FC5 and Broadcom wireless...HELP!
 

First of all, let me just say that I am cursing Dell for changing their HW specs. Just when everything was running smoothly with ipw2xxx, they switch over to #$!?**@ Broadcom!

So, ranting aside, I need some help getting wireless to work. I have a brand-spanking-new Dell Inspiron 640m and have FC5 running great, except that I can't get wireless working. I am running the latest kernel, and everything is patched. Here is the relevant output of lspci:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 4311 (rev 01)

So, I first tried the How-to here, but when I ran system-config-network, the wireless card doesn't show up. The only option I get is "Other Wireless Card"

Next, I moved on to ndiswrapper, and followed the instructions here. When I do ndiswrapper -l, I get the following:
bcmwl5 driver installed

But no "hardware present" or "hardware detected" or anything like that. Again, when I run system-config-network, the only choice I see to set up a new wireless connection is "Other Wireless Card"

I've also played around with wine trying to install via a Windows .exe file, but no luck there either. Can anyone offer me any suggestions? I think the problem may be that the OS isn't detecting a specific Broadcom card, just the "Unknown device" nonsense from lspci, but I don't know how to fix this. I would greatly appreciate any help on this, as I have three of these machines and need to get them configured for users ASAP. Thanks!

You have the wrong driver installed remove it and install the correct driver. You should already have it (on one the CD's from Dell, maybe [one of] the drivers CD[s]).

If not then download the R115321.EXE file from Dell if you need to. When done change the filename to R115321.zip then you can extract the contents more easily (Yes it really is afterall a self-extracting zip file), no need for wine.

Thanks for your input, Lenard. I got the .exe file and extracted the contents. I ran ndiswrapper -i on bcmwl5.inf and now when I do ndiswrapper -l, I get:

So far so good. Also, if I do ifconfig -a, I can see wlan0. However, if I try to ifup wlan0, I get:

And I still can't see the device when I run system-config-network.

When I use bcm43xx-fwcutter on bcmwl5.sys (extracted from R115321.EXE), I get:

But when I do the usual depmod -a and modprobe bcm43xx, once again, I see no device under system-config-network.

[QUOTE=lancherider]Thanks for your input, Lenard. I got the .exe file and extracted the contents. I ran ndiswrapper -i on bcmwl5.inf and now when I do ndiswrapper -l, I get:

So far so good. Also, if I do ifconfig -a, I can see wlan0. However, if I try to ifup wlan0, I get:

So, as root create one (they normally are found someplace like /etc/sysconfig//network-scripts). Example below;

IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wlan0
HWADDR=
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=MyComputerNameHere
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=
CHANNEL=1
MODE=Auto
RATE=Auto

And before I forget, check your /etc/sysconfig/modules location, you might want a file like 8411.modules (example name) which has a line entry something like;

modprobe ndiswrapper

and the properties are for example;

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 46 May 1 14:33 4318.modules

OK, I created ifcfg-wlan0 in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. Now, when I do ifup wlan0, I get:

Also, the LED indicating wireless power is now lit. I'm going to try installing the latest ndiswrapper from sourceforge and see if that makes a difference.

No luck. The same thing happens. I have to manually create the config file and then I get the "...no link present" message again.

What is the results of the commands;

iwlist wlan0 scan

iwconfig wlan0 essid <your_wireless_router_name_here>

Note, if you do not see your wireless router with the first command use the second command then try the first command again. If you use encryption WEP, first set the key;

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX

Additional help can be found here;

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m.../index.php/FAQ

As a suggestion make a spare copy of the ifcfg-wlan0 script to quickly replace the disappearing one.

With the command iwlist wlan0 scan I can see the network:

And I can associate the interface with the network using iwconfig wlan0 essid "xxxx"

I get the same "no link present" message when I try to bring the interface up. This is a business network which doesn't use WEP keys. We opt instead to use a web interface to authenticate, which allows users to browse the web, but not to access internal hosts.

I can also see the network using KWifiManager, but can't connect.

Try using something like;

dhclient wlan0

or

dhcpcd wlan0

The attempts may fail but I am not concerned with that right now (I do expect them to fail as a matter of fact).

Let one (lets say dhclient wlan0) fail on a small number of attempts (3-5) and press the Ctrl+C key combo then open firefox. Hopefully you should be asked to authenticate (supply login name and password). If not then you will have to talk with your IT manager and/or the support for the web interface you use for authentication.

Basically your wireless device is working you just now have to get permission to use the wireless network.