I have an HP Pavilion ze4560us with a built in Broadcom 802.11g wifi card. I currently have Suse 8.2 and Windows XP in a dual boot configuration, although at some point I would like to get rid of Windows. The Broadcom card is currently not supported in the kernel, however, I have downloaded and installed the Linuxant driverloader. This seems to be working as I'll show later. First I want to show my setting in YaST for the Broadcom card.

I went into Network Devices and I have the following setup:

Under Network address setup I have the card configured as , Network device: eth1 and the setup method is Automatic address setup (via DHCP). Under Host name and name server the Host Name is linux(default, I guess) and the Domain Name is local. The Change host name via DHCP is checked. Under Routing configuration I have entered an IP address for the Default Gateway that I got from my router.

Manual network card configuration:

Network device: eth1

Kernel module, module name: bcmwl5driverloader (from Linuxant) I have nothing in the Options box.

Under the subcategory Wireless settings the Operating mode keeps resetting itself to Ad-hoc whenever I enter YaST although I try to keep it set at Automatic. Under Network name(ESSID) I have put the name I gave my network when I set up my wireless router. Under Network identifier(NWID) I put the name "tux" as that is what I call the computer in Windows. Under Encryption key I have put my WEP encryption key and I have left Nick name blank.

When I activate KWiFi the interface comes up with a question mark over the card icon and it says I am not connected to my network and the AccessPoint is UNKNOWN. However, it does show the correct local IP and there is a set of numbers/letters after Access Point. My Frequency Channel is 0[?]. In the configuration for KWiFi I have put in the name of my network and the Operation Mode is set at peer-to-peer. The Speed setting is auto.

I know that I have some kind of connection with my network because when I log into my Base Station Management Tool on my desktop pc, it shows the laptop as a client with the same IP shown by KWiFi. Also, if I change my host name is YaST, this change is reflected in the name of the client shown in the BSMT. So signals are being tranmitted between my router and my laptop. However, as of yet, I am unable to make use of them.

Here is the relevant part of /var/log/boot.msg

eth1 ERROR: command 'iwconfig eth1 mode Automatic' returned

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :

SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.

ERROR: command 'iwconfig eth1 nwid tux' returned

Error for wireless request "Set NWID" (8B02) :

invalid argument "tux".

(DHCP) <notice>checkproc: /sbin/dhcpcd 784
<notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/dhcpcd) [ /sbin/dhcpcd -R -G -N -Y -t 999999 -h linux eth1 ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh OLDPWD=/etc/sysconfig/network progress=22 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 RUN_FROM_RC=yes REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 COLUMNS=118 PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/etc/sysconfig/network/scripts vga=0x317 RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/etc/sysconfig/network PREVLEVEL=N LINES=38 HOME=/ SHLVL=4 splash=silent sscripts=38 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/dhcpcd ]
. . . . . . . IP/Netmask: removed / 255.255.255.0
done

This is actually a huge improvement over when I did not have the Linuxant driverloader installed. The only message I got then for eth1 was "failed".

I feel that I am very close to having my wireless card working in Suse and that I just need to make a few adjustments. I have tried to be detailed with what I have done and I hope this will enable someone to help with the final few tweaks I need to make.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

I'm not a SuSE guy, (yet), but I have quite a few wireless cards working with my various linux boxes. Here's a couple of suggestions: (open a console windows and "su -" to root), then do iwconfig eth1 mode ad-hoc and iwconfig essid any, see if you can connect to one of the peers (ping). I'm assuming you are intentionally using an ad-hoc wireless network setup, meaning you have no access point or router. If the essid any leaves you with anothe error, then do iwconfig eth1 essid actualessidname of one of the peers. You may also have to set the channel: iwconfig eth1 channel x, or the frequency. see man iwconfig for frequency setting