Inspiron 1150 - WLAN 1350 - SuSE 9.1

So far:
- Located bcmwl5.inf, bcmwl5a.inf, and bcmwl5.sys drivers for the Broadcom card Dell calls the
Wireless 1350
- Used ndiswrapper-0.12 to install bcmwl5a (shows as "present" as an installed ndis driver)
- Loaded the module: modprobe ndiswrapper
- Configured the wireless (the last 3 probably aren't needed):
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 essid any
iwconfig wlan0 key xxxxxxxxxx (for my WEP-ed WAP)
iwconfig wlan0 txpower auto
iwconfig wlan0 ap any
iwconfig wlan0 rate auto
- Ran "iwconfig" without options and confirmed that these settings had been read
- Ran "ndiswrapper -m" to set the alias

Two problems:
(1) When I go to YAST, I don't see the device as an active Network Card under Network Devices. Attempting to configure an "Other (not detected)" card, I don't see the wireless card listed or just don't recognize it.
(2) When the system is rebooted, the iwconfig steps must be repeated.

Will someone please guide me through the final steps or point out what I'm missing?

This just shouldn't be so hard. Once this card is working correctly, I'm going to write out the process and post it clearly on every Linux wireless forum I can find, including Dell's. From what I've seen out there, one heck of a lot of people are frustrated with the same problem. This is simply unacceptable in our open environment!

Thanks ...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ad&forumid=41#

1) - I've seen several users complain about Yast not seeing wlan0, but I'm not sure why. I suppose you could edit your /etc/modprobe.conf file and replace wlan0 with eth1, which may be more standard and therefore more acceptable to Yast. Of course it also could be as simple as running ifconfig wlan0 up before Yast sees the card. However, in this case Yast is likely just acting as a front end for iwconfig, which leads me to the next question.......


2) Just write a script that you can either run at boot time or run from the command line when you need the card configured. Here is one I've used with success. All you need to do is add the appropriate information. One other snag is that Suse may use dhclient instead of dhcpcd.

#!/bin/sh
#
# rc.wlan0
#
#CHANNEL=_
ESSID="domainname"
INTERFACE="wlan0"
KEY="WEPKey"
MODE="Managed"
#Load the module
echo "Loading NDISWRAPPER"
/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper
# Set up the WiFi card
echo "Configuring ${INTERFACE}:"
/usr/sbin/iwconfig ${INTERFACE} essid ${ESSID}
#/usr/sbin/iwconfig ${INTERFACE} channel ${CHANNEL}
/usr/sbin/iwconfig ${INTERFACE} mode ${MODE}
/usr/sbin/iwconfig ${INTERFACE} key ${KEY}
# Get IP address from dhcp
/sbin/dhcpcd -t 10 -d wlan0
# Bring up interface - I'm not sure if this is necessary,
# but it doesn't hurt
ifconfig wlan0 up

hello jimajam,

Sorry to hear of your frustrations. WLAN under linux is a bit of a mess at the moment - it helps if you only buy cards that the manufacturers release the source code for however like you, I came to linux late and with a broadcom-based card.

When you run the command

iwlist wlan0 scanning

do you get any results? It should show your AP's name. Also, you are wrong in setting the ssid to any, this needs to be changed to the name of your AP. This may be part of the problem. You are correct - the last three steps are unnecessary. You should also not be adding the alias until you are up and running happily as it says in the wiki tutorial.
bcmwl5.inf is for NT,2k and xp whereas bcmwl5a.inf is for the 9x family. You need to use one or the other (both work equally as well but do not install both). Also, if you can, try disabling wep temporarily and seeing if you can connect before then attempting to encrypt your connection. ie Keep it simple to begin with.
Also see my sig for more help with ndiswrapper.
Cheers
CHris

Thanks to HangDog42 and snecklifter for the prompt replies. After writing the original msg, I fumbled through YAST and found a way to install the card. I could ping the WAP but could not punch through to the 'Net.
But ... I decided to backtrack and use suggestions you two made. In doing so, I managed to lose the definition of wlan0! (Not too bright, but that's what happens when you try to make more than one adjustment at a time.) Now, any attempt to execute iwconfig with wlan0 or eth1 fails to find any such device. Both are listed in modprobe.conf. I've tried retracing my steps and have rebooted the laptop to no avail. Looks like I've added at least one more step to my journey.

