Dell inspiron 9100 Wirless issues

FedoraMacuser · #1 13th March 2009, 09:22 PM

I am having a bit of a problem with my Dell and its wifi card in Fedora 10.

I ran Ndiswrapper on it and installed the drivers fine but I sitll cannot get it to connect.

Running IWCONFIG outputs

[root@localhost network-scripts]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Alpha"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management: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

However I cannot get it to active in network manager or connect to my wireless network.

I really dont know what else to do. I am still pretty new to all this. I dont want to go buy a linux compatible mPCI card but will if need be.

stoat · #2 13th March 2009, 10:44 PM

Hello FedoraMacuser,

Some general ndiswrapper troubleshooting ideas that come to mind...

Make sure that you used a Windows driver that makes your wireless device work in XP, W2K, or even Windows 98, but not Vista. Vista drivers are well-known not to work well with ndiswrapper. It's important, so find out. If you got the driver files from a CD, the folder usually gives a clue. If you got a driver from the Internet, go back there and look at the description of the driver again. You can also often get the SYS and INF files from folders in your Windows XP or W2K system.
Confirm that the driver is installed with ndiswrapper. The following command should confirm that. It usually also indicates that a device for the driver is present...
Code:
```
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
```
Confirm that the ndiswrapper module is being loaded and that a conflicting built-in module(s) for your card is not being loaded. The following terminal command will list the loaded modules. You should see ndiswrapper in it. You should not see a built-in module for your card there. If you don't know what to look for, then you can post the result for help examining it...
Code:
```
/sbin/lsmod | sort
```
Make sure that the NetworkManager service is enabled by default. Also restart it now...
Code:
```
su
chkconfig NetworkManager on
service NetworkManager restart
```
If you have a wireless device configured in the old Network Configuration utility (system-config-network), then edit the connection and select the option for it to be activated automatically. Also select the option for it to be managed by NetworkManager. If you do not have a wireless device configured in the Network Configuration utility, then do not create one. Just close the utility and stay out of it for now (I no longer use that and have nothing in there any more). If you did have a wireless device there and you made those changes, then reboot and see what happens now.
Find out if your wireless card can use a built-in (or nearly built-in) driver. The following commands may (or may not) produce information that will identify the chipset of your wireless device. The chipset is what determines what driver to use. Post the results for help figuring that out...
Code:
```
/sbin/lspci -nn
/sbin/lsusb
```

FedoraMacuser · #3 14th March 2009, 04:44 AM

Okay heres the first result

[Jeff@localhost ~]$ /sbin/lsmod | sort
ac97_bus 5504 1 snd_ac97_codec
arc4 5760 2
ata_generic 8452 0
b43 131872 0
b44 27024 0
bluetooth 48608 5 sco,bnep,l2cap
bnep 14848 2
bridge 43668 0
cfg80211 23816 1 mac80211
crc_itu_t 5760 1 firewire_core
crypto_blkcipher 18052 1 ecb
dcdbas 10272 0
dm_multipath 17164 0
drm 158260 3 radeon
ecb 6528 2
firewire_core 35616 1 firewire_ohci
firewire_ohci 22532 0
fuse 49436 2
i2c_algo_bit 8836 1 radeon
i2c_core 21396 3 radeon,drm,i2c_algo_bit
input_polldev 7176 1 b43
ip6table_filter 6400 1
ip6_tables 14736 1 ip6table_filter
ip6t_REJECT 7296 2
ipv6 230388 20 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6
iTCO_vendor_support 6916 1 iTCO_wdt
iTCO_wdt 13732 0
joydev 12736 0
l2cap 21504 3 bnep
mac80211 173668 1 b43
mii 8192 1 b44
Module Size Used by
nf_conntrack_ipv6 15864 2
output 6528 1 video
p4_clockmod 8324 1
pata_acpi 7680 0
pcspkr 6272 0
radeon 237912 3
rfkill 11160 2 rfkill_input,b43
rfkill_input 8320 0
rsrc_nonstatic 13568 1 yenta_socket
sco 12932 2
snd 50616 17 snd_intel8x0m,snd_seq_dummy,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_ codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_o ss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_ac97_codec 95268 2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0
snd_intel8x0 30620 3
snd_intel8x0m 16780 0
snd_mixer_oss 16896 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 11016 3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
snd_pcm 65924 4 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_ oss
snd_pcm_oss 42496 0
snd_seq 48576 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 10124 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_seq_dummy 6660 0
snd_seq_midi_event 9600 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq_oss 30364 0
snd_timer 22024 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
soundcore 9416 1 snd
ssb 36228 2 b43,b44
stp 6148 1 bridge
sunrpc 156052 3
uinput 10624 0
video 20500 0
yenta_socket 24972 1

I can access it in network manager its greyed out and I cannot activate it.

