Wireless lack of power strangeness

gazzamop · 08-15-2005, 04:32 AM

I have a HP Compaq nx9110 laptop with a Broadcom 802.11b wireless card. I have tri-boot setup (Gentoo, Windows XP and now Ubuntu). Ubuntu is the 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog release.

My wireless card works fine under Windows, and I managed with only a little fuss to get it running fine under Gentoo using ndiswrappers. However Ubuntu has me stumped.

It appears to be a power problem: my laptop has a button on it which you can use to disable/enable wireless. It works under Windows and Gentoo - but remains always off under Ubuntu.

Everything appeared to install ok - but obviously it doesn't work! Output follows:

Code:

# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

# iwconfig wlan0 
wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm   
          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   
          Encryption key:AB43-****-****-****-****-****-**   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:100/100  Signal level:-10 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

# lspci
0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4301 802.11b (rev 02)

The wireless connection is recognised by System -> Administration -> Networking, and the connection appears as 'active'. If I try to use iwconfig to set things up as I do under Gentoo (see below) then nothing changes - iwconfig output is the same, as though it didn't take it.

Code:

SSID='MYPLACE'
CHANNEL='3'
KEY='ab43**********'

iwconfig wlan0 essid $SSID
iwconfig wlan0 key $KEY [1]
iwconfig wlan0 key $KEY [2]
iwconfig wlan0 key $KEY [3]
iwconfig wlan0 key $KEY [4]
iwconfig wlan0 commit

NB: I have used *** to hide my WEP key - in case my flatmates read this!

This has really got me stumped!!! And its very frustrating too - sounds works under Ubuntu, not under Gentoo, but for wireless its the opposite!!

Any assistance you can render will be appreciated!

kojo_chaos · 08-16-2005, 12:15 PM

Ever thought it's just the button thats not installed under ur keyboard?

So if the button doesn't really have a function, then of course nothing happens!

My best guess is u have to make some sort of script and make it the default use of the button.

Something that enables/disables the card, and put a variable on the script so that the button only needs to read the variable and do the inverse command, then invert the variable as well!

gazzamop · 08-16-2005, 05:28 PM

I have considered that the 'button' software may not be installed, however I have no idea where I would expect to find something to 'activate' it! The thing that bugs me is that the wireless card hardware appears to be installed and operating (iwconfig takes a WEP key) but just won't turn on - normally pressing the button would work.

Do you know of any places I could look (perhaps the /proc filesystem) for a signal/variable that will change when the hardware is pressed?

Earthwings · 08-17-2005, 03:04 AM

Where does the "ndiswrapper -l" output above come from, Gentoo or Ubuntu? Why is the key set, but essid not?

gazzamop · 08-18-2005, 08:51 PM

The "ndiswrapper -l" output comes from Ubuntu. I specified both the key and the essid in the GUI tool under System -> Admin -> Networking - but only the key sticks. Strange, eh?

Earthwings · 08-19-2005, 08:06 AM

Sometimes this happens to me as well and setting it a second (or third) time usually helps. Can you get it working this way?

gazzamop · 08-20-2005, 03:02 AM

No, I've tried to set it several times in a row - both from the GUI and from the command line, but to no avail. It still appears to be a power problem - at least the light doesn't indicate any wireless power. I've done a search using www.google.com/linux to look for items that describe the power issue (no light) but nothing appears to be there...

Maybe its a service that isn't running? Strange thing is that ifup and ifdown behave normally, and they seem to know when it is up and when it isn't. However there still isn't any signal...

Earthwings · 08-20-2005, 04:18 PM

Is there any output in dmesg? Errors should be logged there and some ndiswrapper output should be found in

Code:

dmesg | tail

as well.

gazzamop · 08-20-2005, 11:15 PM

Here is the output of dmesg | grep wlan0

Code:

wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:4b:57:3e:1c using driver bcmwl5
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

And this is from dmesg | grep ndiswrapper

Code:

ndiswrapper version 1.0rc2 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: using irq 18
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:4b:57:3e:1c using driver bcmwl5
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,10/28/2003, 3.40.25.3) added

When I run ifup wlan0 I get the following (times out):

Code:

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:90:4b:57:3e:1c
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:90:4b:57:3e:1c
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12

I don't think that the sit0 line is an issue, as for a direct ethernet connection for ifup eth0 I get:

Code:

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:02:3f:22:a8:62
Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:02:3f:22:a8:62
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
bound to 192.168.1.6 -- renewal in 111091 seconds.

