Broadcom BCM4318 connecting to a 802.11b wi-fi network.

DragonRider · 04-07-2006, 07:37 AM

Hello all.

I recently bought an HP Pavilion ze2000 laptop. Straightaway i ripped out windows and installed Slackware 10.2

i have since gotten all my hardware to function (except the modem, but i'm not concerened about that.)

using ndiswrapper i am loading the bcmwl5.inf drivers.

i now note two interesting pieces of information.

1) my wireless card does not appear to be affected by the led switch that is supposed to turn it on and off (YAY!)

2) i cannot detect the 802.11b network at home.

it is item 2 i am worried about.

can someone tell me how to (preferably impermanently) switch wireless protocalls from the 802.11g to the 802.11b and thus connect to my home network?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Useful machine info:
lspci -vv

Code:

...
05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 1355
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
        Region 0: Memory at c0204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
...

iwconfig

Code:

...
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"Narusagawa"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 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
...

ifconfig -a

Code:

...
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:A5:7B:A2:DC
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:10 Memory:c0204000-c0206000
...

iwlist wlan0 scanning

Code:

wlan0     No scan results

Machine Stats:
Distro: Slackware 10.2
Kernel: Upgraded to 2.6.16
Ndiswrapper: 1.12
Wi-fi card: Broadcom BCM4318 802.11b/g (with speedbooster technology)

Lenard · 04-07-2006, 12:09 PM

Are you using the bcmwl5.inf drivers from your Windows CD or the ones from;

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List ??

And they are the right ones for your system (32-bit or 64-bit)?? The 32-bit drivers do not work with a 64-bit OS. And if 64-bit the Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] driver has a known bug, they need to be loaded twice. Use modprobe to remove the ndiswrapper and then load ndiswrapper.

DragonRider · 04-09-2006, 06:39 PM

i would hope that i am not using the 64 bit version of the drivers as i am running a 32 bit sempron processor.

but to answer your question no i am not using the bcmwl5.inf drivers from my windows CD as i saddly did not recieve one form HP. that would have cost extra.

I can get my wireless card to register and detect/connect to networks running the 802.11g protocal. but my home network is running the 802.11b protocall and is currently not capable of being upgraded without replacing the router.

the card was advertized as being capable of using the 802.11b protocall in adition to the 802.11g.

for the moment i am using my older Netgear MA-401 pcmcia card to connect but i would like to free the card to use with my older laptop too.

my problem lies in making the integrated card work with my home network without upgrading the router which i can ill afford until atleast i get my laptop paied off.

Lenard · 04-09-2006, 07:48 PM

Well, I do have the 64-bit driver since my OS is 64-bit, which is why I know about loading the driver twice. It does work with both 802.11b and g protocols. At one location it would not work, but that was a firmware problem with the router. Once the firmware was updated I was able to connect. Maybe this all you need to do also, check for a firmware update for your router.

DragonRider · 04-21-2006, 09:55 AM

problem has been solved.

and i now feel like a royal idiot.

the problem was thus.

i had not turned on the wirless card arial.

theres a little button on the laptop that turns on and off the wireless ariel to save power.

Lenard · 04-21-2006, 10:50 AM

I got bit by that #$@&! button myself a time or two