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**wizard10000** · Jul 07, 2011, 03:30 AM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Not sure why we're trying to use ndiswrapper for a Broadcom card. Can you please open a terminal window and run

lspci -v

and then post the portion of the output that pertains to your wireless card?

thanks -

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 07, 2011, 07:54 AM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Thanks for replying.

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at efdfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: wl, ssb

**wizard10000** · Jul 07, 2011, 09:21 AM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Cool.

This wireless card is directly supported. You should be using the Broadcom STA driver available in

KMenu --> Applications --> System --> Additional Drivers. You'll need a wired connection to install it, but running Windows drivers with ndiswrapper isn't necessary.

That *should* fix you up. Please don't hesitate to holler if you need more help.

cheers -

**Guest** · Jul 07, 2011, 10:17 AM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

True that. When I made the jump to linux in 2007, one of the most important things I learned was that, in general, I didn't have to bring anything over from Windows or use any special driver hacks. This is even more true now. In order to save yourself a lot of heartache, maybe back up your drivers for safe keeping on an external and just try Kubuntu as is. It really works quite well in its own right and will save you a lot of trouble. Save that inventiveness for when you need it, sooner or later you will

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 07, 2011, 03:06 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

That solution sounds perfect and simple!

Unfortunately, I think I may have angered the Kubuntu gods in a past life or something as I just cannot... no matter what I do... get a wired connection to work on this computer... not even on a fresh WinXP install with all drivers updated.

Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
Fail - Directly connecting to cable modem
Fail - Connection to wireless router via ethernet
Fail - DHCP or static setup

I can't connect to my local network with wired let alone the Internet in either XP or Kubuntu *shrug*. Only thing I have working is wireless access (static IP) through XP.

Is whats on this site: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php an alternative way to achieve KMenu --> Applications --> System --> Additional Drivers.? It looks a bit intimidating, but I seem to be running out of options.

**wizard10000** · Jul 07, 2011, 03:18 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

The procedure on the Broadcom page is just a more complicated way of installing what's provided in Ubuntu

I do understand that without a wired connection it's really difficult to install the wireless components, so maybe it'd be a good idea to get networking fixed before going much farther.

You can temporarily assign a static IP address to your wired network card like this - assuming your wired card is eth0:

sudo ifconfig eth0 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0

Just plug in the static IP you want the network card to have.

Can we have some stuff to see if we can help you get your wired network going?

First, can we have the piece of

lspci -v

that deals with your wired network card? Also, the output of

sudo ifconfig

would be helpful. It'd be helpful to have that before and after you assigned a static IP to your network card.

Then - can we see the contents of /etc/network/interfaces?

cheers -

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 07, 2011, 03:55 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

lspci -v

Code:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Dell Inspiron E1405
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at ef9fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: b44
    Kernel modules: b44

sudo ifconfig

Code:

eth0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:6d:93:6a 
     inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:fe6d:936a/64 Scope:Link
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:119 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:15968 (15.9 KB)
     Interrupt:17 

lo    Link encap:Local Loopback 
     inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
     inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
     UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
     RX packets:291 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:291 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
     RX bytes:22670 (22.6 KB) TX bytes:22670 (22.6 KB)

contents of interface

Code:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

As for setting up a static IP I think I got an error so the after output is unchanged. Did I do something wrong?

Code:

sudo ifconfig eth0 address 192.168.2.105 netmask 255.255.255.0
address: Unknown host
ifconfig: `--help' gives usage information.

**wizard10000** · Jul 07, 2011, 04:01 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

No, that was my fault - sorry. Try this -

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.105 netmask 255.255.255.0

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 07, 2011, 04:15 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Mmkay

. Here is the after of sudo ifconfig

Code:

eth0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:6d:93:6a 
     inet addr: 192.168.2.105 Bcast: 192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:119 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
     Interrupt:17 

lo    Link encap:Local Loopback 
     inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
     inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
     UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
     RX packets:1496 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:1496 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
     RX bytes:119304 (119.3 KB) TX bytes:119304 (119.3 KB)

As for the interfaces file it hasn't changed.

