Is my wireless card being recognised?

hicksy · 03-15-2011, 09:29 AM

I have got Ubuntu 10.10 on a Dell Inspiron Laptop. Can't get anywhere with wireless network.

Tried a few bits of poking it blindly with a stick:

matthew@ubuntu:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network
description: Network controller
product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
resources: irq:17 memory:f69fc000-f69fffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 13
serial: 00:23:ae:32:d4:be
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.28 firmware=N/A latency=0 multicast=yes
resources: irq:44 memory:f68fc000-f68fffff ioport:de00(size=256)
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:24:2c:3d:cf:dc
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b43 driverversion=2.6.35-22-generic firmware=N/A multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
matthew@ubuntu:~$

I reckon *-network DISABLED is a problem,

I tried sudo ifconfig wlan0 up but that didn't work. The output of that and lspci are on the ubuntu side of my machine.

I have also tried pressing my wireless on/off key (F2) but that doesn't work either. Any ideas please?

TobiSGD · 03-15-2011, 09:50 AM

Because of license restrictions Ubuntu can't integrate the necessary firmware for your wireless card into the distribution, so you have to install it with either your hardware helper program, or from the command-line with

Code:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

hicksy · 03-15-2011, 11:09 AM

Thanks Tobi.

I tried what you said and got

Code:

matthew@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer
[sudo] password for matthew: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package firmware-b43-lpphy-installer
matthew@ubuntu:~$

It looks like I have to get hold of some firmware from somewhere; I only have a Windows disk for this machine; no other driver disks.

TobiSGD · 03-15-2011, 11:24 AM

OK, you have to connect with a wired network first, and then run

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

These commands will try to get the firmware from the internet, so you have to be connected.

hicksy · 03-16-2011, 05:27 AM

The built in wireless card gets recognised now and works, I can see several wireless networks. When I try to connect to mine, I'm unable to get the network to recognise my password....

With a plugged in connection:

Code:

matthew@ubuntu:~$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:23:ae:32:d4:be  
          inet addr:192.168.0.2  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::223:aeff:fe32:d4be/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2291 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2067 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2599728 (2.5 MB)  TX bytes:251559 (251.5 KB)
          Interrupt:18 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:15488 (15.4 KB)  TX bytes:15488 (15.4 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:24:2c:3d:cf:dc  
          inet6 addr: fe80::224:2cff:fe3d:cfdc/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:15 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:3273 (3.2 KB)

Is this a password issue, or an IP6 issue? The wireless network has an IP6, but not IP4 address, when the wired connection is plugged in.

TobiSGD · 03-16-2011, 05:36 AM

Sorry, don't know anything about IPv6. Did you try to connect without a wired connection?

hicksy · 03-16-2011, 11:50 AM

Yes, it works fine when I used wired internet (eth0). The code I posted was the ifconfig output when I had it plugged into the wired ethernet. It looked the same when I unplugged the ethernet cable, except eth0 wasn't there. Using the wireless network manager, I was able to change to another wireless network and put in the password for that network, and it worked. But that was breaking the law, strictly speaking, as it wasn't my wireless network and I just guessed the password.

When I put in the password for my wireless network, the network manager icon flickers up and down, then I get asked again; I can never get an internet connection. ifconfig never shows a private IP4 address (e.g. 192.168.0.2); just an ip6 address.

jschiwal · 03-16-2011, 11:59 AM

I have seen where the DHCP6 client caused a problem with a wireless router. (This was on Vista) You could try disabling IPv6 support or at least the DHCP6 client.

The DHCP negotiation occurs after authentication. Check your logs to see if you authenticated successfully. If you have, then it may be an IPv6 issue. If you haven't, then it doesn't get to the DHCP phase, which is why you don't get an address.

TobiSGD · 03-16-2011, 12:09 PM

You also can try to disable IPv6 in your router.