wireless (BCM8314) Acer Aspire 3000 with Fedora 10?

Lampie · #1 7th May 2009, 03:22 PM

Hello,

I am pretty new to linux but now have a dedicated Fedora 10 laptop so that I can learn everything I need to know.

I am using an Acer Aspire 3000 with a fresh copy of Fedora 10 and KDE

The Aspire 3000 has a built in broadcom wireless card, with windows XP you activate the wireless using an LED button on the front of the laptop, but with Fedora I can't seem to do this.

I have found a couple of threads to fix this error on Ubuntu but nothing about fedora. I don't want to change OS as I have just about got this system running like clockwork. I have left the wireless until last as the normal LAN works fine.

Here is the result of my iwconfig:

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

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

pan0 no wireless extensions.

I do hope that someone can help me, I love linux and the possibilities are endless, windows sucks ;-)

Thanks for reading

Lampie

ultra magnus · #2 7th May 2009, 05:42 PM

I would look into using ndiswrapper, can't help more than that, sorry.

scottro · #3 7th May 2009, 10:33 PM

Please post the output of

lspci

Look for lines near the end, probably the last, or second to last, which will give the model of the wireless card itself.

Lampie · #4 8th May 2009, 12:45 AM

Here are the results of my Lspci i have higlighted my broadcom wireless card:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Modem Controller (rev a0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon IntegratedSystems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
00:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

scottro · #5 8th May 2009, 12:59 AM

Ok, I'll change the thread title, I think that will help you get answers. (Don't know the card myself, so can't personally help beyond that.)

scottro · #6 8th May 2009, 01:00 AM

By the way, I see there's over 200 threads about this card, so you might want to just put
bcm4318 into the forum search engine and see what comes up.

bbfuller · #7 8th May 2009, 10:10 AM

Hello Lampie

This is one of the cards that works with the built in b43 driver included with Fedora.

I've posted the answer several times, but the notes are below for convenience:

Quote:

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.

Restart the machine and left clicking on the NetworkManager icon in the system tray of either Gnome or KDE should bring up a list of wireless access points to connect to.

Left click on one of those.

Post back with any questions or problems.

Lampie · #8 8th May 2009, 10:35 AM

Hey,

Thanks for the help, I get an error when I try to do you last command

[root@localhost broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5]# b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o
Cannot open input file wl_apsta_mimo.o

I have full SU - rights as you said

What should I do now?

Edd

bbfuller · #9 8th May 2009, 10:45 AM

Hello Lampie

Your output shows that you re in the wrong directory when you issue the command.

Quote:

[root@localhost broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5]

If you use the:

Code:

ls

command you should see, among other things, the "driver" directory I mentioned.

Code:

cd driver

should move you into that and both the 'ls' command and the 'b43-fwcutter' command should find the correct file.

Lampie · #10 8th May 2009, 10:48 AM

I have done as you said, what a silly mistake.

I have just rebooted my lappy and still no joy, i can only connect via my wired connection :S

any ideas why that is?

bbfuller · #11 8th May 2009, 10:52 AM

Hello Lampie

Do any wireless networks show in NetworkManager?

If not, what is the output of the command:

Code:

iwconfig

Lampie · #12 8th May 2009, 11:21 AM

Nope,

here is the result, I am stumped, I hope that you can help

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

PS: On the network manager I only have eth0 ( wired ) and a menu for VPN Connections

bbfuller · #13 8th May 2009, 11:24 AM

Hello Lampie

Something very peculiar here.

Take a look in the directory:

Code:

/lib/firmware

and see if there is a sub-directory named "b43". If there is take a look inside and tell me how many files are in it.

Lampie · #14 8th May 2009, 11:28 AM

Its there,

I had to SU - to gain access to the b43 folder maybe that is of relevance,

here is the output

a0g0bsinitvals4.fw b0g0initvals9.fw
a0g0bsinitvals5.fw lp0bsinitvals13.fw
a0g0bsinitvals9.fw lp0bsinitvals14.fw
a0g0initvals4.fw lp0bsinitvals15.fw
a0g0initvals5.fw lp0initvals13.fw
a0g0initvals9.fw lp0initvals14.fw
a0g1bsinitvals13.fw lp0initvals15.fw
a0g1bsinitvals5.fw n0absinitvals11.fw
a0g1bsinitvals9.fw n0bsinitvals11.fw
a0g1initvals13.fw n0initvals11.fw
a0g1initvals5.fw pcm4.fw
a0g1initvals9.fw pcm5.fw
b0g0bsinitvals13.fw ucode11.fw
b0g0bsinitvals4.fw ucode13.fw
b0g0bsinitvals5.fw ucode14.fw
b0g0bsinitvals9.fw ucode15.fw
b0g0initvals13.fw ucode4.fw
b0g0initvals4.fw ucode5.fw
b0g0initvals5.fw ucode9.fw

38 files i believe

bbfuller · #15 8th May 2009, 11:54 AM

Hello Lampie

I don't actually have my 4318 machine at the moment, it's out on loan. However, a quick experiment with the 'b43-fwcutter' tells me that what you have so far is normal, even down to the number of files.

Could you try, as full root:

Code:

lsmod | grep b43

and post back the output to assure ourselves that the b43 driver is loading.