hello all! i am another victim of a failing wireless network card on a laptop running Linux. i would be forever greatful if anyone could provide me with some assistance. i would absolutely hate to have to install Windows simply because of this wireless issue. anyway, here are my specs, actions, and results...

SPECS:
laptop model: eMachine M6810
wireless card: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g, rev.3 (PCI)
Linux flavor: Slackware 11
Kernel version: 2.6.18
ndiswrapper version: 1.37

ACTION/RESULTS:
1. Installed Slackware 11 fresh, immediately installing the generic 2.6.18 kernel that comes pre-compiled. wireless card was detected (eth1), due to reverse-engineered native drivers that the 2.6 kernel has built-in, but would not enable by using the GUI network settings (no errors-card simply flashes as "enabled" for a split-second then immediately returns to a "disabled" status).

2. ran the following from the command line:

iwconfig eth1 essid "THEITCORP"
dhcpcd eth1

both commands processed without error, but the dhcpcd command did not give me a MAC address nor acquire an IP address. setting the essid did work, however.

3. anyway, i was prepared for the failure after only completing the 2 steps listed above, since NDISWRAPPER is well-known to be the solution for any non-Intel wireless adapters (Intel works out-of-box, for the most part). so, i compiled and installed ndiswrapper 1.37 successfully, however... it did warn me that my stack size was 4K; stating that windows drivers need at least 8K stacks. this baffled me because i was under the impression that Slackware uses 8K stacks by default. any confirmation here would also be appreciated. in any case, i was confident that it did, so i pressed on.

4. ran the following command:

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf (tried a 2nd time with bcmwl5a.inf as well)

installed successfully.

5. ran the following command:

ndiswrapper -l

received "driver installed, device present" response.

6. ran the following command:

modprobe ndiswrapper

processed successfully w/o errors.

7. ran the following command:

iwconfig

essid was null again.

8. ran the following command:

iwconfig eth1 essid "THEITCORP"

9. ran the following command:

iwconfig

essid was set to "THEITCORP" again.

10 ran the following command:

dhcpcd eth1

command processed successfully w/o errors, but the card still did not receive a MAC address nor an IP address since eth1 wouldn't even show up after running the ifconfig command. even tried running:

ifconfig eth1 up

but received an error stating: "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or folder"

11. went back to the GUI configuraiton dialog and had the same behavior happen as in step 1; where enabling the device simply caused eth1 to flash as enabled for a split second and then return to disabled status.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, what can i do to resolve this? am i doing something wrong? is Slackware 11's 2.6 kernel really using 4K stacks and that is my problem?

at this point, my only alternative is to run an ethernet cable into the eth0 port and be non-mobile, or else install Windows and i really don't want to have to resort to any of those alternatives.

so, thank you all in advance for at least listening to me ramble on and many, many thanks to all of the experts out there that i am confident will get me going Linux-wireless in no time at all. ::crosses fingers::

Doesn't ndiswrapper use wlan0 and not eth1?

hmmmm! i suppose it may, but in my case, the wireless card has always been referred to as eth1 (in the GUI and after running iwconfig); even after running ndiswrapper. my actual ethernet network card is, of course, referred to eth0.

i think i read somewhere there was a command to set the card to wlan0 via an alias. anyone, know what command that is? likewise, could that be my problem???

Also, did you rmmod the kernel module for the card? Finally, have you searched here? I believe it's hangdog (something or other) that's posted a lot of info on the bcm43xx cards.

You can use either ndiswrapper or the bcm43xx module. The Broadcom 4306 chip is fully supported by the bcm43xx module so you should really use that.

Just for reference, ndiswrapper is quietly failing because the kernels are compiled with 4K stack and it's fighting the bcm43xx module. You have to blacklist that module if you want to use ndiswrapper. I personally can't use that module because I have a 4318 and even blacklisting it doesn't stop udev from pulling it up anyway. You'll have to recompile the kernel without it or simply delete it (which is easier than you think) if blacklisting it isn't successful. And yes ndiswrapper will assign wlan0 to that card and it will do it automatically if you run ndiswrapper with the -m switch.

That being said, I think you shouldn't use ndiswrapper and remove it from your system. I heard no mention of using fwcutter to extract the firmware from the driver for the native (bcm43xx) module. This is probably why you aren't having any success using it. Poke around and you'll quickly find information on how to use the bcm43xx module and fwcutter to get the native linux drivers to work for you. An lsmod will tell you if your drivers are loaded into the kernel and you should have eth1 up and running without any problems.

