Wireless networking / fwcutter / compiling / HELP!!

szechman · 12-14-2006, 12:10 PM

Hi all,

First let me introduce myself. My name is Scott Zechman and I live in PA. I am not new to the world of UNIX/Linux but I have been out of it for so long and so much has changed you might as well call me a NEWBIE.

Now that that is done here is my problem or should I say problems as things have a tendency to snowball.

I have a Dell XPS laptop which has a wireless card in it. I am trying to get it to run with Linux. So I found this thread:

thread number 507406 (this site)

and it sounded just like my problem so... I downloaded fwcutter and found out the I need to compile it so.... I tried to compile it and cc was not installed (I am assuming that this is a c compiler) so... I tried to install it from my Linux distro and I cant because the Packager wants to connect to the internet so... I try to get my wireless card working and so on and so on...

I can only access the net in my windows environment so it is really time consuming to keep looking things up, printing them out, rebooting, ...

You all get the picture?

Now on with the details.

Dell XPS (1st generation)
Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
Manufacturer: Broadcom
Driver: BCMWL5.SYS ver. 3.100.35.1
Linux: Fedora core 6 (newest distro on DVD)

Linux sees the nic card but of course it cant do anything with it. I ran lsmod and ndiswrapper is NOT listed and bcm43xx is. So I guess that is a plus.

I hope that is enough info to get started. What i would like is a HOWTO to walk me through everything that I would need to do to get this card up and running. After that is done then it will be a lot easier for me to research the many other questions I have on my own.

Thanks for all the help,

Scott

P.S. On a side note does anyone know if it is possible to take a windows only program that resides in memory and run it in Linux?

Thanks again.

Hangdog42 · 12-14-2006, 12:39 PM

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:

I downloaded fwcutter and found out the I need to compile it so.... I tried to compile it and cc was not installed (I am assuming that this is a c compiler) so... I tried to install it from my Linux distro and I cant because the Packager wants to connect to the internet so... I try to get my wireless card working and so on and so on...

That is odd. You should be able to point your installer at your Fedora DVD and pull the development packages off of that. There really shouldn't be any requirement for a network connection. You're looking for gcc and all of its dependencies, and I can guarantee that they are on the DVD. As a slightly radical solution, if you don't have a lot of effort into this install, you might consider re-installing Fedora, and this time doing a full install.

Quote:

Linux sees the nic card but of course it cant do anything with it. I ran lsmod and ndiswrapper is NOT listed and bcm43xx is. So I guess that is a plus.

Yes, it is a plus, but without the firmware, bcm43xx is pretty useless. One thing to do before you head too far down this road however, is to find out which Broadcom chipset you've got. The bcm43xx driver doesn't work very well with some of them like the 4318. Open a console and have a look at the output of lspci. Hopefully it will have useful information.

Also, do you have access to a wired connection? Most wired NICs are pretty well supported in Linux, so if you can plug in a cable, you might save yourself the boot into Windows.

szechman · 12-14-2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

That is odd. You should be able to point your installer at your Fedora DVD and pull the development packages off of that.

Like I said I guess I am a newbie. I do not know how to point the installer to look at the DVD. It tries to look at repositories on the web and when that fails I have no option to do anything other than close the program.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

Yes, it is a plus, but without the firmware, bcm43xx is pretty useless. One thing to do before you head too far down this road however, is to find out which Broadcom chipset you've got. The bcm43xx driver doesn't work very well with some of them like the 4318.

This is the output of lspci as it applies to my wireless card:

02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless Lan Controller (rev 03)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

Also, do you have access to a wired connection? Most wired NICs are pretty well supported in Linux, so if you can plug in a cable, you might save yourself the boot into Windows.

I do, however that is even more inconvenient than rebooting.

Thanks for your response. If that are any suggestions that you or anyone my have in giving a newbie a little kick in the pants to get him started would be great.

Hangdog42 · 12-14-2006, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Like I said I guess I am a newbie.

Well, in my opinion, we all are. Only the subject matter changes........

Quote:

I do not know how to point the installer to look at the DVD. It tries to look at repositories on the web and when that fails I have no option to do anything other than close the program.

I'm fairly ignorant about Fedora, but I think if you run yum install gcc as root from the command line it might work. Otherwise you could try booting from the DVD and installing the development packages. Otherwise, I would try plugging in the CAT5 cable and running yum install gcc then. Oh, and if you do plug in the cable, also visit my help site (link in my sig) and pick up the wl_apsta.o file. You can use bcmwl5.sys as a target for fwcutter, but wl_apsta will give you a more complete set of firmware files.

Quote:

02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306

This is good. The 4306 functions well with bcm43xx.

szechman · 12-14-2006, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

I'm fairly ignorant about Fedora, but I think if you run yum install gcc as root from the command line it might work.