SBIN

[Jeff@localhost ~]$ /sbin/lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2570] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller [8086:2571] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24d2] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24d4] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24d7] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:24de] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24dd] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24d0] (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller [8086:24db] (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24d5] (rev 02)
00:1f.6 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:24d6] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] [1002:4e50]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T [14e4:4401] (rev 01)
02:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI4510 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac44] (rev 02)
02:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller [104c:8029]
02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)

and the USB

[Jeff@localhost ~]$ /sbin/lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
[Jeff@localhost ~]$

Thanks for all your help Stoat!

stoat · #4 14th March 2009, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedoraMacuser

[Jeff@localhost ~]$ /sbin/lsmod | sort
ac97_bus 5504 1 snd_ac97_codec
arc4 5760 2
ata_generic 8452 0
b43 131872 0
b44 27024 0
...

I stopped right there in that list. That's the b43 Broadcom driver included with the Fedora kernel. You cannot allow that to load when you are trying to use ndiswrapper. So you either should blacklist list it to stop it from loading, or use it instead. Also notice that ndiswrapper is not in the lsmod list that you posted. It should be there if you want to use it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your lsmod report also lists the b44 driver module which is needed to operate your wired NIC card. I just remembered something that AdamW wrote regarding b44 and ndiswrapper. You can read AdamW's explanation for yourself in post #53 of roadracer's BCM4312 thread, but the gist of his post is that you may also have to blacklist b44 to get ndiswrapper to work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedoraMacuser

02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)

That means your wireless card has the BCM4306 chipset. First, it is well-known to work with the b43 driver. Second, b43 is easier to set up and maintain compared to ndiswrapper IMO. Third, that is the very same wireless chipset that I have been using for years. And during those years I have used it with ndiswrapper compiled from source, kmod-ndiswrapper from Livna (now RPM Fusion), bcm43xx before b43, and now b43. My three BCM4306 wireless cards have always performed flawlessly with any of the driver methods that I just mentioned.

Anyway, what to do now...

If you want to push on with ndiswrapper (and there's nothing wrong with that), then try blacklisting the b43 driver by doing these terminal commands...

Code:

su
echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Now reboot and see what happens. If the wireless still doesn't work, then check the lsmod list again. If ndiswrapper is still not there even though b43 is not there now, then blacklist b44 like AdamW says...

Code:

su
echo "blacklist b44" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Remember that will disable your wired NIC port. Now reboot and see what happens. If the wireless still doesn't work, then check the lsmod list again. If ndiswrapper is still not there even though b43 and b44 are both not there now, then run this terminal command...

Code:

su
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -mi

Reboot and try again. If it is still not working, there are other things that may need to be done. I am not out of ndiswrapper ideas yet, but this is enough for now.

P.S.: If you want to try b43, then say so. I will hold off on typing what to do about that until I know it's what you want.

FedoraMacuser · #5 15th March 2009, 12:29 AM

Is there a path I can take where I dont need ndiswrapper?? Lets give b43 a shot if possible... Thanks again Stoat.

FYI
I did a fresh install to completely remove NDISWRAPPER. Hopefully that was okay.

Also on an unrelated note (but maybe important) Fedora keeps logging me out. Like every 3 minutes..

stoat · #6 15th March 2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedoraMacuser

Is there a path I can take where I dont need ndiswrapper??

Yeah, it's b43. I happen to prefer it for my BCM4306 cards. It also does not need anything done to it when the Fedora kernel gets updated. See, compiled ndiswrapper would have to be recompiled for a new kernel. And the binary ndiswrapper packages from RPM Fusion have to be updated when the kernel gets updated, and sometimes they arrive a few days late meaning busted wireless for that new kernel.

If you started over, then just go through the b43 steps. You can read a summary of the b43 method and the exact steps that I use in another thread here. That thread is related to the BCM4312, but the steps are exactly the same. It will save typing to link you to there.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...7&postcount=27

But if you have questions or problems, return here to your fresh new thread to deal with them.

P.S.: The Dangermouse autoten thing disccussed in that post, is a kind of automatic way to install the firmware for the b43 driver. You can do that if you prefer not to do the manual steps also described there.

P.P.S.: I don't know what to say about that being logged out. Do you mean your user is being logged out back to the login page?

FedoraMacuser · #7 15th March 2009, 01:37 AM

Hey,
So that totally worked flawlessly. I am writing you now wirelessly!!! Thanks !!! I'd rep you if I could. As far as the logging out goes its seems to have stopped on reboot. Not sure why it was doing that.. Maybe because it was the first startup of the new OS?

Anyway thanks again Stoat!!!