I hope I got my title right, as on the surface this problem looks like many other threads on these forums, but mine has a sad ending.


I am running Suse 10.1 64Bit
I have a 64bit amd turion in a hp pavillion 8000.
The wireless card is a 06:02.0 Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1470 DualBand WLAN (from lspci)

The id is14e4:4319 rev 02 (from lspci -n)


I downloaded and used the bcmwl5.inf files from a source suggested in a forum thread. I included all the sys and inf files needed into my directory

I can ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf fine
ndiswrapper -l returns: bcmwl5 driver installed, hardware present
I modprobe ndiswrapper
there is no output from this command
I then ndiswrapper -m
I get confirmation that there exists an entry already in modprobe config
I used Yast to add a new wireless card with ndiswrapper as the ? name

Everything returns the proper expected outputs, but I am left with no wlan0

iwconfig gives no reference to wlan (only: lo, eth0, and sit0)
if config gives entries to eth0 and lo

I am completely stumped. I have read a dozen different guides and tutorials and they all suggest the same steps which all lead me here.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Nehlan

I'm not sure if this will help or not (1st post and all) but I had an issue when I was setting up SuSE 10.1 on my laptop, whereby I used the wrong version of the broadcom driver. I didn't realise that there is an 'a' version (bcmwl5a.inf) once I'd used that with ndiswrapper, everything worked fine albeit with the modprobe ndiswrapper and ifup wlan0 commands, the resources that helped me were these two...

h++p://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List
to identify my particular chipset

h++p://nextgen.no-ip.org/~andrew/linux/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapperinfo10-32bit.php#Readying
for an installation walkthrough, not that you need it, but there might be something useful.

Thanks Demibeard,

I tried your suggestion, I am sure that the answer lies somewhere in just finding the right driver. However, the bcmwl5a is not the right driver. It installs but does not detect the hardware like the plain bcmwl5 does.

I have tried all the Broadcom drivers from their site, both 32 and 64 bit, and I got the bcmlw5a driver from the dell installer.

I am wondering if the modprobe command is not working like it is supposed to. Because when I execute mod probe, I get no confirmation or error message at all.

Can you please expand what you meant and did with ifup and wlan0 commands?

I am relatively new to the command line, I use some of the right terms because I read them in a guide, I am not really aware of all that goes on "outside of the box."

We seem to have the same setup, this should work.

By the way, thanks for choosing to post for the first time. I have only posted three times myself. Newbies helping newbies! That can never be a bad thing can it?

-swimmmer

Hi -swimmmer-,

Right, I'm on my laptop now, when I run 'modprobe ndiswrapper' I also get no output, I'm not sure which distro you're using, but in SuSE I had to set-up the network device in Yast (configured as wlan0), when this was completing the power light on the wireless lan card would flash, but not stay on all the time. So then I'd pop into the terminal progam, activate the root (su) and run 'modprobe ndiswrapper' (Not sure if I needed to, but I did), then the command 'ifup wlan0' I think this starts the device if it isn't already running, an output from the command window is below....

demibeard@linux-mobile:~> su
Password:
linux-mobile:/home/demibeard # modprobe ndiswrapper
linux-mobile:/home/demibeard # ifup wlan0
wlan0 device: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
wlan0 configuration: wlan-bus-pcmcia
Starting DHCP Client Daemon on wlan0... . . . IP/Netmask: 192.168.2.103 / 255.255.255.0
linux-mobile:/home/demibeard #

So, I'm not sure if any of this will help.

I must admit that I haven't had to use a CLI in anger since I had an Amiga, well not in a GUI anyway!!

I think your laptop is somewhat more powerful than mine (K6-2 @ 450mhz with 128mb of ram and a 12Gb HDD)

I had been running XP on it, but by the time all the AV and Firewall software had loaded it was time to have another shave.

This is so much better.

Perhaps there should be a 'Noobs helping Noobs' section on the forum?

I've been messing with linux for a while (Mandrake, Red-Hat, Mandriva), but in no way seriously, this is my first go at having it as the only OS on a device, I hope (need) to learn lots more from this. I'm still running a dual boot system on my Desktop, I have a PSP so need XP to run SonicStage, but I have got the ATI driver installed and it's running a dual monitor desktop, I'm even more pleased with that setup (Athlon 64 3500+ o/c @ 2.54mhz, 1Gb of Ram and 400Gb of HDDs, 1 for Linux 40Gb and 200Gb + 160Gb for XP)

At the moment I'm trying to get my head around how to get DVD's to play!!

I found on another forum that apparently the version of ndiswrapper(1.1) that shipped with Suse 10.1 does not work with my setup. Many have had great success with ndiswrapper 1.17. I wasn't able to find 1.17 right away. I tried 1.18, but still no luck. I have some info from my attempts, I don't know if it helps anyone, but I'll put it up anyway.

none):/home/# ndiswrapper -i /home/wireless/bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
(none):/home/# ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
bcmwl5 driver installed, hardware present
(none):/home/# modprobe ndiswrapper
(none):/home/# ifup wlan0 up
Sorry, there is already an instance of ifplugd for up running.
up
up configuration: wlan0
up is controlled by ifplugd
(none):/home/# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

I am confused at how it says that wlan0 is up, but then there is no wlan0
I am also sure I just don't fully understand what is going on...


I have also messed about with different distro's over the years. I have finally made the absolute decision to go linux exclusive. With a change in software at work, I no longer have to keep windows around. I had a brief idea to go to Ubuntu, but I have spent quite a while with SUSE and 10.1 is very nice.

I got DVD's to get going in no time flat.

1. Add Packman as an install resource
2. Use the ZENworks update tool. This will fetch the DVD libraries for Xine from Packman.
3. You will need to install libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm, (am I allowed to post where to get it?)
4. use Yast to install this package

Well I have managed to get it to work. And as I always hate when people just stop and don't explain, I will explain what I did, with one caveat. Please notice I am a noob, i did many things, and I really don't know what was the exact fix, and what was just an elaborate dance.

1. Removed ndiswrapper 1.10, and installed ndiswrapper 1.17 with make and make install
1a. I tried this with ndiswrapper 1.18 and it did not work
2. I replaced ndiswrapper.ko in /lib/modules/<kernel>/update
3. I replaced loadndisdriver files from the ndiswrapper1.17 archive into /sbin
4. I replaced the ndiswrapper file from the ndiswrapper1.17 archive into /usr/sbin
5. I got the 64 bit drivers from the ACER site, 80211.zip
6. ndiswrapper -i, ndiswrapper -l ndiswrapper, modprobe ndiswrapper
7. Started YAST added a new wireless card, using ifup option, load on boot, module name ndiswrapper and then my ssid and wep keys
8. restarted
9. typing this list
10. happy

I did not come up with those steps on my own. I say thanks to Demibeard, naskovz from Linux Forums, and Andrew D who helped as well.

Just to recap for those who may need to help themselves,

HP Pavillion Laptop dv8000
AMD Turion
Suse 10.1 64bit
Broadcom Wireless
Dell Dualband