I took the approch (rather drastic) that you had suggested and reintalled with EVERYTHING. I did not get this post before I did that or I would have tried your yum suggestion. I was looking through the packages on the DVD but with over 2000 of them I did not know to look for gcc. Lets just say that after doing that and following the directions I had found on your site yesterday, I am now posting this in my new Firefox browser!!!! I think now I am going to reinstall yet again, being more selective this time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

Oh, and if you do plug in the cable, also visit my help site (link in my sig) and pick up the wl_apsta.o file. You can use bcmwl5.sys as a target for fwcutter, but wl_apsta will give you a more complete set of firmware files.

I downloaded that file yesterday but was not too sure what to do with it. Now I do. At least I thing I do. I use it instead of my .SYS file to get the firmware.

Thanks so much for your help!

Scott

Hangdog42 · 12-15-2006, 03:17 PM

Congrats on getting it going! Just don't go too overboard in trimming down your install. One of the most common problems new Linux users run into is that they pare down their install and end up not having stuff they need. I'd use Linux for a bit, get a better feel for what you need installed, and then cut back. Don't let the sheer number of packages fool you as a lot of the libraries and basic tools aren't that big. It is usually the applications that chew up the disk space.

maclenin · 12-31-2006, 12:12 PM

HangDog42!

At first glance, it seems that szechman's situation is remarkably similar to mine - so, I figured I would drop a line to see if your "gcc" suggestion might be the key to my resolving my "DISABLED" wireless card issue....

Bear with me while I send along a wee bit of background:

I am a Linux maiden and soon-to-be mono-boot Xubuntu Edgy Eft (2.16.17.10-generic) user. However, before I take the plunge (and wipe clean all remnants of the windows world from my laptop) I'd like to jump-start my wireless card (Dell Truemobile 1350 / Broadcom 4306 on a Dell Inspiron 600m) within the LiveCD environment (i.e. Linux running from a CD, not from my hard drive).

Essentially, I am trying to extract and install my wireless driver's (bcmwl5.sys) firmware using the fwcutter tool (bcm43xx-fwcutter-006).

A. The first few steps seem productive:

Code:

sudo mkdir /c
sudo mount /dev/hda2 /c -t ntfs
sudo mkdir /home/utilities
sudo mkdir /home/drivers
sudo cp /c/windows/linux/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2 /home/utilities
sudo cp /c/windows/system32/drivers/bcmwl5.sys /home/drivers
cd /home/utilities
sudo tar -jxvf bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2 -C /home/utilities

bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/bcm43xx-fwcutter.1
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/Makefile
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/md5.c
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/README
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/fwcutter_list.h
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/fwcutter.c
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/fwcutter.h
bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/COPYING

ubuntu@ubuntu:/home/utilities$

B. Then, I run into trouble. My research (including a visit to your site, Hangdog) tells me that, in a perfect world, these next few steps (with the possible exception of the need for ./configure) should lead to (bcm4306) wireless nirvana:

1. I've run the ./configure and make commands, with the following results. The "make" errors are very briefly summarized:

Code:

cd /home/utilities/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006
./configure
bash: ./configure: No such file or directory
make

cc -02 -fomit-frame-pointer -std=c99 -Wall -pedantic -D_BSD_SOURCE -DFWCUTTER_VERSION_=006   -c -o fwcutter.o fwcutter.c
In file included from fwcutter.c:24:
md5.:4:20: error: stdint.h: No such file or directory
In file included from fwcutter.c:24:
md5.h:7: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'uint32_t'
md5.h:10: warning: struct has no members
In file included from fwcutter.c:25:
fwcutter.h:4:20: error: stdlib.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:5:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:6:20: error: string.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:7:19: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
In file included from fwcutter.c:25:
fwcutter.h:70: error: expected ':', ',', ';', '}' or '_attribute_' before 'flags'
fwcutter.h:90: error: expected ':', ',', ';', '}' or '_attribute_' before 'type'
fwcutter.h:93: warning struct has no members

fwcutter_list.h:1653: error: unknown field 'iv_pos' specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1653: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1653: warning: (near initialization for 'files[124]')
fwcutter_list.h:1654: error: unknown field 'iv_map' specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1654: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1654: warning: (near initialization for 'files[124]')

fwcutter.c: In function 'do_cmp_arg':
fwcutter.c:655: error: 'size_t' undeclared (first use in this function)
fwcutter.c:655: error: expected ';' before 'arg_len'
fwcutter.c:659: error: 'arg_len' undeclared (first use in this function)
fwcutter.c:659: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function 'strlen'

fwcutter.c:850: warning: implicit declaration of function 'extract_iv'
fwcutter.c:850: error: 'const struct file' has no member named 'flags'
fwcutter.c:851: error: 'const struct file' has no member named 'iv_pos'
fwcutter.c:852: error: 'const struct file' has no member named 'iv_map'
make: *** [fwcutter.o] Error 1

2. I have yet to execute these commands:

Code:

fwcutter /home/drivers/bcmwl5.sys5
cd /home/drivers
sudo make installfw

C. Issues and Questions:

I could not run the ./configure command. Perhaps because the tool's Makefile already existed (or ./configure was not a part of the setup script)?