Any guidance would be appreciated. My humble and embarassed self thanks you.

Well, the first thing to check would be to see if the ndiswrapper module is still loaded. Run lsmod and make sure. Second, pick either wlan0 or eth1 and comment out the other. I'm not sure what happens when you have two aliases pointed at the same module. It might not hurt, but then again, it may be causing issues. Personally, I would pick the one you were able to see in Yast.

Also, post what you can see with iwconfig and ifconfig.

LSmod: ndiswrapper is present

iwconfig: lo, eth0 and sit0 are listed but all with "no wireless extensions"

ifconfig:
> lo - shows as the Local Loopback (normal)
>eth0 - present but without any IP address assigned; this connection always shows and the info hasn't changed (10 Base 100 port)

I also grep-ed modules.dep for "wlan". There were 2 hits, one "pure" and the other part of a much longer line, but both giving the same location: /lib/modules/2.6.4-52-default/extra/wlan.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.4-52-default/extra/wlan.ko

Um, that is the madwifi module so it doesn't have any relevance to this discusion.

Is is possible that in all your editing, you commented out all of the ndiswrapper lines in /etc/modprobe.conf? Also, when you load the ndiswrapper module, is it successfully finding the card?

I'd be inclined to go through an uninstall and then a re-install of ndiswrapper. Something isn't right there. Like hangdog said, make sure you aren't using both interfaces at the same time. Your computer can only ever have one IP address and it might be conflicting there.
ifconfig eth0 down
will take down your ethernet interface.
Regards
Chris

(1) There are no ndiswrapper lines in /etc/modprobe.conf (cat /etc/modprobe.conf | grep ndis)
(2) ndiswrapper reports the driver bcmwl5 as present, which I interpret as meaning that it found the card at installation
(3) I commented out the eth1 line in /etc/modprobe.conf before sending my last reply so only wlan0 should be found
(4) I took down the eth0 interface, even though it probably isn't getting in the way (simplify, right?!)

I'll see if I can figure out how to uninstall ndiswrapper. Then I'll re-install and go through the steps again.

Thanks to both of you for your help!

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/p....php/Uninstall

Thanks. I googled and found the same page. I just rebooted after removing all loaded pieces. Re-installation is next. BTW, "modprobe -r ndiswrapper && modprobe -l | grep ndiswrapper" still showed two entries of ndiswrapper.ko! I just checked again after rebooting; the two entries are still there. Should I, perhaps, remove them manually?

EDITED ADDENDUM: Ignore that question. I ran updatedb and checked again. It's clear now. I had used "locate" so the db needed to be current. Back to re-installation.

Alright, this is crazy! I was able to install ndiswrapper via YAST (an older version than the current 0.12) and to install bcmwl5 again. However, now "modprobe ndiswrapper" fails because the ndiswrapper.ko files aren't in their correct places in /lib/modules/2.6.4-52-default (.../extra and .../misc). I hate to keep doubling back when we should be moving forward!

I know its nice to use YAST and stuff but stick to the normal
make install
ndiswrapper -i <driver path>
modprobe ndiswrapper

procedure. Its the route that is supported. I dont know which version YAST installed. If you use the above method it should therefore write the modules where it needs to get at them. Anyway, when modprobe fails, dmesg should give an output. See if that helps at all. You may want to post the entire make install procedure and the rest of it back here - make sure you are running the make install as root.
Regards
Chris

Thanks, Chris. I did use the straightforward "make install" initially, but it didn't create the kernel object files where they were needed. I'm rectifying my error a different way and will be back to Ground Zero shortly. No multi-change expeditions the next time around :-)

As much as I hate to say it, I'm at an impasse for now. I've re-installed SuSE 9.1 on the laptop and pulled ndiswrapper-1.0rc4 via CD-ROM. When I try to do a "make install" in the ndiswrapper subdirectory, it fails with this msg:

/usr/src/ndiswrapper-1.0rc4/driver/usb.c: In function 'usb_select_configuration':
/usr/src/ndiswrapper-1.0rc4/driver/usb.c:528: error: structure has no member named 'act_altsetting'
.... and so forth for 8 more lines as it makes its graceful exit.

Bottom line: no ndiswrapper with which to work. I'm going to post the problem separately.

Thanks to both Chris and HangDog for their help. I hope to revisit the issue VERY SOON!