Hi Guys!

I'm running OpenSuse 11.0 on a Dell Inspiron 1520 but my wireless is not working properly. The system recognizes the wireless card but when I try to search for wireless networks around me nothing comes up. (I do have my wireless router working) can you guys help me?
thanks

I run /sbin/lspci -v and these are the results for my wlan0 :

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0007
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at fe8fc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel <?>
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

Thanks for your help!!!

What is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig?

ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1D:09:A2:BE:8F
inet addr:192.168.1.52 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21d:9ff:fea2:be8f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6617 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2804 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4344228 (4.1 Mb) TX bytes:372023 (363.3 Kb)
Interrupt:17

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:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb) TX bytes:2056 (2.0 Kb)

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption keyff
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

thanks for your helping!

indicates Wireless is probably disabled.. hit Fn+F2 to enable your wireless card and try again..

hi,

I checked the status of the wlan and it says disconnected however I pressed FN+F2 and nothing. My laptop has a button to enable/disable the wlan but it is ENABLED. the wlan light is off tho.

any ideas?
thanks

Ahh I thought the Dell laptops were pretty much all Fn+F2 to enable/disable Wireless.. Are you SURE it's enabled via the button ?

Just looked at one of these the other day, and 'Signal Level 0' indicated wireless as being disabled in BIOS or via switch, etc..

From the FAQ http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/faq
Not sure what else to tell you..

for the 4311 tyou should be running the new STA driver
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

I don't know what drivers you have currently loaded.. maybe the issue is you have an older version of the driver installed..http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

What is output of iwlist wlan0 scan? If you have a access point you want to connect to, you can enter it via iwconfig (man iwconfig).

But as noted, the 0 signal level may indicate your NIC is disabled.

ok guys! I got my wireless working! :=) this is what I did:
/var/log # tail -f messages wlan was missing firmware
I went to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 where I found the following command:
sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware and I run it on my system. I restarted and now my wireless is working! It took some research and work but I'm glad it worked! Thanks guys!

Does this work on other wireless chips?
Mine is an Atheros AR242x, and the light is always red (which means disabled) even when is enabled and connected (which should be blue).