How might I resolve this wave of "make" errors. Could there be a problem with the files I'm trying to make/recompile? Is there something I need to be doing differently?

Could a compile via gcc be the missing piece? If so, what's the syntax I would use to compile fwcutter?

I can untar fwcutter, I just can't find / generate the fwcutter executable!

Any tiniest bits of advice would be welcomed.

May thanks, in advance!

Hangdog42 · 12-31-2006, 02:24 PM

Hmm. OK, make is obviously having serious trouble. I'm using an earlier version of fwcutter (004) so maybe either the 006 version is no good, or you had a bad download. Unfortunately, I'm not able to get to the berlios site at the moment, so I can't test the newer fwcutter. Basically, make should run without errors (warnings are OK). Also, those errors and warnings look more like problems internal to fwcutter, so I wouldn't worry about gcc problems at this point. I think you're doing everything right, but fwcutter is not cooperating.

Thanks for the heads up on the lack of the ./configure. I've changed my site, and I've also added a link to the 004 version of fwcutter (here). As I said, this is an old version, but it has worked for me. Give it a go and see.

maclenin · 01-01-2007, 02:13 PM

Thanks for the input - I just found a free moment to download and test the 004 version of fwcutter that you had posted at you site...to no avail...and with a similar (to the 006) mix of "make" errors and warnings - about 5000+ lines long.

Additional info:

1. Again, I am running linux in a "virtual" setting - from a CD. I have NOT installed linux on my hard drive.

2. I am downloading the fwcutter tool via Windows XP (where my wireless card functions) - and then passing the tarball over to linux - after CD re-boot....

3. I might have wondered - more strongly - about the file becoming corrupted as I "cp" it over from XP to linux - if I had ever had trouble with the unpacking - which seems, in both instances (006 and 004), to have been completed trouble-free....

4. I have added a few additional lines of errors/warnings (also to my original post) - for additional clarification - these were the first bits of info. I saw after running "make":

cc -02 -fomit-frame-pointer -std=c99 -Wall -pedantic -D_BSD_SOURCE -DFWCUTTER_VERSION_=006 -c -o fwcutter.o fwcutter.c
In file included from fwcutter.c:24:
md5.:4:20: error: stdint.h: No such file or directory
In file included from fwcutter.c:24:
md5.h:7: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'uint32_t'
md5.h:10: warning: struct has no members
In file included from fwcutter.c:25:
fwcutter.h:4:20: error: stdlib.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:5:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:6:20: error: string.h: No such file or directory
fwcutter.h:7:19: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
In file included from fwcutter.c:25:
fwcutter.h:70: error: expected ':', ',', ';', '}' or '_attribute_' before 'flags'
fwcutter.h:90: error: expected ':', ',', ';', '}' or '_attribute_' before 'type'
fwcutter.h:93: warning struct has no members

Thanks, again, for your help!

Hangdog42 · 01-01-2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

1. Again, I am running linux in a "virtual" setting - from a CD. I have NOT installed linux on my hard drive.

Ah, I missed you were running off a live CD. I'm guessing that to save space, Xubuntu has probably left out some development tools and libraries, and there probably isn't anything we can do about it. In this case, I would see if maybe one of the *buntu/Debian repositories has fwcutter binaries available. As an alternative, check if Xubuntu has ndiswrapper binaries available (or it may already be on the CD).

A more drastic alternative might be to set up your laptop to dual boot. If you've liked what the live CD has shown you, and you've got the disk space, dual booting is a good way to get a more fully featured Linux to play with without completely abandoning Windows.

Quote:

3. I might have wondered - more strongly - about the file becoming corrupted as I "cp" it over from XP to linux - if I had ever had trouble with the unpacking - which seems, in both instances (006 and 004), to have been completed trouble-free....

You're right, if the copying has gone badly, odds are the tarball won't unpack. Sometimes they do, but in my experience that is the exception rather than the rule.

maclenin · 01-02-2007, 04:44 PM

Hangdog, I added my post to your conversation with szechman - because of the uncanny similarity to my struggles. I also threaded my issue, independantly - and this is where that "independent" thread has led:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=514940

Thanks for your input.

Essentially, I am going to try "apt-get build-essential" or "aptitude build-essential" from the CD and try to "make" the fwcutter all over again.... I just gotta believe there is a solution to my particular conundrum.... I like what I have already seen from linux and will clean windows from my system once I have resolved this wireless issue.

chk9 · 11-04-2008, 12:45 PM

What worked for me with b43-fwcutter-011 was:

Quote:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Thanks to all!

Have Fun!

Hangdog42 · 11-04-2008, 12:59 PM

Welcome to LQ!

In the future, please don't dredge up two year old threads. In most cases, the participants have moved on.

Thanks