Need help getting wirless internet connection to work.

Left Face Down · 07-24-2006, 12:45 PM

Alright, well I've finally been getting my friends laptop (which I installed Linux on) the way I want it... with programs I know and use on my Gentoo system so I can help him if he needs help. This of course brings me to the one part of Linux I've never gotten to work right, wireless.

So any place to start? I "ifconfig -a" and it doesn't show any wireless connections which I figured it wouldn't (never have gotten Linux to even show wireless let alone use it). This is rather vital that he gets this up and running, he'll be using this computer at college so he needs wireless.

Steps/help would be great. I can't remember the command to look up all hardware (which would tell me the exact wireless card) so that'd be a good place to start. With all the other Linux systems I've screwed around with it always seems to be get the drivers and install them using nsdwrapper (if I remember the name right) which has never worked for me in the past even using cards other people have gotten to work, but I figure I'll be doing it again.

So yeah, how should I go about doing this to where it'll auto detect? It's going to be a mobil computer, so he'll need the auto detect.

Matir · 07-24-2006, 01:02 PM

Well, the output of lspci is always helpful. Also, were wireless-tools installed on that system?

cwwilson721 · 07-24-2006, 01:19 PM

What distro?

If Slackware, did you do a full install?

What is the output of

Code:

lspci

What wireless card?

Left Face Down · 07-24-2006, 04:44 PM

I did a full install, and I'm running 10.2

Code:

bash-3.00# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/             
O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor             
 to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor             
 to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Grap             
hics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics De             
vice (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) U             
SB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) U             
SB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) U             
SB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Co             
ntroller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (re             
v 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 0             
3)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Cont             
roller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH             
4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Mode             
m Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139             
C+ (rev 10)
02:05.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (re             
v 02)
02:06.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN              
Controller (rev 03)

Alien Bob · 07-24-2006, 05:00 PM

Guess you'll have to use ndiswrapper indeed.

In http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List you'll find several entries for that Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 wireless card (including links to Windows driver downloads).
I have a (somewhat dated) package for ndiswrapper at http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...pper/pkg/10.2/ (note about "dated": more recent releases of ndiswrapper won't compile on Slackware 10.2, you'll need slackware 11 aka slackware-current for that).
I wrote a short Wiki article on getting ndiswrapper to work on Slackware: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/doku...re:ndiswrapper

By the way, a reverse-engineered opensource linux driver might and might not work for your card (and even if it works, it will probably not support all your card's features): http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/

Eric

Hangdog42 · 07-24-2006, 05:03 PM

Quote:

02:06.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Controller (rev 03)

Thats your wireless card. With that chipset you have the choice of bcm43xx (a native linux driver) or ndiswrapper, which lets you use a Windows driver. To use bcm43xx, you'll need to compile your own kernel. Ndiswrapper you can compile as standalone.

I've got that same chipset and I keep both drivers handy. The bcm43xx is still in development and a little flaky, so having ndiswrapper around is a good idea, even if you use bcm43xx.

<edit>
If you do go the bcm43xx route, you also need to upgrade udev and hotplug using the packages in Slackware - current. A stock 10.2 install doesn't work with bcm43xx.
</edit>

<edit again>
Dang, AlienBob beat me to the punch. My fat fingered typing strikes again.
</edit again>

Alien Bob · 07-24-2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hangdog42

My fat fingered typing strikes again.

He he :-)

Cheers, Eric

cwwilson721 · 07-24-2006, 06:45 PM

I have one of those too....

Ditched it, got a Belkin w/Ralink chip...Better native drivers. The bcm drivers don't even support G speeds, and getting encryption to work is a nightmare, not to mention getting the files in the first place....

Hangdog42 · 07-24-2006, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cwwilson721

The bcm drivers don't even support G speeds, and getting encryption to work is a nightmare, not to mention getting the files in the first place....

You're right on the money about the G speeds, but encryption is a breeze with wpa_supplicant. And there are no longer any files to hunt down except fwcutter and a recent Windows driver. Everything else is now in the kernel.