Help - Broadcom BCM4311 in FC6

[ioeth]

So, I have a HP dv8000 CTO notebook that I got earlier this year. It has an integrated Broadcom a/b/g wireless card, which a stock FC6 installation is reporting as a "Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver (rev 02)".

Problem is, it doesn't seem to be working. I have Network Manager installed, and it never sees any wireless networks, even when I know there are some around. I don't seem to be getting any errors, and FC6 seems to think that everything is in working order with the card.

Anybody have any idea or direction on how to get this card working? Thanks!

--Ioeth

[ZingoZanger]

The best place is under the How-To section. Search for BCM43xx and you'll find a couple of ways to get it working - either ndiswrapper or fw-cutter.

HTH,
Zingo.

[ioeth]

Ahhh, 43xx. I didn't know it was a little bit generic, so all I was looking for was 4311. I'll check it out and see if I can't get it going. Thanks for the tip!

--Ioeth

[ioeth]

Well, those instructions do something, but they don't get the wireless card working. I found some other tips for FC6 like 43xx has to be blacklisted and the device name can't be wlan*, it has to be eth*. But, it's still not getting the job done. There's no specific point of failure that I can identify at this point, it just doesn't work when I follow all the steps. Any tips?

--Ioeth

[Draper]

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=138828


NetworkManager is a "just works" program but it assumes you have already correctly setup everything it needs.

if you want to use NM you need to have wpa_supplicant setup correctly.

[ZingoZanger]

Well, I'm not sure what instructions you followed (ndiswrapper or fw-cutter - I found that ndiswrapper froze my system and fw-cutter worked but YMMV). But it should be that once you have the firmware files in /lib/firmware then either you should be able to use Network Manager or add a new wireless connection using neat.

What exactly have you tried so far?

[ioeth]

Well, basically I've just been trying to get ndiswrapper set up. The How-Tos that you referred me to, ZingoZanger, helped me do most of this. I found a few other things (like blacklisting) elsewhere.

I got the bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files, and have installed them with ndiswrapper:
[root@rivendell ~]# ndiswrapper -l
installed drivers:
bcmwl5 driver installed (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

I also have bcm43xx blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
# wireless drivers
blacklist bcm43xx

And I have an alias set up in /etc/modprobe.conf:
alias eth1 ndiswrapper

I do have to execute "modprobe bcm43xx" every time the computer restarts as well, which probably means I don't have something else set up right either.

I have gotten Network Manager up and running (thanks for the tip, Draper), but it never detects or connects to any wireless networks even when it appears that the wireless card is working.

My system config:

Fedora Core 6 2.6.18-1.2849.fc6 x86_64
HP dv8000 CTO
AMD Turion 64 ML-40
2x1GB Corsair PC3200 ValueSelect RAM
2x100GB Hitachi TravelStar 7200RPM HDD
Broadcom BCM4311 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver (rev 02)


I've attached some screenshots of my configuration below.

Thanks in advance for helping me out. I'm not exactly new to Linux or Fedora Core, but some of this configuration is getting over my head. I'm really looking forward to getting this and a few other things working so I can kiss Windows goodbye for good.

--Ioeth

[ZingoZanger]

Well, it looks to me as if you are very close. I'm glad ndiswrapper worked for you.

Now I've no experience with Network Manager, so I can't help you there.

But if you're trying to connect to a known (your own?) network then you can avoid Network Manager and just set everything up inside the Network Configuration you sent screenshots of. Devices and Hardware obviously look OK but selecting eth1 and then Edit should take you through a set of screens to connect you to a network. It's very straightforward (or at least it has been for me, connecting to a WEP only network). If yours is Open, even easier. Ticking the box to allow all users to start and stop the connection is useful.

So I suppose the only missing info is the network you're trying to connect to.

Zingo.

[ioeth]

At home I have a WPA2 protected network that I haven't been able to connect to yet. Tonight I think that I'll try turning security off and hooking up to it. If that works, I suppose then it'll just be a matter of setting up wpa_supplicant.

Do you think you could provide an example configuration of a wireless configuration to an unprotected network?

Network Manager looks to be a nice application, and one of the things I see in the screenshots is a little list of available networks and their signal strengths, which can be pretty useful if you're trying to find a hotspot.

[ZingoZanger]

Right - I think that's the best way: start with an open network and build up.
When you run system-config-network, click on your eth1 and hit Edit, you'll have four tabs to set up.

1. General tab
Just need to select activate on startup and allow users to activate (for ease - but maybe not necessary)
Also need dhcp (I'm guessing)

2. Route
Probably nothing to fill in here

3. Hardware Device
Should be listing your BCM4311, bound to the correct MAC for your card

4. Wireless Settings
Here's the business end. Mode (Auto?), Your SSID, Channel and Transmit Rate (Auto) should be OK, if the network's open then no key is required. When you turn up to WEP you'll need the key (preceeded by 0x (that's a zero) if you're using hex).

You will need to disable NM I think from Services, then you should be able to log onto an open network, then a WEP-enabled one, then finally a WPA-enabled one. Small steps.

NM is a very nice package, but completely unnecessary when you're logging onto one network only as I am.

HTH,
Zingo.

[icest0rm]

anyone has clues for this?

I hope you all know that BCM4311 is not recognized since it is a PCI-E card...the standard kernel doesn't support Broadcom PCI-E cards...

John Linville has just made some patched kernels with the PCI-E fix which should make your BCM4311 cards be recognized by FC6...

here: http://people.redhat.com/linville/kernels/fc6/

unfortunately I tried but can't boot with that kernel, since X Server crash (saying something about mouse - I have a synaptic touchpad)...does anyone know what I can do to make it work?

thanks