Still, I am quite new to Linux and am running Fedora 8 on a notebook meant for Windows.
Thus, as predicted by the experts, I have issues with the wireless.
The WiFi Radar detects networks in my area, but I can not get into any I should be able to get into. The computer sits there a while 'Acquiring IP address', then saying 'could not get IP address'. No internet.
I do not even know how to get my computer to tell me which wireless card is in there. I guess it's one not yet well supported in Linux.

Questions:

1) How do I get the info of what hardware is in my notebook from my notebook?
2) Once I know what wireless card I have, how do I get it to work properly?

Thank you for any help!

P.S.:
Hardware: Dell Inspiron 1501
Software: Fedora 8, Gnome, WiFiRadar
User: Linux beginner (i.e. Please do not assume I know 'obvious' steps.)

Sorry about the duplicate! I accidentally posted the question first under 'hardware' thread, could not figure out how to move it.

I answered here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...62#post3007862 This is your same question in the harware section

If the wireless card is a PCI card then use this command:

lspci -v

If the wireless card is on a USB connection then use this command:

lsusb -v

Once you know the name of the card then you start with Google for the name of the card and Linux. You need to know what Linux driver supports the wireless card.

--------------------------
Steve Stites

Thank you, pusrob and jailbait!

1) Thanks to pusrob for the intro to posting, I would like to fix the double post, just don't know how. Can you help, please?

2) With the 'lspci-v' command from jailbait I found out what may be my card:
'08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 01f5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2'
(whatever that means, I hope I did at least find the info on the wireless card and am not posting what screen my computer uses :-)

3) Neither my 'yum list' command nor my 'add/remove software' GUI could find either 'hwinfo' or 'knetwork manager'.
Thus, I followed the link posted by pusrob and got here:
'http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewcvs/rpms/knetworkmanager/F-8/'.
Unfortunately, I don't get where the rpms are and which one to get. Could you please help some more?

4) Since pusrob says, I need to configure 'wpa supplicant', I know I am in trouble, since 'wpa supplicant' comes up as 'failed' every time I start the computer.

Thanks for any help!

The network manager program will probably configure a wpa_supplicant.conf file on the fly and start wpa_supplicant for you. (Assuming wpa_supplicant is installed). You will just need to supply the key. For public hotspots, they may not use wpa anyway. On my laptop at home, I use SuSE with network_manager and the KDE desktop. When I connect to my router, the KDE kwallet requester comes up and requests my wallet password. This allows me to authenticate with the router without having to remember my random 64 digit hexadecimal key.

You didn't indicate the failure you see with wpa_supplicant, but you may need to change your wireless device to start ondemand instead of onboot in the Fedora network configuration.

Sorry, busy week!

Somebody asked how my wpa_supplcant fails: it says so during booting. After a good number of re-boots, I finally got down the whole text:

'Start wpa_supplicant /etc/wpa_supplicat/wpa_supplicant.conf, , dbus_bus_get[ctrl_iface_dbus] no such file or directory
failed to initialize wpa_supplicant'

My yum search says that not only wpa_supplicant but also a wpa_supplicant-gui is installed, but of course when I look under applications I find no such thing.

I can only guess that I need to configure the network and or wpa_supplicant as you guys suggested, but since I am quite command-line inept and can't find the gui to do so, my wireless still does not work.

Any suggestins? Is anybody out there who got the same card as I have working?

Thanks for all the help!

Hello LinuxMacWannabe

I don't think we've got to the bottom of what is your wireless card yet.

Your output in post #4 indicates a:

And the 100Base-TX indicates that is a wired card not your wireless.

Suggest you run:

again and take another look at the output.

However, try:

from a terminal and see if it lists any interfaces with wireless extensions.

If it does try:

If your card wasn't identified as wlan0 in the previous command substitute whatever it was identified as.

If your card supports scanning then it may well list your wireless access points in range.

If you are running Fedora 8 then you should make the built in NetworkManager the first port of call in your attempts to connect, but to advise sensibly on that we will need to know if you installed from the livecd or DVD and if you are using Gnome or KDE as your desktop. Things vary with each of those permutations.

Thank you, bbfuller!

First the stuff, I think I know:
I use Gnome as desktop.

