge step backwards. As previously mentioned, I don't have a wired ethernet connection available, so I would really appreciate any possible input here.



Thanks in advance,

ganooch

The "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory" I think means you do not have the firmware loaded or the right firmware loaded. I have the same NIC and tried to get it to work without success. I tried about 10 different Windows drivers and finually said screw it and bought a Proxim PCMCIA wireless NIC.

I would love to have the internal NIC working, but the nightly headaches where not worth it.

BTW, my laptop is a Gateway MX7525.

ganooch,

I'm terribly short of time, but have one thing to post for you. This is from an entry for the Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02),which is the same as yours, waiting approval in LQ's HCL. Try and see if it helps:
You also have another NIC in your computer:
so I'm curious why you say "I don't have a wired ethernet connection available."

Thanks for the help, Bruce. First off, I say that I do not have a wired connection available because I do not have a Cat-5 connection in a place where I can hook up my laptop. The ethernet card does in fact work, I just don't have a place to connect.

As for the other part of your post, I have the bcmwl5a.inf driver installed and ndiswrapper -l shows driver present, hardware present. The main concern is that after upgrage to Slack 11.0, the wireless interface is eth1 and no longer wlan0. Also, ifconfig eth1 up shows SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory. I guess I should delete and install the drivers again, though I am not sure this is neccessary as I am showing driver present, hardware present. Does the output of cat /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (above) show anything out of the ordinary?


Thanks for your time,

Ganooch

Alright, after several changes in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and several restarts I am back in business! Now the interface is recognized as wlan0 again and ifconfig wlan0 up shows the interface coming up. Here is the problem:

root@chris:~# ifconfig
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:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:A5:23:BD:6B
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:11 Memory:c8206000-c8208000

root@chris:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"wireless" Nickname:"chris"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.462 GHz Cell: Not-Associated
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:A12B-34C5-67 Security mode:restricted
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

root@chris:~#


The security mode is restricted. How can I change this to "Open"? I am seeing several wireless networks, but as before I upgraded to 11.0, I can't connect to my wireless router.

I think that I am in the home stretch, so I appreciate any help that you guys can offer!


Thanks,

ganooch

iwconfig wlan0 key open

I got it working! There were some more changes that I had to make to /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.config. By editing the last portion I was able to define it as wlan0. Then I defined the gateway and changed the security mode to open. Then I did a /etc/rc.d/rc.inet restart and I pulled an IP address. The wireless connection works and it is faster than it is on Windows. Now if only I can finish this college class were Microsoft Project is a requirement, I can get rid of Winblows all together.

Thanks to everyone for their help!


--ganooch

Ganooch,

Even though you have it working, have a look at your lsmod output again. In the one you posted, you've got both ndiswrapper and bcm43xx listed. My experience is that both of them loaded at the same time causes trouble (in fact it is probably bcm43xx that was causing the card to appear as eth1). If I were you I would blacklist bcm43xx since it doesn't work very well with the 4318 chipset.

Thanks Hangdog,

I will take your advice and blacklist bcm43xx. Hopefully that will prevent any future problems.


--ganooch

Just for the fun of it, I tried to get my Broadcom NIC working again. This time I used the kernel driver (2.6.17.13). On the kernel drivers website they say you need to use the firmware of the Windows driver. You need to download fwcutter to extract and install the firmware. It worked for me. Here is the read me for the fwcutter.

About this software
-------------------

bcm43xx-fwcutter is a tool which can extract firmware from various source files.
It's written for BCM43xx driver files.

The project page is http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/


Usage
-----

bcm43xx-fwcutter FILE extracts the firmware from a source FILE to .
bcm43xx-fwcutter -i FILE identify the driver file. Print information, but don't extract.
bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /tmp FILE extract and write firmware to /tmp.
bcm43xx-fwcutter -l prints a list of supported driver source files.

After extraction, run make installfw which will copy bcm43xx_*.fw to
FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR (which defaults to /lib/firmware) for
usage by the bcm43xx driver. An alternative way is using the -w option.

I did everything possible as stated in this thread, yet I could not get to the internet. It can ping upto the Access Point (AP). I am struggling with that for three days.

Could you share your configs? And the wireless AP is open in my case without any authentication. It works fine in Windows in the same hardware. Please help.

What I did so far:

1) installed ndiswrapper as per the kernel version
2) installed ndiswrapper driver and ndiswrapper -l shows "driver present, hardware present"
3) iwconfig shows the presence of wlan0
4) made changes in /etc/wifi-radar.conf (specified interface=wlan0) and /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf files accordingly
5) iwlist wlan0 scan shows all available wireless networks
6) wifi-radar also detects all available wireless networks
7) dhcpcd wlan0 could not retrieve neither static nor dynamic IP from the AP.
8) when tried to connect using wifi-radar from the terminal, gives an error message "SET failed on device wlan0; Invalid argument"

Where did I do wrong? I have slack-based zenlinux in my desktop. I use a sis163u usb wireless adaptor. Thanks