Wireless connection problem

[hppygilmoregolf]

I recently installed Fedora 10 on my Dell Inspiron B130 laptop over Windows XP. When i tried to connect to my wireless network, I was getting errors. I'm completely new to Linux and even working with drivers and firmware, and I had no idea what I should be doing. everytime i try to connect, i get


Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8Bo6) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

Determining IP information for wlan0...Nothing to flush.
failed.



so then i ran

/sbin/lspci -nn

and it said for the wireless

02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [Airforce One 54
g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02]

any help is really REALLY appreciated

[stoat]

02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [Airforce One 54
g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02]Hello hppygilmoregolf,

That wireless chipset is well-known here. It works with the b43 native Linux driver included with with Fedora kernels since Fedora 7. But it requires firmware to be acquired and installed. It's not hard to do. See another thread here where someone got a card with that chipset going.Wireless problems in fedora 10 on my Pavilion zv6000 (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=211984) by penaneitor

[hppygilmoregolf]

I tried running that the only problem was I can't connect to the internet. Are there a way to run it without an internet connection? or how i can install it off a usb drive?

[Simian Man]

You can download RPM Fusion's broadcom-wl package, save it to a USB stick, and then install it locally with yum.

[stoat]

I tried running that the only problem was I can't connect to the internet. Are there a way to run it without an internet connection? or how i can install it off a usb drive?You can do that native b43 driver method offline. Go back to that link that I gave you in post #2. Download that broadcom driver tarball (http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2) in the first step by any means available (Windows, another computer, etc.). Transfer it to the Inspiron by any means available (pendrive, floppy, CD, DVD, etc.). Then continue on from the second step.

[stoat]

You can download RPM Fusion's broadcom-wl package, save it to a USB stick, and then install it locally with yum.The card being discussed here is a BCM4318. The Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver (broadcom-wl) is not known to work with the BCM4318. It is advertised to support only the BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4321, and BCM4322. Two additional "unadvertised" chipsets have since been discovered to work with it (BCM4328, BCM43XG). So, hppygilmoregolf, if you decide to experiment with the broadcom-wl driver and succeed, then please return here to thoroughly document that. It will be a new and important addition to the record.

[hppygilmoregolf]

I was wondering how I install yum. I'm sorry i'm really REALLY new at even terminal and i downloaded it and used a USB to transfer it to my Linux computer, but I don't know what the code is or how to run it.

[stoat]

I was wondering how I install yum. I'm sorry i'm really REALLY new at even terminal and i downloaded it and used a USB to transfer it to my Linux computer, but I don't know what the code is or how to run it.I think you are addressing Simian Man there since I never mentioned yum. But I thought I would help out anyway by saying that you shouldn't have to do that. The yum package is already installed by default. In fact, starting with Fedora 10, it's not possible to stop it from being installed. It's one of the 172 packages that will be installed even if you uncheck everything in Anaconda. You can check for yourself with this...rpm -q yumCarry on.

[hppygilmoregolf]

I'm sorry I'm really lost still. I have the firmware folder on the desktop and I haven't any idea what codes to run in the terminal.

[stoat]

Hello again hppygilmoregolf,

I wasn't sure what you were going do after you mentioned yum. I thought you were going try what Simian Man suggested. But if by "firmware" you are talking about broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 for that b43 driver method, then the next steps are in the thread that I linked to above in my first post here. Here is another link just to post #4 of that thread...Post #4 in Wireless problems in fedora 10 on my Pavilion zv6000 (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1157442&postcount=4)You should also notice the instructions there for using Dangermouse's autoten application. It will install the b43 firmware for you. Many people consider it much simpler that those manual b43 steps. However, it requires an Internet connection to work so I didn't bring it up before.