Now the historical stuff:
The installation thing is somewhat more convoluted: I started out with Fedora 7, installed from a local repository. I upgraded to fedora 8 from the life DVD, but that went partially wrong (For quite a while the computer said it was running fedora 8 but looked like 7, and all the package updates conflicted with the fedora 7 versions, which somehow where still there. After I had the 'bright' idea to remove the 'old' fedora 7 kernels, the computer could not be booted, and was rescued by booting of the life DVD and getting the latest fedora 8 kernel from the fedora web repository.)

Now the stuff I looked up:
1)with '/sbin/lspci -v'
I found this, which I hope is the wireless card this time:
'05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 0007
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at c0200000 (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'

2)with '/sbin/iwconfig' I got this (does not look so good, does it?):

'lo no wireless extensions.



eth0 no wireless extensions.



wmaster0 no wireless extensions.



wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""

Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated

Tx-Power=27 dBm

Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B

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
'

3) And here are my attempts with '/sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan' :
wlan0 No scan results

$ /sbin/iwlist wlan mini-PCI scan
iwlist: unknown command `mini-PCI' (check 'iwlist --help').
$ /sbin/iwlist wlan scan
wlan Interface doesn't support scanning.

Also, I still have not found my build in network manager, should that not be somwwhere under 'applications > internet'?


I am sure that is a messy reply, but this is just way beyond my horizon.

Thanks for any help!!!

Your wireless card is probably a Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG. Now check to see if you have the correct driver loaded. Use this command:

find /lib -iname "*bcm*"

to see if you have any Broadcom drivers installed. Then after you try to start the wireless connection use this command:

lsmod

to see what modules you have loaded.

--------------------------
Steve Stites

Thank you, jailbait!

The 'find /lib -iname "*bcm*"' response was this:


'/lib/modules/2.6.23.8-63.fc8/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/frontends/bcm3510.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.23.8-63.fc8/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/bcm203x.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.23.9-85.fc8/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/frontends/bcm3510.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.23.9-85.fc8/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/bcm203x.ko'

The 'lsmod' response (I started the wireless radar and asked the computer to connect when I run this) is very long (sorry, but I have no clue what all that means and hence, which is the relevant information}:


'Module Size Used by

vfat 13249 0

fat 45277 1 vfat

usb_storage 73601 0

rfcomm 36825 0

l2cap 25537 9 rfcomm

bluetooth 49317 4 rfcomm,l2cap

vboxdrv 55088 0

autofs4 20421 2

sunrpc 140765 1

nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 6465 0

nf_conntrack_ipv4 11717 2

xt_state 6081 2

nf_conntrack 51849 3 nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_ipv4,xt_state

nfnetlink 8281 2 nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack

ipt_REJECT 7617 2

iptable_filter 6465 1

ip_tables 14213 1 iptable_filter

xt_tcpudp 6977 10

ip6t_REJECT 8257 2

ip6table_filter 6337 1

ip6_tables 15109 1 ip6table_filter

x_tables 14277 6 xt_state,ipt_REJECT,ip_tables,xt_tcpudp,ip6t_REJECT,ip6_tables

cpufreq_ondemand 10317 1

loop 16581 0

dm_multipath 18249 0

ipv6 245989 15 ip6t_REJECT

snd_usb_audio 75329 0

snd_usb_lib 17345 1 snd_usb_audio

snd_rawmidi 21185 1 snd_usb_lib

snd_hda_intel 274529 4

snd_seq_dummy 6725 0

arc4 5953 2

ecb 6721 2

snd_seq_oss 29889 0

blkcipher 9029 1 ecb

snd_seq_midi_event 9793 1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq 44849 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device 10061 4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss 37569 0

snd_mixer_oss 16705 2 snd_pcm_oss

b43 133221 0

snd_pcm 63685 3 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss

snd_timer 20549 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

rfkill 9297 2 b43

snd_page_alloc 11337 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

fglrx 1485932 28

snd_hwdep 10309 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_intel

snd 43461 17 snd_usb_audio,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss ,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep

