Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

[Carlinuxlearner]

I have a "Linksys WMP11 v4 802.11b" and lspci says this about it "Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4303 802.11b Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)" In my "network manager" it does NOT show up, it only shows my wired card. This is the output of "ifconfig"
"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:29:85:18E
inet addr:192.168.1.104 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:29ff:fe85:18de/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:23827 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14726 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:33587633 (32.0 MiB) TX bytes:1211780 (1.1 MiB)
Interrupt:17 Base address:0x8000

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:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:6425 (6.2 KiB) TX bytes:6425 (6.2 KiB)

carl@carlinux1-3:~$"
and this is the output of "iwconfig"
"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

carl@carlinux1-3:~$"

I have been trying to get it to work but have not yet succeeded. I have the windows driver for it, but I am unsure how to use ndiswrapper. I've tried some stuff on other forums but no luck yet. So any help would be great.

C@RL

[Samme]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

What I've learn to know you'll have to extract the firmware from the windows-driver. Google it and you'll find lots of useful info. I had to do it this way, but it was a while ago and I can't remember the exact steps.

Good luck!

[lingenfr]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

If you search for your card (here or over at the ubuntu forums) or for broadcom, you will find it. For an 11b card, I would not fool with ndiswrapper, just use the kernel driver if it will work for you.

[moir]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

I just setup a BCM4311 so it's all fresh in my mind.

The package you want to strip the firmware is bcm43xx-fwcutter. Here's the basic guide on how it to set it up:
http://boredklink.googlepages.com/ubuntuguide
Unfortunately, when you apt-get install it, it'll most likely throw up an error as it cannot download wl_apsta.o. Ignore the error but download wl_apsta.o directly to your desktop from:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/bcm43xx
(Carefully avoid the newer b43 driver and get the bcm43xx driver for older kernels (Version 3 drivers))
Rename it from 'wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.0.o' to 'wl_apsta.o', or just use the tab key if you know about that.
Then proceed with the instructions to install the driver;
sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~/Desktop/wl_apsta.o
If you've been messing around with ndiswrapper, open the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and enter a line 'blacklist ndiswrapper'. You'll need super-user permissions so
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
After the reboot, running 'iwlist scanning' should turn up the wireless access points near you.

If you're seeing the access points, the driver is likely working fine. Then it's just setting up authentication keys, etc. I just spent hours with a strange authentication problem that really had me scratching my head. Turns out I was just too far away from the router and not getting a good signal!

If you get it going, you should remove the package bcm43xx-fwcutter. This will *not* hurt your wireless setup. It will remove the annoyance of the 404 error popping up every time you install or remove a package though!


I hope this gets you started!

[Carlinuxlearner]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

Well thanks for advice but after doing it all this is what I get.
"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:29:85:18E
inet addr:192.168.1.104 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:29ff:fe85:18de/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:296 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:347 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:261762 (255.6 KiB) TX bytes:67459 (65.8 KiB)
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:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)"

and

"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions."

I installed this card after I installed kubuntu, it acts like it's not there, but it shows up in "lspci"
"01:0e.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4303 802.11b Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)"

So any more ideas?

C@RL

[moir]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

Just a couple I'm afraid.

Make sure bcm43xx isn't in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Could you run 'modprobe bcm43xx', 'lsmod', post the output? After that, 'dmesg | tail -n 25' might provide a clue too.
The driver clearly isn't being loaded for some reason.

Another idea is to try a different firmware; http://sidulus.textdrive.com/bcmwl5sys.zip
This one will come out as a .SYS file, but bcm43xx-fwcutter will work the same on it. Just do the two fwcutter lines with it (to completely replace the wl_apsta.o firmware) and reboot.

Thanks!

[Carlinuxlearner]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

Well "bcm43xx" was in my /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist in fact it was in there twice! But I realized that last night when I edited it to add ndiswrapper so I put "#" in front of them so that it would not blacklist it. This is the out put of "modprobe bcm43xx" and "sudo modprobe bcm43xx"

"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ modprobe bcm43xx
WARNING: Error inserting ieee80211_crypt (/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-lowlatency/kernel/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.ko): Operation not permitted
WARNING: Error inserting ieee80211 (/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-lowlatency/kernel/net/ieee80211/ieee80211.ko): Operation not permitted
WARNING: Error inserting ieee80211softmac (/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-lowlatency/kernel/net/ieee80211/softmac/ieee80211softmac.ko): Operation not permitted
FATAL: Error inserting bcm43xx (/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-lowlatency/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx.ko): Operation not permitted
carl@carlinux1-3:~$ sudo modprobe bcm43xx
carl@carlinux1-3:~$"

and this is the out put of "lsmod"

