bcm43xg almost working

[webshammo]

I got it to show up with ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4329) present (alternate driver: ssb)

it shows up thru lspci
00:0a.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG (rev 01)

It will even scan for access points and list mine (and neighbours).

I am assuming it will work if I turn off wireless encryption, but I don't feel safe to do that on my network.

When I try to start wpasupplicant, all looks well until I get Driver does not support WPA
which I assume is why I do not get a connection to my wpa2-psk access point. Any tips on why it would think WPA is not valid?

# /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dndiswrapper -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd
Initializing interface 'wlan0' conf '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' driver 'ndiswrapper' ctrl_interface 'N/A' bridge 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
ctrl_interface_group='0' (DEPRECATED)
ap_scan=0
Line: 5 - start of a new network block
ssid - hexdump_ascii(len=6):
44 45 57 48 45 52 DEWHER
proto: 0x3
key_mgmt: 0x2
pairwise: 0x18
group: 0x18
PSK - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED]
Priority group 0
id=0 ssid='DEWHER'
Initializing interface (2) 'wlan0'
Interface wlan0 set UP - waiting a second for the driver to complete initialization
SIOCGIWRANGE: WE(compiled)=22 WE(source)=18 enc_capa=0xf
capabilities: key_mgmt 0xf enc 0xf flags 0x0
WEXT: Operstate: linkmode=1, operstate=5
Own MAC address: 00:22:6b:a4:a2:9f
Driver does not support WPA.
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=0 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=1 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=2 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=3 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
RSN: flushing PMKID list in the driver
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
ctrl_interface_group=0
Added interface wlan0
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
EAPOL: disable timer tick

[webshammo]

This is on fc10

[zackf]

I think there's a newer Firmware Cutter for Broadcom cards, DangerMouse on this forum has made a script that I used a ton on my old HP.

http://dnmouse.org/broadcom.html

[webshammo]

I did not utilize a firmware cutter. I just used ndiswrapper. Does the firmwarecutter work better? or do I use the cutter with ndiswrapper? I am confused.

[zackf]

I found both to work just fine, but ndiswrapper is a lot harder to set up, I would just go with what DangerMouse set up.

[webshammo]

well, I tried the driver from dangermouse, and it does not support my card. bcm43XG.
I tried to go back to ndiswrapper, and my computer will no longer turn on. I am sure it is not ndiswrapper, just another hard/software problem in my way.

[zackf]

Sounds like another HP laptop...Had the same thing happen w/mine

[webshammo]

But this is a desktop system. They are supposed to be easier.

[stoat]

bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4329) present (alternate driver: ssb)

Broadcom has used some of the BCM43XX designations for more than one flavor of card. To tell for sure if your card is supported, use the command 'lspci -n' and find the line that has the string "14e4:XXXX'. If XXXX is 4301, 4307, 4311, 4312, 4318, 4319, 4320, 4321, 4324, or 4325, the card is supported. All others are NOT supported.

Hello webshammo,

I am not really surprised at how this is going. I don't see that Broadcom chipset of yours mentioned here very much (which doesn't mean a thing, of course), and I just wanted to wait and see what happened with it and b43. That Dangermouse thing you tried basically automates the installation of the firmware for the b43 native Linux Broadcom driver. That firmware cutter business that was also mentioned above is simply the manual way to install the b43 firmware. I guess you added support to that statement above from Linux Wireless.

So that leaves two Broadcom driver methods to consider: 1) the new Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver (broadcom-wl) and 2) ndiswrapper. The official Broadcom web site does not list your chipset amongst those supported by broadcom-wl. You can try it, but it's likely to be a waste of your time. So that just leaves ndiswrapper. Where you started.

If you ever get the computer booting again, here's what I recommend for ndiswrapper and your WPA issue at the beginning: Let NetworkManager handle it. No need for a wpa_supplicant.conf file. No need to create a wireless connection in the Network Configuration utility (system-config-network). Just get ndiswrapper and the driver installed again, then enable and/or restart NetworkManager. After a few seconds, NM should list your network in the list of available networks in the NM system tray icon if your router is broadcasting its SSID. If the router is not broadcasting its SSID, then either turn that on or else left-click on the NM system tray icon and choose "Connnect to other wireless network" or "Connect to hidden wireless network". Anyway, whatever. When NM asks for information give it to it. No promises, of course, but that's all I have to do nowadays.

About that WPA business when you started this thread... The bcmwl5 driver does support WPA encryption. I've used it with ndiswrapper and WPA before. For example, you're probably using this card and that driver in Windows. Right? If so, and if it connects to your router, then it supports WPA. You should be able to use that same driver with ndiswrapper as long as it's not a Vista driver.

Some things to check if it doesn't work. Reboot and...

1. Look at the list of loaded modules. The ndiswrapper module should be in the list, and b43 should not be in the list...

   /sbin/lsmod | sort

2. If b43 is being loaded, then blacklist it...

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

3. If ndiswrapper is not being loaded, then try this and reboot...

   ndiswrapper -mi

4. If ndiswrapper still doesn't load, then create an ndiswrapper alias for the wireless device in /etc/modprobe.conf...

   echo "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" >> /etc/modprobe.conf

5. Confirm the driver was installed...

   ndiswrapper -l

[swashplate]

I think there's a newer Firmware Cutter for Broadcom cards, DangerMouse on this forum has made a script that I used a ton on my old HP.

http://dnmouse.org/broadcom.html

Just tried this and it works brilliantly on my crappy old Dell C400 laptoposuarus!

I'm using fedora 9 with the gnome desktop

Replying now through wireless - BTW, I am using a Dell 1450 mini-pcmcia internal card (10 quid on ebay!!). Comes up as the following in terminal when you run lspic:

02:03.0 0280: 14e4:4324 (rev 03)

Many thanks to Dangermouse!!

[webshammo]

Thanx for all that stoat. I think the ndiswrapper is the way to go (after a new motherboard is installed unfortunately).

I had ndiswrapper so almost working with network manager. It came up and asks for the PSK, at that point do i enter the text that I set on the router, or a hex representation of that string, and if so, where would I find the hex?

I believe networkManager does not accept the text string "ThisIsADumbPassPhrase" but I was never sure that I found a correct hex representation.

thanx.

[stoat]

...do i enter the text that I set on the router, or a hex representation of that string...

I enter the ASCII alphanumeric passphrase in NetworkManager. That passphrase and the SSID are used to create the long hexadecimal key. I recommend that you enter the ASCII passphrase.

...where would I find the hex?

It's derived from a complex hash calculation using the passphrase and the SSID. The utility wpa_passphrase will produce the key. I used that for creating a wpa_supplicant.conf file before I started using NetworkManager.

/usr/sbin/wpa_passphrase [SSID] [passphrase]

And there are also calculators on the Internet like this one...

WPA key calculation - From passphrase to hexadecimal key

[webshammo]

I finally got this working. I removed ndiswrapper and installed broadcom-wl and now it works.

Ndiswrapper would not work with WPA

[stoat]

it shows up thru lspci
00:0a.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG (rev 01)

I finally got this working. I removed ndiswrapper and installed broadcom-wl and now it works.

That's a good thing to have in the record. Know why? Because I don't think anybody else knows about it at this time. Thanks for taking a moment to return and report it.

[ichwar]

I know I'm bringing up a dead thread, but could someone here explain to me how to set up broadcom-wl on my F11 32-bit installation?
My device appears to be the same as webshammo's,
When I run the command ndiswrapper -l I get:

bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4329) present (alternate driver: ssb)