k8temp 8257 0

mac80211 115789 1 b43

hwmon 6469 1 k8temp

sdhci 17997 0

b44 25937 0

soundcore 9633 2 snd

cfg80211 10953 1 mac80211

mmc_core 27333 1 sdhci

mii 8385 1 b44

input_polldev 7369 1 b43

video 19921 0

output 6977 1 video

ssb 30149 2 b43,b44

ac 8133 0

battery 14025 0

i2c_piix4 11341 0

button 10448 0

i2c_core 21825 1 i2c_piix4

pcspkr 6593 0

joydev 11649 0

dcdbas 10465 0

sr_mod 17509 0

sg 31965 0

cdrom 33889 1 sr_mod

pata_atiixp 9409 0

dm_snapshot 17765 0

dm_zero 5825 0

dm_mirror 21569 0

dm_mod 46209 9 dm_multipath,dm_snapshot,dm_zero,dm_mirror

ahci 23493 2

libata 100145 2 pata_atiixp,ahci

sd_mod 27329 3

scsi_mod 119757 5 usb_storage,sr_mod,sg,libata,sd_mod

ext3 110665 2

jbd 52457 1 ext3

mbcache 10177 1 ext3

uhci_hcd 23633 0

ohci_hcd 21445 0

ehci_hcd 31821 0
'

What does that tell you?

Thanks for any help!

Hello LinuxMacWannabe

Dont't despair, your output from iwconfig does look good. It tells us that there is a wireless interface in place (wlan0) waiting to be configured.

You will need to do something called "cutting" the firmware for your card.

You have the b43 driver installed from your output of lsmod so you will have the b43-fwcutter program in place as well.

This page:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...devicefirmware

tells you what you need to download and what you need to do with it.

Your problem then is going to be just what you have in your installation to configure it.

First off check that the NetworkManager service is running. In Gnome 'System menu - Administration - Services'.

You should see 'NetworkManager' and 'NetworkManager Despatcher' at the top of the list. Mark those, start them and save the configuration so that they start at boot.

You should see a NetworkManager icon top right of you screen in the notification area that will enable you to choose Wireless Networks or manually enter the details for yours.

Try that and see what happens.

If you've attempted to configure the card in 'System menu - Administration - Network' make sure any wireless card is set not to start at boot. These two methods of controlling a card are mutually exclusive.

Thank you, bbfuller!

You were right, yum told me that the bcm43xx-fwcutter.i386 program is in place. I downloaded the driver (wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o) and extracted the firmware without complaints from the computer.

I also found the 'Service Configuration' GUI and both, 'NetworkManager' and 'NetworkManagerDispatcher' are ticked off and listed as 'currently running in runlevel 5'. Both said 'started successfully' when I hit the start button, but (I think) since there was no change, I could not activate the 'save' or 'save changes' buttons.
I have a 'Connection Monitor' but no 'Connection Manager' icon on my top panel.
The 'Network Configuration' GUI has under 'devices' the 'wlan0' ticked off but listed as 'inactive'. It has two big buttons for 'activate' and 'deactivate', but does not say anything I can see about starting at boot (neither does the 'service configuration' window have 'boot' mentioned anywhere I did see).

I can only hope that this tells you more than me :-)

Hello LinuxMacWannabe

I'm slightly worried here about you using bcm43xx-fwcutter. It 'may' not cut the firmware in the way your driver is expecting as you have the b43 driver and there is a b43-fwcutter specifically for that. I think bcm43xx-fwcutter didn't get removed from the fedora distribution when the bcm43 driver did.

In the Network Configuration Gui you need to highlight the particular card and "Edit" from the toolbar to see it's properties and whether it is set to start at boot.

You may need to remove the firmware you cut with bcm43xx-fwcutter and have another go with b43-fwcutter instead.

I've not known the Gnome NetworkManager gui fail to start when it detects a wireless interface with the NetworkManager service running.

Thanks, again, bbfuller!


I have to get to my computer in the evening, but the reason I thought using the older bcm43xx-fwcutter and wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o firmware is right, is that the b43 linux wireless page says to use these when the card is a bcm43xx, which I figured mine might be, after what jailbait said in post#9. (jailbait read that the card is a Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG in the '/sbin/lspci -v' response I posted.)

If I understand you right, you think I should go for the newer b43 driver and the b43-fwcutter?

I'll try tonight.

Thanks for any help!

Hello LinuxMacWannabe

Although Fedora 8 still seems to carry the bcm43xx-fwcutter program it no longer uses the bcm43xx module.

As you can see from paragraph under this heading on the page I suggested earlier:

The bcm43xx is now deprecated.

In its place Fedora 8 uses the newer b43 and b43 legacy drivers. It seems to pick which one it initialises based on the hardware you have installed.

As you see from the output to your lsmod command in post #10 Fedora is installing the b43 module and needs the firmware supplied by the b43-fwcutter

It also looks like you will need the other firmware to cut:

I wish you luck with this, Fedora wireless at the moment can seem to be a bit of a "roll of the dice" affair!