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need help with Debian and Wifi


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Hi,

 

I'm posting this here because I saw a similar thread but too old and that wasn't addressing exactly the same problem. Anyway, I'm a linux newbie and I've been struggling for a couple days to get Debian to function and properly on a laptop. I got everything I needed to work except for the wireless connection. The driver seems to work, actually everything seems to work except it doesn't connect to the internet, although it "sees" routers (mine and my neighbours). (sorry for the non technically accurate description). Here's what I get:

 

with Ifconfig:

eth2	  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:9B:D3:DD:0A
	  UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
	  RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
	  TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
	  collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
	  RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
	  Interrupt:169 Memory:c0304000-c0306000

 

with iwlist eth2 scan

Well now I get

eth2	  No scan results

but it used to scan and detect 2 networks with all the info. Anyway.

 

with route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination	 Gateway		 Genmask		 Flags Metric Ref	Use Iface
192.168.1.0	 *			   255.255.255.0   U	 0	  0		0 eth2
192.168.1.0	 *			   255.255.255.0   U	 0	  0		0 eth1
default		 192.168.1.1	 0.0.0.0		 UG	0	  0		0 eth1
default		 192.168.1.1	 0.0.0.0		 UG	0	  0		0 eth2

 

the new thing also is I have to do put down eth2 and redo ifup eth1 to get my wired connection to work every time I do networking restart.

 

note: computer acer ferrari, wifi card : Broadcom Corporation BCM4318

 

really now I don't where the problem comes from. wonder if I should uninstall and reinstall so I can understand better what I am doing. Any advice would be great.

 

Micho

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now my wired connection doesn't work anymore. I haven't touched any of its options. I never had to configure it after install. and now it stops working when I try to get the wireless to work. i changed the interfaces file, but only eth2 option (wireless). never touched eth1.

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I used networking manager for once, I suppose it does the same thing as command lines, and deactivated eth1 (wired connection) then reboot computer.

i then reactivated it and now it works. don't what that changed but i'll just leave it. I still need to solve my wireless problem.

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Thanks Paul for the suggestion. I actually decided to reinstall Debian just to learn and understand better what I had done before. I went again through the process of making my graphic card and my touchpad working. They are working now. I still haven't tried installing the wifi card. I'll get back to it tomorrow or later tonight and give an update here.

 

thanks,

 

Micho

 

ps Paul, your signature is cool

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I am using etch. I tried both drivers. If I understood well, the drivers were working, but my wifi card wouldn't connect, although at some point it was able to detect the available networks. there is a little led button to activate the card on my laptop and it doesn't stay on when i use linux. sometimes it blinked a couple times during boot. I wonder if that button thing is a problem, but as it appears to be software controlled i figure there should be a way to make it work.

 

as i am going to reinstall the drivers, which one do you recommend? last time it was smother to install using ndiswrapper, but might be because of my lack of experience.

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ok that's it I'm back to my learning trial errors.

So as I mentioned earlier, I just reinstalled Debian etch.

everything working except wifi, of course.

I haven't installed any drivers yet, but I wanted to show you what appears on screen during boot (I extracted this from /var/log/Kern.log)

these are all the places where bcm43xx is mentionned, I don't know what that tells:

Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx driver
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: irda_init()
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 23
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:14.6 (0010 -> 0012)
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:14.6[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 209
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:06:02.0[A] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4318, rev 0x2
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Number of cores: 4
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0xd, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0x9, vendor 0x4243, disabled
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x804, rev 0xc, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x80d, rev 0x7, vendor 0x4243, enabled
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 3, Type 2, Revision 7
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 8205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 8)
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off
Sep  9 22:29:28 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off

 

and later:

bcm43xx: PHY connected
Sep  9 22:29:36 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep  9 22:29:36 micho kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed (-2)
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: Bluetooth: Core ver 2.10
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 31
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
Sep  9 22:29:38 micho kernel: Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed (-2)
Sep  9 22:29:39 micho kernel: bcm43xx: set security called, .level = 0, .enabled = 0, .encrypt = 0

 

and later:

eth1: no IPv6 routers present
Sep  9 22:30:02 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep  9 22:30:02 micho kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed (-2)
Sep  9 22:30:25 micho kernel: tg3: eth1: Link is down.
Sep  9 22:30:26 micho kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep  9 22:30:26 micho kernel: bcm43xx: core_up for active 802.11 core failed (-2)

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and eth2 is recognized as wireless connection, non active, in the network setup. It doesn't appear anywhere in kern.log

(eth1 is my wired connection, set as default/primary during Debian install)

 

Let me know if any of this is relevant.

 

Does what appears in kern.log mean that the driver is already installed?

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I already have build-essential and the right linux-headers. following the Debian wiki I remove any version of ndiswrapper i might have and download the last stable release.

I unpack the downloaded file in a tmp directory created in home.

btw, i decided to use ndiswrapper because the version of my kernel is

2.6.18-6-amd64

 

next I blacklist generic bcm43xx (just in case?) and compile ndiswrapper.

maybe problem here:

micho:~/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53# make distclean
make -C driver clean
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver'
rm -f *.o *.ko .*.cmd *.mod.c *.symvers modules.order *~ .\#*
rm -f *_exports.h win2lin_stubs.h
rm -rf .tmp_versions
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver'
make -C utils clean
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/utils'
rm -f *~ *.o loadndisdriver
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/utils'
rm -f *~
rm -fr ndiswrapper-1.53 ndiswrapper-1.53.tar.gz patch-stamp
make -C driver distclean
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `distclean'.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tmp/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver'
make: *** [distclean] Error 2

 

I don't know what it means this error 2. I keep going:

I get R151517.EXE unzip it and install the driver from bcmwl5.inf (instead of the usual .sys)

 

now quick check with ndiswrapper -l, and here's what I get, not sure what to think about the second part:

bcmwl5 : driver installed
	device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

 

anyone knows what that means?

now finalize

then check with iwconfig:

eth2	  IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:""  Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
	  Mode:Managed  Access Point: Invalid
	  RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
	  Encryption key:off
	  Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
	  Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
	  Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Edited by micho
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now to finish I tried applying this from Debian wiki:

 

# Gnome- Double click on Network Connection (If you don't have an icon click on add to panel, then Select "Network Monitor" and click add)

# Name: Wlan0

# Click on configure

# Select Wireless connection

# Properties

# Pick a network, add a password, select dhcp and click ok

# You should be connected.

 

the problem is "Network Monitor" sends me:

SIOCGIFFLAGS error: No such device

 

and I don't think I have anything called Wlan0, also I don't know what it means so...

I have eth2 in Network manager.

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Sad.

I won't be able to help further. Wifi is the worst part of Linux configuration, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't even manage yet to configure my wife's bcm43xx onboard wifi controler, despite Mandriva's best efforts to get this thing up and running. My work's Ath (madwifi) chipset works only because it was "plug'n'play"…

 

Yves.

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