Broadcom Wireless Card

easummy · #1 6th April 2008, 05:17 AM

Hey first time in Fedora i have worked with centos some but otherwise i am fairly new to this. I have been trying to get my wireless card to work. The card is a broadcom 4318 Air Force One G ... Fedora actually acknowledges what the card is but the light on the laptop does not come on and it cannot connect to anything. I have tried to install ndiswrapper ...it does not install. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this problem. I have looked through the forums and have made many attempts before i posted this so any help will be greatly appreciated.

bbfuller · #2 6th April 2008, 10:32 AM

Hello easummy

Welcome to the forum.

I have a 4318 running here with the built in Fedora 8 drivers.

Can you confirm you are running Fedora 8.

The notes to do it are slightly different depending on how up to date your system is.

If you run:

Code:

rpm -q b43-fwcutter

from a terminal window and copy and paste back the output it will tell us what to do next.

easummy · #3 6th April 2008, 05:12 PM

Hey bbfuller
i am running fedora 8
the output is
b43-fwcutter-011-3.fc8

bbfuller · #4 6th April 2008, 05:43 PM

Hello easummy

With that card then you should only need to download the firmware, cut it and configure the card with NetworkManager.

Download this file and put it into a directory somewhere:

http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2

Acquire full root rights over your machine with this command in a terminal window:

Code:

su -

That's a space and a minus sign after the su. It gives you full root rights over your machine rather than just root rights over your ordinary users environment without it.

Use the cd command to navigate into the directory where you downloaded the above file. Issue the command:

Code:

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

That unpacks the file archive you downloaded and will create you a new directory where you are working called 'broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5'.

cd into that and then the 'driver' directory within that and use the command:

Code:

b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

That cuts the required firmware for your card from the downloaded file and places it in the correct place for the b43 driver to find it.

Check and see if you have NetworkManager showing on the top Gnome Panel to the right in the notification area. If you have ignore the next part.

Go to the "Gnome System Menu - Administration - Services", tick NetworkManager and NetworkMangerDispatcher, make sure they are started and the settings are saved so they start at next boot.

Restart the machine and left clicking on the NetworkManager icon should bring up a list of wireless access points to connect to.

If it doesn't work there are a couple of possible things we may need to alter, mine worked without them though so we'll not complicate things if we don't need to.

easummy · #5 7th April 2008, 01:39 AM

I appreciate the help bbfuller it worked like a charm thanks

draktrax · #6 19th August 2008, 07:00 AM

Hello folks.
Another broadcom 4318 here.
And its driving me crazy. I've tried most of the methods in these posts but the bloody thing won't work for me.

I last tried a method from a post by bbfuller from '06.
The download was a success.
The unpacking was not as described but no trouble.(The files went where they were to go.)

The light on the unit now comes on.
When I try to activate (NM didn't work) I get:

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06):
SET failed on device wlan0; Invalid arguement.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A):
SET failed on device wlan0; Invalid arguement.

What am I missing?
Thanx in advance!

bbfuller · #7 19th August 2008, 09:26 AM

Hello draktrax

You won't get a chance to control the card if NetworkManager is running. It will actively interfere with any other metod you try with the sort of errors you are seeing. Those errors are only visible in "Network Configuration" a different program altogether.

2006 is really the "Dark Ages" as far as Linux wireless development goes. ndiswrapper may still work the same but the 4318 card works so much better and easier with the new built in b43 driver that it's usually first choice now.

Could you post a link to the thread you followed so I can see just what method you are using.

draktrax · #8 19th August 2008, 03:17 PM

I used the method you describe in post #4 above.
The file I downloaded was a ".tar.tar" not ".tar.bz2" as described.
Didn't make a diff - everything went where it should have.
(The files were created just as you said they would)
NM is off.

bbfuller · #9 19th August 2008, 06:09 PM

Hello draktrax

I hope you have the correct file downloaded and installed, when I just clicked on the link above I was offered a tar.bz2 not a tar.tar.

Could you look in /lib/firmware/b43 and see that you have 38 files in it.

When you say that NetworkManager didn't work, do you mean that it didn't show wireless networks, or that it did and wouldn't allow you to connect to one?

The post #4 that you describe above is from 2008, April, so it's not out of date as I feared.

The error messages that you describe are usually caused by NetworkManager still running while you are trying to control the card in "Network Configuration". How did you stop NetworkManager.

NetworkManager is really the best way of controlling a card and I'd much prefer to use it myself if possible.

What do the commands:

Code:

su -

to obtain a full root prompt, the space and the minus sign are important, then,

Code:

iwconfig

and

Code:

iwlist <interface> scan

show? Where <interface> is replaced with any interface identified as having "wireless extensions" in the first command.

draktrax · #10 19th August 2008, 07:31 PM

I clicked the link in the previously mentioned post.
I was not given a choice of files.
Is there anything specific in the iwlist results
to look for?

bbfuller · #11 19th August 2008, 10:26 PM

Hello draktrax

Yes, something like the quote:

Quote:

iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1A:70:74:18:5E
ESSID:"Soultiller"
Mode:Master
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=45/100 Signal level:-86 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=00000002629dacf5
Extra: Last beacon: 99ms ago
Cell 02 - Address: 00:1A:70:46

5:55

repeated for as many access points as it finds.

draktrax · #12 20th August 2008, 09:56 AM

Ok.
my af1 is wlan0.
what do I do to change the ESSID.
the one listed for wlan0 is different from eth0.
I change it in Network Config but it doesn't change in the scan.
I'm running KDE btw.

bbfuller · #13 20th August 2008, 10:28 AM

Hello draktrax

I'm not sure what you are changing in Network Config. You should not be using Network Configuration at all and you certainly shouldn't be changing the names of interfaces.

What I asked for was that you ran the command:

Code:

iwconfig

from a full root command prompt.

Could you do that and just copy and paste back the output. Then I'll write out the command for the iwlist section.

draktrax · #14 21st August 2008, 10:58 AM

I'm not changing interface names; the output of the "iw <list> scan" gave me something other than my network's name. That is what I was refering to.
Anyway, the output of the iwconfig:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
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

Thanx for the assistance.
draktrax

bbfuller · #15 21st August 2008, 11:16 AM

Hello draktrax

So what happens now if you run:

Code:

iwlist wlan0 scan

If you see access points listed, do you see the same access points if you left click on NetworkManager?