**wizard10000** · Jul 07, 2011, 05:59 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Networking appears to be working - can you connect to the internet with a static IP? If you can we just have to figure out why you're not getting an IP address automatically.

Since you're also not getting an IP automatically in Windows XP do you think maybe we should look at your router with a slightly jaundiced eye?

edit: Also, if you can hit the internet with a static IP, try this -

sudo dhclient eth0

and post the output, please. This will broadcast a request for an IP address to your router. If your router doesn't give the machine an IP address this may take two minutes or so to return to a command prompt.

Also, I have to call it a night. I get up *really* early but there are folks who can help while I'm snoozing. I'll be back online way early in the morning, though

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 08, 2011, 10:40 AM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Yah, even with those steps the static IP setup of my wired still failed to work in Kubuntu and since it wasn't working in WinXP either I was starting to think maybe the hardware was damaged

Since you're also not getting an IP automatically in Windows XP do you think maybe we should look at your router with a slightly jaundiced eye?

The rest of my computers started dropping off the network as their DHCP leases expired last night and they all failed to acquire new ones and had to be connected statically to work so indeed as you suggested the router wasn't playing nice.

Tinkered a bit with the router this morning and got DHCP working again. Wired finally started working through WinXP so crossed my fingers and gave Kubuntu a boot and surprise suprise it automatically connected to my network/internet through wired

. I'm actually writing this reply in Kubuntu right now. Thank God!

Now that wired is working I tried KMenu --> Applications --> System --> Additional Drivers. and the following automatically popped up in the Additional Drivers window.

Code:

Broadcom STA wireless driver

This package contains Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driverfor use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-, BCM4321-,BCM4322-, BCM43224-, and BCM43225-, BCM43227- and BCM43228-basedhardware.

This driver is activated and currently in use

Sweet! But now what? In the network managment setup in the taskbar Wireless tab is still grayed out and when I unplug my wired no attempts are made to automatically connect to my wireless. I made sure my wireless hardware wasn't disabled. Even turned it off and on a few times via keyboard shortcut on my laptop. Whats the next step oh mighty and powerful Wizard of the Forum

**wizard10000** · Jul 08, 2011, 03:43 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Can you unplug the cable and manually connect to wireless then?

I don't use network manager so I might not be a whole lot of help here.

**notyourbuddy** · Jul 08, 2011, 04:30 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

I guess my question would be, "How does one manually connect to a wireless network when no wireless networks are recognized?"

After the additional driver app step getting and installing the drivers for my wireless card (or whatever it was doing) I was kinda hoping Kubuntu would automatically detect any wireless networks in range, but it hasn't.

I've glanced through various settings dialogs in Kubuntu but see nothing pertaining to wireless network setup or wireless cards.

Are there any additional diagnostic steps I can run on the wireless card as to why it isn't picking up my wireless network? Are there conflicting drivers I need to blacklist or something? Do I need to manually edit network related files somewhere?

iwconfig

Code:

lo    no wireless extensions.

eth0   no wireless extensions.

My wireless isn't listed in the above. Guessing thats a bad thing

sudo lshw -C network

Code:

 *-network        
    description: Network controller
    product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
    version: 01
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
    configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
    resources: irq:17 memory:efdfc000-efdfffff
 *-network
    description: Ethernet interface
    product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
    logical name: eth0
    version: 02
    serial: 00:15:c5:6d:93:6a
    size: 100Mbit/s
    capacity: 100Mbit/s
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
    configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.2.100 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
    resources: irq:17 memory:ef9fe000-ef9fffff

No logical name for my wireless card. Guessing thats also a bad thing

**wizard10000** · Jul 08, 2011, 04:57 PM

Re: New to Linux Struggling With Wireless

Something still ain't quite kosher here. Can we see the output of

dpkg -l | grep STA

and

dpkg -l | grep b43

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