Help Please!!! WLAN on my laptop

dking24 · 06-25-2009, 10:49 PM

So i decided to download and install Suse 11 on my laptop, i love it so far but i'm having trouble with my WLAN connection. I have seen some different threads and post about this but it was just too confusing. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000. Can anyone give me a step by step to what i need to do to get my WLAN up and going. I'm a newbie to Linux so step by step would be great.

thanks,

Oh yeah...based on some of the threads that i read before i downloaded ndiswrapper 1.54 but thats as far as i went with that. I don't know how to get it installed or where to go from there but it is on my desktop

scheidel21 · 06-26-2009, 08:32 AM

Well we need to know what Wireless chipset you have. So we can poitn you in the right direction. If you are not sure what chipset you have try running lspci and providing the information there.

dking24 · 06-26-2009, 11:10 AM

thanks for response...

here is output of lspci

linux-a3ab:~ # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
03:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
03:01.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
03:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

akiku · 06-26-2009, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dking24

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000. Can anyone give me a step by step to what i need to do to get my WLAN up and going. I'm a newbie to Linux so step by step would be great.

Have a look at http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html. Looks like there's at least 20 howtos on how to configure your laptop using different distros.

dking24 · 06-26-2009, 11:16 AM

here is the output of lsmod just in case anyone needs it.

linux-a3ab:~ # lsmod
Module Size Used by
iptable_filter 2548 0
ip_tables 11364 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 14500 1 ip_tables
ppdev 6896 0
parport_pc 34912 0
lp 8644 0
parport 33136 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
af_packet 16412 4
rfkill_input 4240 0
binfmt_misc 7732 1
snd_pcm_oss 43024 0
snd_mixer_oss 14288 1 snd_pcm_oss
i915 28016 2
snd_seq 51924 0
drm 74604 3 i915
snd_seq_device 7168 1 snd_seq
ipv6 241856 24
fuse 50596 5
loop 14064 0
dm_mod 62616 0
arc4 1728 2
ecb 2672 2
crypto_blkcipher 16940 1 ecb
b43 121312 0
rfkill 8576 2 rfkill_input,b43
mac80211 199576 1 b43
cfg80211 23356 1 mac80211
led_class 3896 1 b43
input_polldev 3664 1 b43
b44 25976 0
snd_intel8x0 28352 7
snd_intel8x0m 13848 0
snd_ac97_codec 99764 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m
ac97_bus 1584 1 snd_ac97_codec
video 20308 0
output 2736 1 video
snd_pcm 76904 5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_ac97_codec
sdhci_pci 7444 0
ssb 38396 2 b43,b44
ohci1394 27656 0
yenta_socket 22884 1
iTCO_wdt 10016 0
rtc_cmos 10896 0
snd_timer 20204 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
rsrc_nonstatic 10936 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia 32684 2 b43,ssb
sdhci 17108 1 sdhci_pci
mii 4968 1 b44
ieee1394 83764 1 ohci1394
i2c_i801 10508 0
button 6568 0
intel_agp 24776 1
battery 11176 0
ac 4480 0
sr_mod 13360 1
snd 56816 22 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,s nd_timer
iTCO_vendor_support 3368 1 iTCO_wdt
rtc_core 17384 1 rtc_cmos
pcmcia_core 33164 5 b43,ssb,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic,pcmcia
mmc_core 54968 1 sdhci
i2c_core 29900 1 i2c_i801
joydev 8944 0
cdrom 32292 1 sr_mod
dcdbas 8932 0
soundcore 6660 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 8184 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm
agpgart 32308 4 drm,intel_agp
rtc_lib 2816 1 rtc_core
pcspkr 2344 0
sg 29408 0
sd_mod 31624 4
crc_t10dif 1704 1 sd_mod
ehci_hcd 48160 0
uhci_hcd 23072 0
usbcore 165892 3 ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
edd 8616 0
ext3 123928 2
mbcache 7592 1 ext3
jbd 52864 1 ext3
fan 4712 0
ide_pci_generic 3428 0
ide_core 97492 1 ide_pci_generic
ata_generic 4484 0
ata_piix 16652 4
ahci 28476 0
libata 160940 3 ata_generic,ata_piix,ahci
scsi_mod 149680 4 sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
dock 11804 1 libata
thermal 19976 0
processor 43644 2 thermal
thermal_sys 11364 4 video,fan,thermal,processor
hwmon 2916 1 thermal_sys

scheidel21 · 06-26-2009, 02:26 PM

Ok you have a broadcom wireless card. You can use the b43 driver that is loaded but you need the firmware for the card, you can obtain that using fwcutter, I am not too familiar with fwcutter but there are countless tutorials on how to extract the firmware, you can look one up. The other option is to use ndiswrapper, I recommend you download ndiswrapper and compile against you machine from source. One that is compiled download the installer for the windows driver for your wireless card from your computer maker (Dell). Make sure you download the architecture appropriate drivers 32-bit for 32-bit linux and 64 for 64-bit linux. Once you have the driver installer use cabextract to extract the installer files and locate the driver. Copy the driver to somewhere on your hd and load it up with ndis wrapper, then you are all done. I had an HP with the same Broadcom card, and had excellent experience with it using ndiswrapper and wpa2 encryption. I was never able to get b43 and the firmware to work properly.

dking24 · 06-26-2009, 03:50 PM

Thanks again for the response...

