Some success with WIFI, BCM43xx and WEP [fixed]

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scotto_puppy
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu 22 Mar 2007, 21:56
Location: Elvina Bay, NSW,Australia

Some success with WIFI, BCM43xx and WEP [fixed]

#1 Post by scotto_puppy »

I can finally report some success with my wireless connection (BCM43xx and WEP). For the first time I have been able to connect to the net using my BCM43xx network connection using WEP. This is a huge advance for me!
I am using Puppy v3 on a 4gb pendrive
I did this by blacklisting the BCM43xx driver and using ndiswrapper.
Just one small problem - on reboot I have to reconfigure it all again. At least I know and understand the process. But it would be great if I could avoid all of the steps required. I just know there is a simple answer....
And yes, I am saving the profile before using it. Any suggestions?
For some reason it took a number of reboots for the configuration to 'stick' All is well now.

lilleguard-liste
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu 29 May 2008, 12:04
Location: Loppa (Norway)

bcm43xx again...

#2 Post by lilleguard-liste »

I have been using an uncountable amount of hours to try to make my Dell Truemobile 1300 wireless card work. It is detected automatically by puppy (I use Puppy Linux Dingo 4.00), and it uses the bcm43xx module. It is able to scan and show all available networks, but it doesn't achieve an internet connection neither with dhcp nor static IP. I have also tried several manual methods (from command line) to solve this, but it has always failed until i finally succeeded with ndiswrapper. This is my solution (for newbies like me):

Preparation: Probably you have Windows XP installed on your computer, in that case you should find the folder containing your wireless card driver. In my case the folder is called "R55464" and is located in my ntfs-partion on /mnt/hda2/DELL/drivers/R55464". You know that this is the right folder if it contains these files: 'bcmwl5.inf' and 'bcmwl5.sys'. Copy the folder to my-documents in puppy.

1. Click 'console'
2. Write "rmmod bcm43xx", push 'enter' and write "exit"
3. Click 'connect'
4. Click 'Connect to Internet by network interface...'
5. Click 'Load module'
6. Click 'More'
7. Click 'Ndiswrapper'
8. Open folder: /root/my-documents/R55464 (replace 'R55464' with your the name of the folder you copied)
9. Select the file 'bcmwl5.inf' and click 'Ok'
10. Click 'Ok' two more times
11. If your card now is detected, click 'Save' and run the connect wizard as usual to connect to your wireless network (to detect essid and ad wep key)
12. If it says "No new interfaces were detected", go back to step 5 and do the steps 5 to 10 once more (I have to do step 5 to 10 twice before my wifi card is detected - don't know why though)

After doing this you should be able to connect to your wireless internet, especially if you have the same computer as I: Dell Inspiron 500m.

Good luck!

Those were the good news, the bad news are that the settings don't seem to stick when I reboot, that means that I have to do this boring procedure every time I turn on my computer. Of course I have tried to save my settings in the Network connection wizard, but Puppy seems to autoload the bcm43xx-driver during boot. Can anyone help me with this, for instance show me a "dummy" guide to edit relevant boot scripts so ndiswrapper automatically load the functioning driver. If this isn't possible, can anyone tell my have to make some sort of script I can add as a desktop icon to run the steps above without having to do all the clicking?

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BarryK
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Location: Perth, Western Australia
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#3 Post by BarryK »

A lot of stuff is going on in this area. Hopefully 4.1 will have the problem sorted out for you. Monitor my blog for progress on this.
[url]https://bkhome.org/news/[/url]

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rarsa
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Joined: Sun 29 May 2005, 20:30
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
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#4 Post by rarsa »

I've confirmed in Barry's blog that his most recent changes fix connecting at boot when using bcm43xx.
[url]http://rarsa.blogspot.com[/url] Covering my eclectic thoughts
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to

lilleguard-liste
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu 29 May 2008, 12:04
Location: Loppa (Norway)

Re: bcm43xx again...

#5 Post by lilleguard-liste »

Automatically network setup without bcm43xx. Success!

