Wireless issues...

[mahalaha]

Hello Everyone,
Any info would be greatly appreciated here...

I am dual booting off two dif partitions on one laptop drive.
Running Windows XP on one and Fedora on the other.
I have an Dell Inspiron E1505 with Dell 1390 WLAN mini-card

I can not get the wireless working period. Any support would be great.
Thanks
-Chad

[marcrblevins]

What have you tried so far to get it going? Look at NetworkManager?

First of all, does it work in Windows? Then move on to Fedora.

[wvn]

Please find below instructions in order to make it work. These are tested by me and work without any problem.

When is time (based on instructions) to choose driver, pick the .inf file but ALWAYS keep all the files included in the driver folder, together.

[RizzLinux1388]

Thank you so much wvn, I have been looking for hours on this and it was driving me crazy. Thank you and now I can finally start my homework lol.

[wvn]

That's nice to know. You are welcome.

[Azcuzi]

Originally Posted by mahalaha

Hello Everyone,
Any info would be greatly appreciated here...

I am dual booting off two dif partitions on one laptop drive.
Running Windows XP on one and Fedora on the other.
I have an Dell Inspiron E1505 with Dell 1390 WLAN mini-card

I can not get the wireless working period. Any support would be great.
Thanks
-Chad

Hi Mahalaha,

I've got the same machine as yours and am running Fedora 8. I got my wireless running, and the AT&T Option GT Max 3.6 Express card using these instructions:

Note: I did a system update first before doing the steps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

================================================== ========
yum install kmod-ndiswrapper
Download this file and put it into a directory somewhere:

wget 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:

Note: I moved the file to /usr/local and changed to that directory before executing the command below.

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 (example: cd /usr/local/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver) 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. (Note: NetworkManagerDispatcher is not listed in the services after I updated so nothing to be alarmed about if you don't see it).

{The above paragraph is only necessary for Fedora 8 definitely not for Fedora 9}

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

================================================== ========

Note: It has behaviour that I'm not comprehending at this time though.
1.) it does not allow me to activate the wlan0 through the network
configuration
2.) I can see 3 connections in the network manager as follows:
@Home8F6C, default, and NETGEAR and all 3 wireless connections
is showing as unsecured.
I have setup the router with WPA/WPA2 with a passphrase.
I have yet to comprehend how or why I dont have to set up my connection with a passphrase since my router does have a passphrase.

If anyone has any enlightening comments on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Azcuzi

[bbfuller]

Hello Azcuzi

I see that you say above that you used:

yum install kmod-ndiswrapper

but then you go on to quote the instructions for using the b43 driver which are completely different. You do not need to do both.

You are also misreading the instructions. They say:

Check and see if you have NetworkManager showing on the top Gnome Panel to the right in the notification area

That is the program that is used to control a wireless card in Fedora 8 and 9.

It will actively interfere with Network Configuration where you are trying to control your card.

At a minimum you must remove any changes you have made in Network Configuration and then try to control the card through NetworkManager.

[Azcuzi]

Originally Posted by bbfuller

Hello Azcuzi

I see that you say above that you used:



but then you go on to quote the instructions for using the b43 driver which are completely different. You do not need to do both.

You are also misreading the instructions. They say:



That is the program that is used to control a wireless card in Fedora 8 and 9.

It will actively interfere with Network Configuration where you are trying to control your card.

At a minimum you must remove any changes you have made in Network Configuration and then try to control the card through NetworkManager.

Hi bbfuller,

to simplyfy things, you're saying that the driver install alone will solve the problem without installing the ndiswrapper?

If I've understood you correctly then I appreciate this little tidbit that I'm not aware of.
Thank you for your reply.

Azcuzi
--------------------------
A mind is like a parachute....
it doesn't work unless its open..
That's probably why open source works...hehe

[bbfuller]

Hello Azcuzi

We had better step back a bit here.

Firstly, I assume that we are talking about a broadcom wireless card here. The problem with that is that there is not one solution that fits all broadcom cards.

If you are not aware of exactly what chipset you have in the wireless card then running:

/sbin/lspci

from a terminal should reveal it.

If you have a 4303, 4306, 4308, 4311, 4312 or 4318 then the b43 driver and the main part of the instructions above are the ones to follow with two exceptions. Some of the 4306 cards and all of the 4303 require different firmware to cut. (The broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 file is the one I mean here). We can concern ourselves with that if you have one of those.

If you have any other broadcom wireless card then ndiswrapper is a must as the b43 driver won't support it.

The b43 driver is built into the Fedora kernel and only requires you to download a small package of code - called the firmware - and run the b43-fwcutter program against it for the card to start working.

If you don't have a native linux driver available for a card then the next step is to consider using ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper is a completely different method of controlling wireless cards. As its name implies, it wraps itself around part of the Windows driver for your card and controls it that way. You will use one or the other, not both.

If you can use the b43 driver then ndiswrapper is unnecessary. However, it won't hurt having it installed as long as you haven't run any of the commands to make it load.

If you need to use ndiswrapper then there are a lot of other commands to run to make it work. The b43 driver would automatically make way for it.

Any questions or problems, post back.

[Azcuzi]

Originally Posted by bbfuller

Hello Azcuzi

We had better step back a bit here.

Firstly, I assume that we are talking about a broadcom wireless card here. The problem with that is that there is not one solution that fits all broadcom cards.

If you are not aware of exactly what chipset you have in the wireless card then running:

/sbin/lspci

from a terminal should reveal it.

If you have a 4303, 4306, 4308, 4311, 4312 or 4318 then the b43 driver and the main part of the instructions above are the ones to follow with two exceptions. Some of the 4306 cards and all of the 4303 require different firmware to cut. (The broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 file is the one I mean here). We can concern ourselves with that if you have one of those.

If you have any other broadcom wireless card then ndiswrapper is a must as the b43 driver won't support it.

The b43 driver is built into the Fedora kernel and only requires you to download a small package of code - called the firmware - and run the b43-fwcutter program against it for the card to start working.

If you don't have a native linux driver available for a card then the next step is to consider using ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper is a completely different method of controlling wireless cards. As its name implies, it wraps itself around part of the Windows driver for your card and controls it that way. You will use one or the other, not both.

If you can use the b43 driver then ndiswrapper is unnecessary. However, it won't hurt having it installed as long as you haven't run any of the commands to make it load.

If you need to use ndiswrapper then there are a lot of other commands to run to make it work. The b43 driver would automatically make way for it.

Any questions or problems, post back.

Hi bbfuller,

I did try it without installing the ndiswrapper and it works.
I guess when i was googling it at the time I had two screens up with two
different instructions and just so happened to work while i was
following at certain points that i thought it was part of the process.
But now you've pointed out that I didnt have to invoke the command
pertaining to installing the ndis wrapper and i've already documented it
in my notes. Thanks again for pointing it out.

Azcuzi