Broadcom BCM4318 wireless adapter wont work...

Astral Projection · 02-24-2008, 11:17 AM

Hi.
I'm trying to install BCM4318 wlan adapter and I cannot do it. First I tried with bcm4xx-fwcutter and that did not work. Then I tried with ndiswrapper and I could see my wlan card on iwconfig but I couldn't connect to it. Then I tried new drivers (b43-fwcutter) and I could see my wlan card. However, I could not connect to it from another computer nor connect with it to another computer... Then I've unloaded b43 modules and I decided to try with ndiswrapper again but now I cannot see my wlan card. I've blacklisted b43 and bcm43xx modules.
ndiswrapper -l shows me:

Code:

shiva:/home/astral# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
        device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: ssb)

lspci:

Code:

shiva:/home/astral# lspci -v
02:01.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 100f
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 20
        Memory at fbc04000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

iwconfig:

Code:

shiva:/home/astral# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

dmesg:

Code:

shiva:/home/astral# dmesg | grep ndis
ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

lsmod:

Code:

shiva:/home/astral# lsmod |grep ndis
ndiswrapper           174588  0
usbcore               132940  4 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

I should say that this is ASUS WL 138gE PCI WLAN Card, and I'm using Debian sid\lenny
Can I somehow make this card work?

Brian1 · 02-24-2008, 11:35 AM

The network card is already controlled by the ssb module as in the ndiswrapper -l command says. You need to blacklist that module as well as the b43 before ndiswrapper can control the card.

Brian

Astral Projection · 02-25-2008, 01:06 PM

Well I blacklisted ssb and loaded ndiswrapper again but I cannot see wlan adapter on iwconfig \ ifconfig -a

Code:

shiva:~# lsmod | grep ssb
shiva:~# lsmod | grep ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper           174588  0
usbcore               132940  4 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

Code:

shiva:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

Brian1 · 02-26-2008, 03:17 PM

What does ' ndiswrapper -l ' say now.

Brian

Astral Projection · 02-26-2008, 07:28 PM

same:

shiva:~# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: ssb)

Brian1 · 02-28-2008, 04:16 PM

The ssb driver is still loaded. Try it this way as root.
rmmod ndiswrapper
rmmod ssb
rmmod b43
modprobe ndiswrapper
Then run the ndiswrapper -l and see what it says.

Brian

Astral Projection · 02-29-2008, 09:03 AM

Quote:

shiva:~# rmmod ndiswrapper
shiva:~# rmmod ssb
shiva:~# rmmod b43
ERROR: Module b43 does not exist in /proc/modules
shiva:~# modprobe ndiswrapper
shiva:~# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: ssb)
shiva:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

shiva:~# lsmod | grep ssb

I think it is not loaded, but i dont know why iwconfig wont recognize my wlan card...

Brian1 · 03-01-2008, 10:27 AM

List the loaded modules at this point.
/sbin/lsmod

Brian

Lenard · 03-01-2008, 12:18 PM

1. The bcm43xx, b43 and ssb need to be blacklisted (as you have already done).
2: The ndiswrapper -l output is normal and expected.
3. Create the alias for the driver alias wlan0 ndiswrapper replace the b43/bcm/ssb alias

Astral Projection · 03-01-2008, 05:04 PM

I managed to make wlan adapter work via ndiswrapper.. But only way to make it work is first to load b43 module, then rmmod ssb, b43, ndsiwrapper.. and then load ndiswrapper module again.. can I make ndiswrapper to load on startup? i've blacklisted ssb but it loads after every reboot. Same thing happens on my laptop: I've blacklisted ath_pci module, but it loads anyway... What is the problem?

Brian1 · 03-03-2008, 03:56 PM

you need to set the alias of wlan0 in your /etc/modprobe.conf
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

Brian

Astral Projection · 03-03-2008, 04:06 PM

I have that in modprobe.conf

Brian1 · 03-03-2008, 04:25 PM

It might help to post some info about the machine and what are in some of the files at this point.
Post the name of the blacklist file and its contents.
Post contents of /etc/modprobe.conf
Post output of the following commands.
/sbin/lsmod
/sbin/lspci -v
/sbin/ifconfig -a
/sbin/iwconfig

Brian

Astral Projection · 03-03-2008, 04:31 PM

actually i have that in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
i dont have /etc/modprobe.conf... only /etc/modules.conf

Brian1 · 03-03-2008, 05:07 PM

Post your /etc/modules.conf file
Also post the kernel version. ' uname -r '
If 2.6 kernel I would think using modprobe.conf would be perfered over modules.conf. Unless this is a 2.4 kernel. I also don't use the distro in your sig but maybe what is required. Maybe to blacklist a file requires a different step or file to do so. But would also like to see the contents of what i mentioned. I feel that will get us closer to the root.

Brian