Broadcom BCM94311MCG Wireless Card Error- SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
 

I am running Fedora core 8, kernel 2.6.24.3-34.fc8. I have a Gateway 5060 Laptop with the Broadcom BCM4311 wireless 802g controller installed.

I have tried several methods for installing the driver required for this systems but I alway get the "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory" error.

lspci, reports the driver as displayed below:
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)

The entire lspci is listed below :
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 83)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (rev 80)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB450 HDA Audio (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS485 [Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
08:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
08:09.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
08:09.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)

The complete error when installing the driver for wlan0 is :
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Failed to bring up wlan0.

I have installed the rpm for linux kernel 2.6.24.3-38, by John W. Linville <linville@redhat.com> 2.6.24.3-38 from the link below but I get software already installed. I must have the latest drivers.

http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/index

What is the correct method for getting a wireless driver installed under Fedora Core 8.

I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions.

My laptop has limited usefulness when it is tied to the desk.

Regards,

cgreen6911

I am adding some additional information to my thread.

Below is the results when I run iwconfig: Does anyone see anything that is not configured properly?

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"TorahLife"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:3734-3638-2D36-3537-332D-3643-3639-2D36-3336-422D-3632-3732-2D36-4637-372D-3645-3636-2D36-4637-38
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

What other logs or data do you require to trouble shoot this issue.

Any help or comments would be appreciated.

regards,

cgreen6911

From the output of iwconfig i can see you are using the native broadcom driver. In order to get it to work you have to make sure you have the right firmware in /lib/firmware. There is a really good how to on linux wireless for broadccom wireless. You should look at that. Alternatively if you are using a 32 bit system you may want to consider using ndiswrapper. Its not native but its a lot less problematic to set up

Boardcom BCM94311MCG Wireless- SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
 

pgpython,

Thank you for the reply. I have been chasing my tail on this issue for over 3 months.

I will locate the wireless Howto for Broadcom and see if it works.

I will also look into the Ndiswrapper. I will use whatever driver that will get this wireless working.

Is the ndiswrapper the preferred way to get Broadcom wireless b43 devices working?

regards,

cgreen6911

Hello cgreen6911

I've talked to several people recently who have managed to get the broadcom 4311 working on Fedora 8.

The surest way to do it is when your Fedora installation is completely up to date as yours appears to be.

Just to check, could you run:

Mine returns:

It's the 011 that's important, if you have an earlier version then you need different firmware to the following.

Download this package:

[HTML]http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2.tar.bz2[/HTML]

into a directory in your home area.

cd into the directory and extract the files. You will have a new directory named broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5. cd into that and then into the drivers directory within that.

Obtain full root rights with:

that's a space and a minus sign after the su. It gives full root rights rather than just root rights within your own environment.

Cut the firmware with:

Restart the machine.

In Gnome go to System Menu - Administration - Network. This is the network configuration applet and should not be used for controlling wireless cards. If your card is listed here on the Devices page highlight it and click "Edit". In the new screen make sure that the card is NOT set to "Activate device when computer starts" and that it is set to be "Controlled by NetworkManager".

In Gnome again, System Menu - Administration - Services. Make sure that NetworkManager is ticked, started and saved so that it starts at boot time.

Restart the machine again and in the Gnome Top Panel in the Notification area to the right NM should be ready to control your card.

The message that you have been seeing often results from both NM and network configuration trying to control your card at the same time and neither being able to get exclusive control.

The above works very well on my 4318 (which I'm using now) and a 4306 I have. I've also talked to other people who have set up the 4311 in the same way.

Sorry if you've already done some of it, but I've no way of knowing which parts you may have already done.

Fedora core 8, kernel 2.6.24.3-34.fc8 and Broadcom b43 Wireless
 

bbfuller,

Thanks you for the reply. I have tried to download the file mentioned but get error "Invalid directory".

I noticed that the file had the .tar.bz2 twice on the URL path, however, when I removed the .tar.bz2 i still received the same error.

see below:
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/h...ar.bz2.tar.bz2

Next i searched the web for the file and it took me to the following path:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43.

This is the site that I tried without success and then i can to this forum for help.

Your pointers were good ones, for correcting this issue. I will try recompiling the driver again this weekend.

