TravelMate 4401LMi

blabno · 01-26-2006, 04:34 AM

Hello,
I have Acer TravelMate 4401LMi. Everything except WiFi works perfectly. Under WindowsXP wifi works great, but not on my slackware.
I've read ndiswrapper, bcm43xx , and looked through tons of sites.

First however my system specs :
system : Slackware 10.2
kernel : 2.6.15.1
WLan card : Broadcom (built-in)

Code:

lspci :
06:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
lspci -n :
06:05.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4318 (rev 02)

So based on this i understand that my wifi chipset is broadcom 4318.
I did as follows :

Code:

make ndiswrapper //OK
make install ndiswrapper //OK
ndiswrapper -i /mnt/c/80211g/bcmwl5a.inf //OK
ndiswrapper -m //ok
ndiswrapper -l // returned following 2 lines :
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5a         driver present, hardware present
modprobe wlan0 //nothing wrong
lsmod //ndiswrapper loaded
iwconfig wlan0 mode Ad-hoc essid kuna nick pink
iwconfig wlan0 //prints following
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"pink"
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Cell: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm
          RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 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
//So as you can see i can not set essid.
iwscan // returns :
wlan0     No scan results

//And i have laptop with wifi under windows connected with other pc ( server ) in ad-hoc mode.

Of course no leds turn on ( leds are buttons too, in windows u must have led pressed and special program running otherwise wifi won't start).

So my question is if it is possible that my card is turned off and i need somehow to turn it on ? Ive tried acerhk, but it doesn't seem to work, besides its homepage is down. So please help.

Lenard · 01-26-2006, 06:42 AM

Hey I have the same wireless interface;

00:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

Works just fine using the correct Windows XP driver. You need to either the 32bit or 64bit driver depending on which kernel your using. The diver and kernel both have to be the same, 32 or 64bit. You seem to have the wrong Windows driver installed, please use the Windows driver as listed form the ndiswrapper known list;

For the 32bit kernel
ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...iver/80211.zip

For the 64bit kernel
ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...bit/80211g.zip

With Linux please note the LED will not be on unless data is present on the interface. If you plan is to use adhoc mode then plase manually set your IP address's to the same address range (192.168.1.XXX for example).

blabno · 01-26-2006, 11:57 AM

My drivers and kernel are both 32bit. So it is not an issue. However i've heard that acer laptops require acer_acpi module. I've tried it , but it does not help.

And i want use dhcpcd wlan0 in ad-hoc mode. Since my server (internet gateway) uses wlan card to prowide the access. It works with windows.

What about frequency and channels ? Shall i set it to some particular values ?

blabno · 01-26-2006, 12:41 PM

Good God ! Hallelujah !!!! Soved that problem ! Oh my God ! I shall write about it in just a second.

....

And so i'm back. The solution was acer_acpi module. You just have to do the following :

Code:

modprobe acer_acpi
echo "enabled: 1" > /proc/acpi/acer/wireless

And now the most important ! Press the button. Nothing visible will happen cause the led blinks only when it is transmitting data (unlike in windows).
Now you are ready to iwlist or iwconfigure.

I've obtained acer_acpi from http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acpi...acpi_main.html