Configuring Wireless

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 08:34 AM

I'm trying to configure my wireless on a fresh install of Slackware 13.0. I struggled with this forever about a year ago with no luck and decided to give it a break but now I'm back at it. So basically this is where I am at. My system information is below, then the output of iwconfig, then the area of rc.inet1.conf that i changed (I don't think I did it right).

--------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53 1.70 GHz

RAM: 2 GB

System Type: 32 Bit

Laptop Model: DV6000 Series

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150

Hard Drive: 150 GB

--------------------------------------------------------------

after running iwconfig

Code:

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

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=0 dBm                                                    
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B             
          Encryption key:off                                                
          Power Management:off                                              
          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          

root@darkstar:~# iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0  Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

This would be the portion of the rc.inet1.conf file i changed.

Code:

Contents of Changes in rc.inet1.conf

## Example config information for wlan0.  Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your data.  (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)
IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
#IPADDR[4]=""
NETMASK[4]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="Netgear"
DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"
DHCP_IPADDR[4]="192.168.22.22"
WLAN_ESSID[4]=Netgear
WLAN_MODE[4]=Managed
#WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
#WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="auto"
#WLAN_KEY[4]="D5A31F54ACF0487C2D0B1C10D2"
#WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="set AuthMode=WPAPSK | set EncrypType=TKIP | set WPAPSK=96389dc66eaf7e6efd$
#WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="ndiswrapper"
WLAN_WPAWAIT[4]=60

## Some examples of additional network parameters that you can use.
## Config information for wlan0:
IFNAME[4]="wlan0"              # Use a different interface name instead of
                                # the default 'eth4'

dugan · 02-19-2010, 08:50 AM

Why not change rc.inet1.conf back to the defaults, and use wicd?

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 11:35 AM

okay..i could just comment everything out again in inet1. lol whats wicd and how do i use it?

your reply makes me feel like this fix should be simple so I'm hopeful about that. lol last time i was working with ubuntu and it was insane trying to get linux to work with my broadcom chip.

dugan · 02-19-2010, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R Tanner

whats wicd and how do i use it?

Package and instructions are in /extra.

repo · 02-19-2010, 11:55 AM

Quote:

WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="ndiswrapper"

Do you use ndiswrapper?
If not use

Quote:

wext

Do you need a key? or is it open?
if yes
uncomment

Quote:

#WLAN_KEY[4]="D5A31F54ACF0487C2D0B1C10D2"
#WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="set AuthMode=WPAPSK | set EncrypType=TKIP | set WPAPSK=96389dc66eaf7e6efd$
#WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"

and put in your key

You can use wpa_gui to do the changes, ans scan for networks

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 12:42 PM

honestly, i don't know what the difference between wext and ndiswrapper is.

so i created a folder in root called Extract and ran the following from a console.

Code:

install /media/SlackDVD/extra/wicd/wicd-1.6.2.1-i486-1.txz /root/Extract/

So now I have the following file in my extract folder. what do i do with it?

Code:

wicd-1.6.2.1-i486-1.txz

I'll throw it out there, if this post doesn't give it away. I'm so brand new to linux its not even funny.lol

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 12:44 PM

I do need a key so I'm going to need to uncomment those lines and put in my key, security type, and all that right?

repo · 02-19-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

So now I have the following file in my extract folder. what do i do with it?

as root

Code:

installpkg wicd-1.6.2.1-i486-1.txz

em21701 · 02-19-2010, 01:22 PM

No where in your information did you mention the wireless card type you have in there. My DV6000 had a broadcom wireless card which requires driver setup and a kernel compile to get working. Neither are hard, but you are wasting your time if you haven't gotten the hardware working. Instructions for all of that can be found with a forum search.

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 02:06 PM

okay yeah thats what i need to do probably. i do have a broadcom card so I'm going to see if i can search the forum for what i need to do and post back here if i have problems.

koenigdavidmj · 02-19-2010, 04:42 PM

R Tanner, with a Broadcom card, you basically have three driver options:

1. There exists a SlackBuild (called broadcom-sta) that includes the proprietary driver that comes directly from Broadcom.

2. You can use ndiswrapper and the driver files from Windows.

3. You can use b43-fwcutter (also a SlackBuild) and the drivers built into the kernel.

Not all of these will work on all cards, however.

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 06:47 PM

So I put the b43-fwcutter in the /lib/firmware folder after running tar xjf and make. Now I have downloaded the broadcom driver and I'm trying to run tar xjf on it (as you can see below) and its throwing all the errors you see below. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Code:

root@darkstar:/media/disk# tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta_mimo.o: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/nas: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/wl: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/WHERE_FROM: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/libbcmcrypto.so: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

koenigdavidmj · 02-19-2010, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R Tanner

So I put the b43-fwcutter in the /lib/firmware folder after running tar xjf and make. Now I have downloaded the broadcom driver and I'm trying to run tar xjf on it (as you can see below) and its throwing all the errors you see below. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Code:

root@darkstar:/media/disk# tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta_mimo.o: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/nas: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/wl: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/WHERE_FROM: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/libbcmcrypto.so: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0: Cannot change ownership to uid 1002, gid 100: Operation not permitted
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

You don't have permission to extract that onto your thumbdrive. Copy the tarball into your homedirectory and extract it there.

R Tanner · 02-19-2010, 11:49 PM

so I'm trying to run this sudo command for the driver but i can't figure it out for the life of me (I've been playing with it for the last 3 hours or so). Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Code:

root@darkstar:~# cd broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0
root@darkstar:~/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0# ls
WHERE_FROM  kmod/  libbcmcrypto.so*  nas*  wl*
root@darkstar:~/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0# cd kmod
root@darkstar:~/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod# ls
wl_apsta.o  wl_apsta_mimo.o
root@darkstar:~/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod# sudo../../lib/firmware/b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" wl_apsta.o
bash: sudo../../lib/firmware/b43-fwcutter: No such file or directory
root@darkstar:~/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod#

mattca · 02-20-2010, 12:16 AM

It looks like /lib/firmware/b43-fwcutter doesn't exist. And your output doesn't include any commands that would verify that. Have you checked?

Also, just a couple friendly tips.. if you're logged in as root, you don't need to use sudo. And you can avoid typing "../.." by using an absolute path. ie, "/lib/firmware/b43-fwcutter".

Hope that helps!