If this doesn't work I plan to look into the use of the ndiswrapper.

I will let you know how things work out.

Thanks for the suggestions.

regards,

cgreen6911

Sorry cgreen6911

That's a result of my pasting error.

The download link for the software is below:

http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2

I've checked it and it works. Just paste the line into a browser address bar.

I really don't think you will need ndiswrapper for this card, but if you doo feel the need to venture down that road, make sure you get ndiswrapper from the Fedora third party repository "Livna".

It will save you having to recompile the kernel module part of ndiswrapper each time the Fedora kernel updates. Not an infrequent occurrence.

bbfuller,

Thanks for clarifying this address. I have successfully downlated the file. I will attempt to install it later today as I am working on a more pressing problem.

I will let you know if it works.

Regards,

cgreen6911

bbfuller,

Thanks for the help in getting my wireless driver working. The only change I had to make to your instructions were to change to the driver subdirectory, there was no kmod directory. But the driver directory contained the wl_apsta_mimo.o driver.

I followed the rest of your directions and the wireless radio fired right up.

This exciting, this is the first time I have gotten the wireless card working under Linux.

Again thanks for the help, I really appreciate your patients.

regards,

cgreen6911

Hello cgreen6911

I must have been really having an off day there.

Not only did I originally get the firmware path wrong but also specified the directory for the earlier firmware!

I've edited my original post in case anyone else stumbles across it.

Glad you persevered and the wireless is now working OK.

I have this exact same card, I have tried everything to get it working, can someone please help? I am using Fedora 8 64-bit.

I tried the following line:
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

and got:
Cannot open input file wl_apsta_mimo.o

Hello navom1

Several possibilities why it is not working.

Firstly, it depends on how up to date your copy of Fedora is. If it hasn't been updated then you need a different firmware package to cut. If you post back the output of the command:

we'll be able to determine that.

Otherwise, you may not have full root rights when you issued the command. Did you use the full:

command to gain root rights. The space and minus sign are very important.

Did you either cd into the driver directory in the uncompressed directory or specify the full path to the wl_apsta_mimo.o file.

Post back some answers and we'll have another look.

I think I'll throw in my 2 cents. I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop with the Broadcom 1390 mini wireless PCI card.
AMD Turion 64x2,RAM 2GB,HD 120GB ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 graphics
Installed OS:
WinXP Prof
Ubuntu 7.10 (Grub bootloader in the MBR booting every OS)
OpenSuse 10.2
Dreamlinux
Slax 6.0.3
I connected an external USB disk(Iomega 320GB USB 2.0) to my laptop and installed FedoraFC8 on it. It booted right away without any problem but getting a wireless was very hard.
Since I ran 14 live distros an this laptop always getting a wireless with ndiswrapper I naturally went for ndiswrapper. Well,I couldn't do it. I got ndiswrapper installed from the livna repositories and it installed the driver (bcmwl5)allright but when I do modprobe ndiswrapper I always get:
FATAL: module ndiswrapper not found.
Now I remember when I used the fedoraFC8 live CD a few months ago I had exactly the same problem. Everything went allright untill I came to modprobe ndiswrapper.
So I went for the native b43 driver with the fwcutter and that works (I am writing from it now)
Now why ndiswrapper does not work as the only one out of 14 linux distros remains a mystery to me.
Otherwise I am very happy with Fedora although it reminds me from time to time I still have 235 upgrades to download!
I also installed Mepis 7 on the same external HD connected to the laptop. He got the wireless right away with ndiswrapper.
Tried to install Mandrake and PCLinux too (both mandrake) but got a no go (kernel-panic etc)

bbfuller,

I tried out the steps to install the wireless driver as u had mentioned in this thread. But I am getting the following error when i do 'b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o'

Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by b43-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum 3777b8753c8476b96bd9996e9bdeaf73.

Can you help me fix the same.

Thanks

Greetings.

Before you yell at me, yes, I realize the thread is nearly a year old and lots of people prefer to let sleeping threads lie. I fully expect this post to be deleted in order to return this thread to its rightful home.

That said, I wanted to express that I found this particular thread via Google form this query:
"SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory"
I found this thread to effortlessly solve every problem presented. My Dell D810 lives via Fedora now. The community is super helpful. Thanks dudes.