Now I've actually found a way for my network to automatically connect during boot up! Probably the more experienced users than I already know this. Solution:

1. Follow the steps in my previous post in this thread to make sure you have a working network connection
2. Try to reboot.
3. Check your connection. If the bcm43xx driver is loaded again (and therefore your connection is not working), blacklist the bcm43xx-module like this:
3.1. Open /etc/rc.d/MODULESCONFIG
3.2. Find this line: "SKIPLIST=" arcfb cirrusfb cyber2000fb cyblafb hgafb neofb pm2fb s1d13xxxfb sstfb tdfxfb tridentfb vg....." (line 30 in my file)
3.3. Add "bcm43xx " at the end of the skiplist, like this: SKIPLIST=" arcfb cirrusfb cyber2000fb cyblafb hgafb neofb pm2fb s1d13xxxfb sstfb tdfxfb tridentfb vga16fb aty128fb atyfb radeonfb i810fb intelfb kyrofb nvidiafb rivafb savagefb sisfb btaudio es1371 i810_audio kahlua trident via82cxxx_audio bcm43xx " (I think it is important to remember the space at the end, but haven't tested without...)
4. Save the file and reboot
5. Wait patiently after you have rebooted. For some reason my connection doesn't appear before 10-15 seconds after boot-up.

vennleg helsing, lilleguard

hayagix
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat 07 Jun 2008, 15:41

#6 Post by hayagix »

Thanks lillegarde-liste. Works like a charm.

lilleguard-liste
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu 29 May 2008, 12:04
Location: Loppa (Norway)

Driver files

#7 Post by lilleguard-liste »

I've been emailed by users wanting to try this tutorial but since they don't have Win XP installed on the same computer they do not have the driver files needed ("bcmwl5.inf" and "bcmwl5.sys"). The same question is also mentioned in other posts in this forum. Well, here is a guide how to achieve the sys and inf files.

1) As I've written above, I have a dell inspiron 500m, and i've found the drivers in dell's support pages. I've downloaded the oldest driver from dell's support page (i haven't tried with newer drivers), it's a bit tricky to find it inside the webpage, but here is a direct link to the download page:
http://tinyurl.com/bcm43xx
2) The file is called "R55464.exe". Create a new folder (e.g. /mnt/home/bcm) and put it there so that you can find it.
3) open terminal
4) navigate to the folder you downloaded the file to, in my case:
cd /mnt/home/bcm (to be sure you are in the right folder, you can type "ls -l" and you will see the contents of the folder you are inside).
5) To extract the inf and sys files from the exe file, type:
unzip -a R55464.exe
6) Now you have the files "bcmwl5.inf" and "bcmwl5.sys" (and a lot of other files you may delete if you want to) in /mnt/home/bcm and you can continue on the tutorial above! No guarantees other than it works on my laptop :-)

Good luck!

Trid
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue 12 Aug 2008, 21:18

#8 Post by Trid »

Hmm.
I tried this using the bcmwl6.inf, downloaded from Dell, but it won't see my hardware. Later I will try with bcmwl5. Wish me luck.

stevesr0
Posts: 169
Joined: Sun 24 Jun 2007, 17:25

#9 Post by stevesr0 »

On my laptop, the default bcm43xx does work, but like the others in this thread, I don't get automatically connected after rebooting.

When I reboot, iwconfig indicates that my wifi chipset is a broadcom and the access point is correct. However, the WEP key is not captured and with ifconfig eth0 is not displayed at all.

When I use the Network Wizard, no configuration is loaded by default. When I load the proper configuration for my home and say use this profile, the network is seen. When I use the autodhcp, I then get connected.

I am not sure what to do at this point, although I suspect it is rather simple. I have looked at many forum threads involving wifi unsuccessfully.

It isn't a terrible situation, because it doesn't take much to obtain a connection, but I would like the system to identify and autoconnect. Of course, since I take the laptop with me to different places, I have several alternative configurations, so perhaps it is a bit much to expect that Puppy will pick and automatically connect to the one that is desired in any particular situation.

Thanks for assistance.

Steve

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