The issue still appears to be that the SSID isn't being set, as iwconfig wlan0 still reports that the ESSID is off/any. Setting it from the System -> Administration -> Networking tool doesn't work, and iwconfig won't set it on the command line either.

gazzamop · 08-23-2005, 07:02 PM

Hmm... I've been doing some searching on the web in my spare time, and this failure of the LED to operate seems to be an occasional problem. A lot of ndiswrapper articles state that the LED on the wireless card should light when it is installed - but I don't get that. I know its not the *.inf file I am using, as it is the same one I used under Gentoo linux, and that worked ok.

I found a thread that deals with this issue in ArchLinux (i assume this is another distro) that mentioned that Gentoo and Debian had answers in their forums.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.p...382f3d7039596b

Is Ubuntu based on Debian?

kojo_chaos · 08-23-2005, 09:03 PM

Sparky!

Yes! Ubuntu is based on Debian!

Research some script with "Ifup" and "Ifdown"

These are commands used in bringing a wireless connection up (ifup) and down...

Earthwings · 08-24-2005, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gazzamop
[B]Hmm... I've been doing some searching on the web in my spare time, and this failure of the LED to operate seems to be an occasional problem. A lot of ndiswrapper articles state that the LED on the wireless card should light when it is installed - but I don't get that. I know its not the *.inf file I am using, as it is the same one I used under Gentoo linux, and that worked ok.

I found a thread that deals with this issue in ArchLinux (i assume this is another distro) that mentioned that Gentoo and Debian had answers in their forums.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.p...382f3d7039596b

That looks like another problem. According to iwconfig your card is running fine.

Which version of wireless-tools are you running?

gazzamop · 08-24-2005, 06:23 PM

Problem Solved!! ---> well at least the problem this post is about anyway

I found this nice thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...t=wireless+LED
and I followed the instructions it gave. I had to make some minor adjustments to the instructions given (Gnome would freeze if I rebooted) by changing some of the steps it suggested
Step 3. Running this as root, not using sudo, else the 'for' loop gave errors
Step 4. Not rebooting, just keeping going, otherwise Gnome would hang

After doing all that, I had a light on my wireless card! Its working! And it is taking an SSID! However Ubuntu is still being badly behaved, and I have to configure things manually:

1. Turn on my laptop and boot Ubuntu
2. Wait until Gnome pops up (no wireless LED light at this stage)
3. Run "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" (this turns the LED light on)
4. Run "sudo ifup wlan0" (this times out failing to get a DHCP packet, but sets the SSID)
5. I worked out that the problem in step 4 is that Ubuntu has configured things
so that my output from "sudo iwlist wlan0 key" is:

Code:

wlan0     2 key sizes : 40, 104bits
          4 keys available :
                [1]: 2E82-8DB2-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx (104 bits)
                [2]: Not set
                [3]: Not set
                [4]: Not set
          Current Transmit Key: [1]
          Security mode:restricted

6. So I run a script to manually set the keys for each index (1 to 4) and then "sudo iwlist wlan0 key" gives:

Code:

wlan0     2 key sizes : 40, 104bits
          4 keys available :
                [1]: 2E82-8DB2-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx (104 bits)
                [2]: 2E82-8DB2-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx (104 bits)
                [3]: 2E82-8DB2-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx (104 bits)
                [4]: 2E82-8DB2-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx (104 bits)
          Current Transmit Key: [1]
          Security mode:restricted

7. Now I run "sudo ifup wlan0" and everything works fine!!!!

My only problem remaining is to make all this process more automatic. The man page
for /etc/network/interfaces (man interfaces) looks promising, but I have trouble
understanding it exactly.

Thanks for everyone's help on this topic. I hope it is of use to someone else having the same problem! And if anyone has any ideas how I can automate the above process...

Earthwings · 08-25-2005, 04:42 AM

From skimming over that post, the trick seems to be the

Code:

cat $conffile | sed -e 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/' > $conffile

(or shorter sed -i -e 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/' $conffile)

gazzamop · 08-25-2005, 06:28 PM

Nicely put - I agree that that appears to be the most likely cause of the problem. Although setting the other 3 keys was also required to connect.

Of course you have to run the baove line as 'root' -- I tried sudo but it didn't seem to work (might be just me).