No doubt HangDog42 will sniff this one out and offer a much higher level of discourse on this subject than I currently can. You'll definitely get your card up and running.

Good luck!

thank you zetabill. i will certainly look into the bcm43xx module and fwcutter approach.

likewise, i've quickly realized hangdog expertise on this subject and eagerly await any input he may have as well.

in the meantim, i'm off to research the suggestion that you've given me.

thank you very much!

I feel your pain. Like you, I want to get off Windows, but wireless is a must. Like you, I had no luck with ndiswrapper, or with a couple of other wireless cards. But the 4306 should work with the xx module and the firmware cutter solution.

I used the very clear instructions for the 4306 that are in the community help section of Ubuntu, and it works great on my desktop with a Belkin pci card - painless install. I had to get the most recent firmware from the 43xx project since the firmware cutter did not work properly with the old .o file that Ubuntu instructions recommended (the fw_cutter program alerted me that it was the wrong file) or with my Belkin supplied driver. But with the right firmware, it works perfectly.

The laptop was such a pain that I finally tossed some money at it. I went to Netgate.com and got a Wiston PCMCIA card with an Atheros chip, and it was fairly trivial to load the MadWiFi driver and it works wonderfully - using it now. Cost was about $75, but worth it, and I would rather spend money on a company that knows something about Linux wireless.

I also like the network-manager-gnome applet referred to in the Ubuntu documentation. It shows all available wireless networks, and lets you connect by point and click - yeah, I'm lazy.

Also, if you are desperate or the idea appeals to you, run Linux from within a Windows virtual machine (i.e. VMPlayer). When you do this, the Linux wireless just works. I am using the virtual machine for my wife, who wants the security of Windows on her machine, but wants to learn Linux.

Bob

A couple of things:

First, there's hope. My config:
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
Slackware Linux 2.6.18 (straight from Pat - no recompile, and for the record, it uses 8K stacks; the warning you saw can b ignored)
utils version: 1.9
driver version: 1.34
vermagic: 2.6.18 mod_unload 486 gcc-3.4

Mine works, and so will yours.

Regarding the bcm43xx driver - I'm happy that it's an option, but until it goes beyond limitations like 11mbps speed (and other issues), I'll continue to use ndiswrapper with the systems using Broadcom cards. Unlike some, I have no philosophical aversion to contaminating my system by using those icky Windows drivers. I got past the concept of cooties in grade school.

Suggestions:
Blacklist the bcm43xx driver.
Make sure it's removed before going further.
Remove & reload ndiswrapper, unless you're booting fresh with the bcm43xx no present.
Do the iwconfig steps.
Bring the interface up - ifconfig eth1 up(or wlan0 - whichever it is for you). I don't know why this is sometimes needed. When the wireless parameters are entered in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet.conf it seems to be unnecessary.
dhcpcd eth1

Post any errors.

IT WORKED!!!

thank you very much 2Gnu!!! the native linux BCM drivers were getting in the way and the cause of my problems all along.

once i blacklisted them, ndiswrapper worked without a hitch; even having the wireless adapter being referred to as wlan0.

thanks again!!!

You're quite welcome.

Enjoy

2Gnu, I am in the same idealogical boat as you. I am using Fedora Core 6 and I think I need to ¨Blacklist the bcm43xx driver¨. I don know how to do this.

I like your instruction and they seem like the would apply to be but I am unsure how to execute them.

How do I remove ¨ndiswrapper¨?

¨When the wireless parameters are entered in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet.conf it seems to be unnecessary.
dhcpcd eth1¨ I am now lost. Any help would greatly be appreciated, Lex.

2Gnu, many thanks.

To remove a module and its dependent ones, use modprobe:

Don't know if it's in the same location on Fedora, but on Slackware, you blacklist in this file: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

I added the following two lines to that file; one comment to remember what I did, and the blacklist directive itself.

In Fedora, network device parameters are maintained in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$dev

Look for one called ifcfg-wlan0 and edit it for your wireless setup. Alternatively, there is a GUI for this (don't know what it's called).

You may want to start a new thread if you need to go deeper.

Good luck.

2Gnu, I got it to work finally after three days. Here is a another question the wireless is very moody not sure why sometimes I need to enter a password for the same wireless network that I used before. Why does it not remember the password? Or how can I ensure it stores passwords for various wireless network I am going to be on?

Lex

I only use one network setup and connect to others manually. Gnome's Network Manger applet is the best I've seen at doing what you want.