Quote:

The other option is to use ndiswrapper, I recommend you download ndiswrapper and compile against you machine from source.

How would I do this?

tredegar · 06-26-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

How would I do this?

Maybe follow the link given in post #4 by akiku ?

dking24 · 06-26-2009, 06:57 PM

i've already been through those links before i started looking for help here...

scheidel21 · 06-26-2009, 07:00 PM

Well do a search for ndiswrapper sourcecode then download it and uncompress it, after doing that navigate to the directory with the ndis source and in command line run ./configure then ./make and finally ./make install that is if memory serves me right

dking24 · 06-26-2009, 07:12 PM

okay i have drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 21 23:23 ndiswrapper-1.54
downloaded...how do i uncompress it?

thanks again

jschiwal · 06-26-2009, 07:41 PM

IMHO, you may have better luck using the b43 driver instead. Resort to using ndiswrapper as a last resort. I used fwcutter on my older laptop after installing Fedora. Instead of locating the correct windows driver, I cheated by running the script from openSuSE's b43-fwcutter package, which downloads the driver, and cuts out the firmware automatically. I've attached this program if you want to use it.
Install the b43-fwcutter package using your package manager first.
Then rename the attached file and make it executable:

Code:

sudo mv install_bcm43xx_firmware.txt /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
sudo chown root.root /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
sudo chmod u=rwx,go=rx /usr/sbin/instal_bcm43xx_firmware

After running the script as root, modprobe the `b43' kernel module, and then run your distro's network interface configuration tool. If you put the name of your distro in your LQ user profile, it will help solicit better answers. Different distro's have different tools for configuring your network.

Good Luck!

ps.
background info:
What the b43-fwcutter program does is cut out parts of a downloaded driver that the b43 kernel module needs, and saves them under /lib/firmware/. The ndiswrapper driver wraps itself around an entire windows ndis driver. It is the windows driver which runs. In both cases you need to locate a suitable windows driver to use.

dking24 · 06-28-2009, 06:47 AM

Thanks for response, i'm running Suse 11.0

I got through this part

Quote:

Install the b43-fwcutter package using your package manager first.
Then rename the attached file and make it executable:
Code:

sudo mv install_bcm43xx_firmware.txt /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
sudo chown root.root /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
sudo chmod u=rwx,go=rx /usr/sbin/instal_bcm43xx_firmware

And I downloaded the driver from dell 'R140747.exe'...but im stuck now.

How do I install the driver?

dking24 · 06-28-2009, 08:30 PM

Okay...I have had some progress with all your help. My Wifi light is on now on my laptop but I still can't connect using it... Anyone have any ideas or trouble shooting steps?

jschiwal · 06-29-2009, 02:10 AM

Not knowing your distro was SuSE 11, I could have given even easier instructions. Install the "b43-fwcutter" package and run as root "/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware".

The light blinking indirectly indicates that your device is working and you can proceed to configure your network device.
It may be a good idea to verify this. Check if you have the "wireless tools" package installed. This package contains programs like iwconfig, iwlist, and others that are very useful in configuring and diagnosing your network. You probably have it installed already. Then check for access points with the command "sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan".
You should get a result that looks like this:

Code:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:21:29:68:DA:37
                    ESSID:"xihprom"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:4
                    Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
...

The next step is to configure your network devices in YaST2.

I'm looking at the SuSE 11.1 Network configuration. I hope it isn't too different from 11.0.

Either go through the menu's or run "kdesu yast2 network" for a shortcut. For the "Available Network Modules" prompt, select "Network Card" and click the "Launch" button.
Now you should see a list of your devices. Select the wireless device and click the "Edit" button. You should be under the "Address" tab. If your router configures your computers with the IP address, DNS, etc., then select the "Dynamic Address" and select DHCP in the drop down box. If you don't have a TCP 6 connection, or equipment, I would recommend selecting "DHCP V4 Only" on the drop down selector box to the right.

Clicking on "Next" at the bottom, gets you to the wireless configuration page. For Operating Mode, select "Managed". Enter your essid in the "Network Name" text box. Enter your "Authentication Mode", such as WPA-PSK. Then enter the key that your router uses. Selecting Next, will get you back to the Overview tab.

The next tab is where you can enter the hostname of your computer. A common mistake is to not give your computer a hostname. Sometimes the default will be "localhost.localdomain". You don't want that. Check the hostname.

In the Overview tab, select whether you want to use network manager or the ifup scripts to start up & configure your device. The choice is up to you. If you will be connecting to different networks, using NetworkManager will probably be more useful.

Lastly, click "OK" on the bottom right-hand corner.

Good Luck!