"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
bcm43xx 126952 0
ieee80211softmac 31360 1 bcm43xx
ieee80211 35272 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 7040 1 ieee80211
nls_cp437 6784 1
isofs 36288 1
udf 85124 0
binfmt_misc 13064 1
rfcomm 41752 0
l2cap 26112 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 57444 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 10116 0
cpufreq_conservative 8200 0
cpufreq_stats 7488 0
cpufreq_userspace 5408 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9356 0
freq_table 5792 2 cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
pcc_acpi 13184 0
sony_acpi 6284 0
dev_acpi 12164 0
tc1100_wmi 8068 0
dock 10424 0
asus_acpi 17308 0
container 5248 0
sbs 15528 0
button 8720 0
battery 10756 0
i2c_ec 6016 1 sbs
backlight 6784 1 asus_acpi
ac 6020 0
video 16260 0
nls_utf8 3072 1
ntfs 108276 1
ipv6 274080 14
lp 12548 0
fuse 46996 0
joydev 10816 0
snd_intel8x0 34588 2
snd_ac97_codec 98464 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 3200 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 45056 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 80260 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4740 0
snd_seq_oss 33408 0
xpad 9988 0
usbhid 26720 0
hid 27392 1 usbhid
nvidia 4714420 22
snd_seq_midi 9600 0
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
ndiswrapper 199408 0
serio_raw 7940 0
parport_pc 36644 1
parport 37576 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
analog 12832 0
gameport 17160 1 analog
snd_seq 53232 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_mpu401 9256 0
snd_mpu401_uart 9600 1 snd_mpu401
psmouse 38792 0
snd_rawmidi 25856 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_mpu401_uart
pcspkr 4224 0
snd_timer 24196 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9100 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd _rawmidi
snd 54788 16 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_ oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_mpu401,snd_mpu 401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_i810 6276 0
soundcore 9440 1 snd
i2c_algo_bit 8712 1 i2c_i810
snd_page_alloc 10888 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
shpchp 34324 0
pci_hotplug 33608 1 shpchp
i2c_core 23424 4 i2c_ec,nvidia,i2c_i810,i2c_algo_bit
intel_agp 26140 1
agpgart 35788 2 nvidia,intel_agp
iTCO_wdt 12072 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
af_packet 24072 4
tsdev 8768 0
evdev 11008 4
ext3 134152 1
jbd 63528 1 ext3
mbcache 9604 1 ext3
sg 35996 0
sr_mod 17188 1
cdrom 37664 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 23556 4
generic 5124 0 [permanent]
ata_generic 9092 0
floppy 59748 0
8139too 27776 0
mii 6528 1 8139too
uhci_hcd 25488 0
usbcore 135048 5 xpad,usbhid,ndiswrapper,uhci_hcd
ata_piix 15620 4
libata 125848 2 ata_generic,ata_piix
scsi_mod 143116 4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
thermal 14856 0
processor 31560 1 thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 43296 0
tileblit 3584 1 fbcon
font 9216 1 fbcon
bitblit 6912 1 fbcon
softcursor 3200 1 bitblit
vesafb 9220 0
capability 5896 0
commoncap 8192 1 capability
carl@carlinux1-3:~$"

and this is the output of "dmesg | tail -n 25"

"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ dmesg | tail -n 25
[ 92.315400] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 92.315405] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
[ 438.367565] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[ 438.571352] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
[ 1195.843236] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
[ 1195.854137] ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13
[ 1195.854317] ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@li
nux.intel.com>
[ 1196.176005] bcm43xx driver
[ 1196.177128] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:0e.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ
18
[ 1197.249998] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w
ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.250644] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w
ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.251029] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w
ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.251370] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.251698] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.252032] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.253058] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.253427] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1126
[ 1197.253895] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1128
[ 1197.254263] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1128
[ 1197.254592] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1128
[ 1197.254929] bcm43xx: TODO: Incomplete code in keymac_write() at drivers/net/w ireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx_main.c:1128
[ 1197.263391] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[ 1197.666411] SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:18:39:58:6d:e8
[ 1197.676680] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[ 1208.315853] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
carl@carlinux1-3:~$"

I'll wait to try the other firmware, so every thing isn't different when you tell me what to do.

C@RL

[moir]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

Well I'm just about out of ideas.

It looks like the driver loads fine (I don't think those TODO lines are very important), and even negotiates authentication with the AP. The ipV6 business isn't important either. Still no sign of eth1 in ifconfig? Have you tried:
sudo ifup eth1
?

[Carlinuxlearner]

Re: Linksys wireless PCI network card not working!

Well heres the output of that
"carl@carlinux1-3:~$ sudo ifup eth1
Password:
eth1: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device eth1 ; No such device.
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid with pid 134993416
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
eth1: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
eth1: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
Bind socket to interface: No such device
Failed to bring up eth1.
carl@carlinux1-3:~$"

But I will also tell you the rest of the story, you see when I first installed the card, kubuntu found it and tried to use it, but because it didn't have the right drivers it couldn't use it, well I previosly had this card it in another computer of mine running Kubuntu and I had it working with "ndiswrapper" (in the supported (or tested) driver list for "ndiswrapper" they told me that I needed to install three "inf" files that were in the driver file, so I did and it worked) however it did not work on the computer that it is now in, and after I tried it kubuntu does not even see the card! So somehow I made kubuntu not see it by messing with "ndiswrapper". I think I will try putting the card in a different PCI slot and see if doing all this stuff again will work.

C@RL