Additional in-kernel wifi modules

[barriew]

I have got my adapter to work by compiling the driver supplied with it .

Barrie

[mark2]

A numpty still having problems with the bcm43xx driver, having d/loaded tempestuous' bcm43xx dotpup (thanks) and trying kirk's workaround I get to this stage but am unable to progress further

sh-3.00# modprobe ieee80211softmac
FATAL: Error inserting ieee80211softmac (/lib/modules/2.6.18.1/kernel/net/ieee80211/softmac/ieee80211softmac.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
sh-3.00#



the relevant section in dmesg appears to be

ieee80211softmac: no version for "struct_module" found: kernel tainted.
ieee80211softmac: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wx_get_scan
ieee80211softmac: Unknown symbol free_ieee80211
ieee80211softmac: Unknown symbol ieee80211_tx_frame
ieee80211softmac: Unknown symbol alloc_ieee80211

If I navigate to /lib/modules/2.6.18.1/kernel/net/ieee80211/softmac/ieee80211softmac.ko and open with geany there doesn't appear to be any text, am I barking up the wrong tree here? I would perhaps have expected to see some instructions in these .ko files

[tempestuous]

Sorry to state the obvious, but let's first check you're using Puppy 2.12.

kirk's fix misses one necessary module; ieee80211. So the module loading sequence (for you) should be -

modprobe firmware_class
modprobe ieee80211
modprobe ieee80211softmac
modprobe bcm43xx

This should get you a valid network interface.
Later, if you use WEP encryption, it may be necessary to pre-load (fetch) some more modules -

modprobe ieee80211_crypt
modprobe ieee80211_crypt_wep

And if you use WPA encryption (with wpa_supplicant) you will need these -

modprobe ieee80211_crypt_ccmp
modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
modprobe michael_mic

[mark2]

Thank you tempestuous, now online in puppy using my 54g card,
However I was thrown a little off track by having to configure eth1 rather than the Wlan

[tempestuous]

OK, that's good. Yours is the first report of success with the bcm43xx driver. Clearly all components are OK, including the firmware.

However I was thrown a little off track by having to configure eth1 rather than the Wlan

Yes, different wifi drivers create different network interface names. Personally, I think "ethxxx" is a bad idea for a wifi interface, because it's the same name as your wired LAN interface. So you will typically end up with 2 interfaces, eth0 and eth1, and it can be confusing knowing which is which.

[mark2]

Problem has arisen, yesterday spent 3hrs online, using puppy 2.12 and the bcm43xx drivers however this morning it refuses to play. l've been through all scenarios I can think of, booted with no pupsave file,even reset the wireless router back to factory settings.
Been struggling all day with this.
Initially the network wizard sees the eth1 as wireless, but if I try to enable DHCP, or set a static IP it all goes t*ts up "unable to connect to wireless network"

I reboot out of puppy into XP and the network is there

I've been tearing my hair out not much to begin with.

Before giving up for the day I checked for errors in the last dmesg, I think it was

"unable to deauthenticate, authentication not enabled"

[mark2]

oddly today I installed puppy to a usb flash drive, installed the dotpup, then set up the wireless with encryption without problems. Now surfing once more with puppy and the bcm43xx drivers.

Perhaps my hardware's getting a little flaky

another how to load/make a script to load the module ?

[tempestuous]

Now that your modules are in place, you may find that the system automatically loads the bcm43xx at boot up. Run "lsmod" to check. If not, you can add the modprobe command to the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Regarding commands to connect to your wifi network, these can also be added to rc.local, but saving your wifi settings with the Network Wizard might be a neater way of automating setup.

[kirk]

Tempestuous,

Thanks for the BCM43xx dotpup! Hopfully the next time the kernel is built it will be included. One thing, I think it's missing a file. If I try to modprobe it on a clean pup_save file it complains about a ieee8xxx file missing symbols, but If I load and then unload one of the intel wireless modules using the network wizard, then it works, and works every time after that.


Thanks again!

[tempestuous]

It sounds like there's a problem with associated modules not loading.
It's difficult to know if this is the fault of the bcm43xx driver, or Puppy's new zdrv module system.
In modules.dep, the following modules are listed as being needed by the bcm43xx module -

firmware_class.ko
ieee80211softmac.ko
ieee80211.ko
ieee80211_crypt.ko

The dotpup I provided contains just the bcm43xx plus ieee80211softmac, since the other 3 modules listed above already exist in Puppy. I think it would be possible to isolate the module or modules that are failing to load by experimentation, then make sure you manually load this module at boot up.
Or you could be very thorough and manually load ALL modules listed above.

... and there's another possibility, too - does the problem go away when you disable WEP encryption at your router?
I also suspect that some of the encryption modules or cryptographic modules may be failing to load. These are -

ieee80211_crypt_wep.ko
ieee80211_crypt.ko
arc4.ko
crc32c.ko

[kirk]

Yes, I was thinking it was probably a problem with puppy's module loading. I don't use any encryption. (I have the best security of all, weak signal!) Hopefully when it gets compiled with the kernel it will all work. Thanks again!