Wireless woes ...

[JTN]

I'm new to Linux but have had experience with computers for the last 25 years (god I sound old now lol). Anyway I've installed Kubuntu Hardy Heron, managed to get the graphics drivers working ok (thanks to a handy app called 'envy') and thought I had the wireless networking cracked as it was working fine. I had to install a customised firmware for the supplied driver to work but it did it and I could connect ok. Trouble is now it won't connect to my wireless network & I'm not sure why. I'm pretty sure the wireless card driver is working ok, and my wireless network shows up when I right-click on the KNetwork Manager in the taskbar but it always fails to connect. Can anyone give me any wisdom ? Thanks in advance.

[dibl]

Re: Wireless woes ...

What does ifconfig show?

[JTN]

Re: Wireless woes ...

Thanks for the reply, ifconfig gives the following :

eth0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:fc:38:9d:62
     inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
     inet6 addr: fe80::250:fcff:fe38:9d62/64 Scope:Link
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:54921 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:32485 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
     RX bytes:78915018 (75.2 MB) TX bytes:2585723 (2.4 MB)
     Interrupt:11 Base address:0xec00

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:21 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:21 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
     RX bytes:1112 (1.0 KB) TX bytes:1112 (1.0 KB)

wlan0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:50:d0:27:e8
     UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 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:1000
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-11-50-D0-27-E8-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 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:1000
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

I am currently using a wired connection until I can resolve this.

[dibl]

Re: Wireless woes ...

It looks OK. Check this out and see if there's anything applicable to your situation:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkDevices

[JTN]

Re: Wireless woes ...

I've had a look through the help pages but can't seem to find anything applicable to this problem. When I try to connect to my wireless network it gets to 28% of the 'activation stage : configuring device' then comes up with a connection failure.
I used the fwcutter to get the card driver working in the first place, but have heard of some sort of 'wrapper' solution using another driver. I'm a bit loathe to try this as I've had it working before !!

[dibl]

Re: Wireless woes ...

Probably it was "ndiswrapper" -- a method I have fortunately never needed which allows a Windows hardware driver to be installed to run a device that doesn't have a Linux driver. But, if it has worked before with *buntu, then it should work again without resorting to ndiswrapper.

I wonder if the problem is related to the configuration of your connection, rather than the driver? I'm far from expert, but I did find this helpful, when I set up wireless on my Asus Eee PC:

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/Wifi

I think that's fairly generic guidance for Debian-based systems.

[arochester]

Re: Wireless woes ...

If you have uses fwcutter it suggests that you have a Broadcom chip. But which one?

I think I have read that fwcutter does connect, but can be slower than with ndiswrapper.

What is the result of

lspci | grep Broadcom\ Corporation

[JTN]

Re: Wireless woes ...

I don't have access to the machine at the moment but from memory I think it was Broadcom 4318 but will check when I get home.
I did wonder about the time taken to connect so increased the timeout to 30 seconds. However even with the extra time it failed to connect.

[arochester]

Re: Wireless woes ...

My laptop has a Broadcom 4306. I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that fwcutter connected at 11Mps and ndiswrapper connected at 54Mps. A no brainer really.

Things for my 4306 changed when we reached Hardy. The guys who know about such things were stuck for a while and then had to make a small addition. For that reason I would be cautious about using instructions for any earlier issue.

Google is your friend. Google: ubuntu broadcom 4813 . It produces some older (questionable) stuff and then it hits: http://blog.roberthallam.org/2008/04...n-ndiswrapper/

I would recommend ndiswrapper over fwcutter

[JTN]

Re: Wireless woes ...

I'll have a go with the ndiswrapper tonight, thanks for the links. But like I said previously I had the damn thing working once ! It stopped working when for some reason I couldn't access the kwallet (presumably this is where the wireless keys are stashed), just after I'd created a new user login so the kids could use the PC. So I deleted the wallet and made a new one. Presumably when I re-entered the WEP key it stored it in the new wallet but I don't see why this should have caused the card not to connect

[JTN]

Re: Wireless woes ...

Well I didn't bother installing the ndiswrapper, in fact I haven't really bothered with my Kubuntu box for a while, but I just fired it up tonight and everything is now working correctly ! The network manager managed to access the wallet and stored the network key & everythings working. How bizarre !!!