[hppygilmoregolf]

ok so on my desktop is the broadcom folder that has a folder in it called broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5, which includes two files, nas_exe.o and wl_exe.o, and three folders, driver, include, and shared. I don't know if its the firmware or even what it is, but that's what i have. I've tried all different things with the post with the pavilion laptop and i always get an error message. i type in tar xjf broadcom-w1-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 and the computer ends up with tar: broadcom-w1-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

[stoat]

ok so on my desktop is the broadcom folder that has a folder in it called broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5, which includes two files, nas_exe.o and wl_exe.o, and three folders, driver, include, and shared.Okay. See, none of that was made clear until now. I didn't really even know what you were doing until now. It's also now clear that you have been derailed by simple technical errors.

For example, you can stop with that tar step because the tarball has already been untarred and uncompressed. You probably did that with your file browser without knowing it. Anyway, now you have to do the third step which is open a terminal and change directories to that folder named "driver". But since you haven't been following the steps exactly from the beginning, the folder is on your Desktop. Therefore, the cd step will have to be slightly different...cd /home/[put-your-username-here]/Desktop/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driverAfter you do that, you should be able to see a file named wl_apsta_mimo.o when you run the ls command in the terminal. Like this...[stoat@localhost ~]$ cd /home/stoat/Desktop/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
[stoat@localhost driver]$ ls
config wl_ap_mimo.o wl_apsta_micro.o wl_apsta.o wl_sta_mimo.o
wl_ap_micro.o wl_ap.o wl_apsta_mimo.o wl_sta_micro.o wl_sta.oSee what I mean now? Once you have done that, and can see the file wl_apsta_mimo.o amongst the files listed when you run ls in the terminal, then you can do the final two terminal steps which are to get root privileges and extract the firmware from wl_apsta_mimo.o like this...su
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.oYou can confirm it worked with this...ls /lib/firmware/b43That should list the firmware files on your hard drive like this...[root@localhost driver]$ ls /lib/firmware/b43
a0g0bsinitvals4.fw a0g1initvals5.fw lp0bsinitvals13.fw pcm5.fw
a0g0bsinitvals5.fw a0g1initvals9.fw lp0bsinitvals14.fw ucode11.fw
a0g0bsinitvals9.fw b0g0bsinitvals13.fw lp0bsinitvals15.fw ucode13.fw
a0g0initvals4.fw b0g0bsinitvals4.fw lp0initvals13.fw ucode14.fw
a0g0initvals5.fw b0g0bsinitvals5.fw lp0initvals14.fw ucode15.fw
a0g0initvals9.fw b0g0bsinitvals9.fw lp0initvals15.fw ucode4.fw
a0g1bsinitvals13.fw b0g0initvals13.fw n0absinitvals11.fw ucode5.fw
a0g1bsinitvals5.fw b0g0initvals4.fw n0bsinitvals11.fw ucode9.fw
a0g1bsinitvals9.fw b0g0initvals5.fw n0initvals11.fw
a0g1initvals13.fw b0g0initvals9.fw pcm4.fwNow do the final steps to establish a wireless connection with NetworkManager...

Now reboot and establish the connection using the NetworkManager tray icon (left-click it). If your router is broadcasting its SSID, then you should see your network (router SSID) in the list of available networks. Click it and give NetworkManager the information that it requests. If your router is not broadcasting its SSID, then you will not see your network listed. I recommend turning SSID broadcast on. If you insist that it be turned off, then left-click on the NetworkManager tray icon and choose "Connect to hidden wireless network" or "Connect to other wireless network".

[hppygilmoregolf]

AHHH thank you so much. for some reason i had to uncompress the broadcom folder again, but got it to work this time. Thank you so so much

[fboisseau]

I have the same laptop, but will be booting it off a fedora live 11 USB drive. Will these same instructions work for me?

[stoat]

I have the same laptop, but will be booting it off a fedora live 11 USB drive. Will these same instructions work for me? Hello fboisseau,

Probably. That is, if it also has the same wireless card. I occasionally boot with a LiveCD, and I can quickly establish a wireless connection by simply creating the folder /lib/firmware/b43 and copying the firmware files from the same folder in one of the hard-drive-based systems on the computer. Immediately after doing that, all I have to do is restart the NetworkManager service and it will list the available networks and connect. So, I feel certain all of those steps to extract the firmware from the Broadcom driver tarball can also be accomplished with a live system.