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 Forum index » Advanced Topics » Hardware » Networking » Wireless
Wireless: Broadcom Wireless
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GuyKL

Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 01:18    Post subject:  Wireless: Broadcom Wireless
Subject description: Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN doesn't seem to work		  
Hi All,

This is my first post in this forum. I'm very, very new to linux however I feel at home with Puppy since its desktop/interface is somewhat similar in look and feel as Windows which I like.

However I have issue with my wireless network (Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN on Compaq Presario CQ40-126AU) where the linux doesn't seem to be able to automatically detect it.

I have tried Ubuntu and my wireless work fine but not the sound device (which I have no issue with puppy Very Happy ). I however don't like Ubuntu because the interface is too advance for a Widows guy like me who are very, very new to linux. Then one of the forumer in IT Forum in my country suggest me to give Puppy a try and I instantly feel at home with its interface.
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VK6FUN

Joined: 18 Oct 2008
Posts: 120
Location: North Baandee, Western Australia
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 01:52    Post subject:  
Are you using 4.1 or 4.1.2?

I haven't yet tried 4.1.2 "deep thought"

I am using 4.1 Dingo and broadcom wireless with the bcm43xxx driver to send you this. It gets detected automatically as eth1. It has hiccups sometimes but I can rely on it.

HOWEVER after I remastered the disk to create a custom puppy, it no longer loads bcm43xxx
Instead, it loads b43 which is HOPELESS.

Wireless is the achilles heel of linux. The problem is in the very heart of the kernel. The whole kernel networking stack should probably be flushed down the toilet and rebuilt.

I'm guessing such a thing will be called linux 3.x.x. don't hold your breath.

Pete
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tempestuous

Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 4950
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 03:14    Post subject:  
VK6FUN wrote:
Wireless is the achilles heel of linux.

Incorrect. Yes, Broadcom wifi support is terrible in Linux, but that's not the fault of Linux, it's the fault of Broadcom who still refuse to release the source code for their wifi drivers.

I have been using more Linux-friendly wifi devices (eg Prism, Ralink) reliably under Linux since 2003.

The Broadcom situation is made worse by the current transition from the ieee80211 to mac80211 wifi stack in the Linux kernel. This means that the older bcm43xx driver is being replaced by the new b43/b43legacy drivers, and the latter seem to be failing under Puppy 4.1.x ... but possibly only with encrypted connections when related encryption modules are not being automatically loaded. The only way Barry can fix that is with accurate bug reporting, and Puppy users so far have failed to accurately report these errors.

GuyKL, you may need the Broadcom proprietary drivers I provided here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=251942#251942
... but it would be good to get some accurate reporting from you, too. When you say that Linux doesn't seem to be able to automatically detect your wifi, what application are you referring to? The Network Wizard?
And as VK6FUN said, it's very important to reveal the exact version of Puppy you are using.
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GuyKL

Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 06:24    Post subject:  
VK6FUN wrote:
Are you using 4.1 or 4.1.2?

I haven't yet tried 4.1.2 "deep thought"

I am using 4.1 Dingo and broadcom wireless with the bcm43xxx driver to send you this. It gets detected automatically as eth1. It has hiccups sometimes but I can rely on it.

HOWEVER after I remastered the disk to create a custom puppy, it no longer loads bcm43xxx
Instead, it loads b43 which is HOPELESS.

Wireless is the achilles heel of linux. The problem is in the very heart of the kernel. The whole kernel networking stack should probably be flushed down the toilet and rebuilt.

I'm guessing such a thing will be called linux 3.x.x. don't hold your breath.

Pete

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I'm using Puppy 4.12 (Kernel version: 2.6.25.16). As for wireless being Achilles heel for Linux, I think the latest version is good because I have tried Ubuntu 8.10 and I have flawless wireless experience. Its just Ubuntu is too advance for total beginner like me.
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GuyKL

Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 07:04    Post subject:  
tempestuous wrote:
VK6FUN wrote:
Wireless is the achilles heel of linux.

Incorrect. Yes, Broadcom wifi support is terrible in Linux, but that's not the fault of Linux, it's the fault of Broadcom who still refuse to release the source code for their wifi drivers.

I have been using more Linux-friendly wifi devices (eg Prism, Ralink) reliably under Linux since 2003.

The Broadcom situation is made worse by the current transition from the ieee80211 to mac80211 wifi stack in the Linux kernel. This means that the older bcm43xx driver is being replaced by the new b43/b43legacy drivers, and the latter seem to be failing under Puppy 4.1.x ... but possibly only with encrypted connections when related encryption modules are not being automatically loaded. The only way Barry can fix that is with accurate bug reporting, and Puppy users so far have failed to accurately report these errors.

GuyKL, you may need the Broadcom proprietary drivers I provided here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=251942#251942
... but it would be good to get some accurate reporting from you, too. When you say that Linux doesn't seem to be able to automatically detect your wifi, what application are you referring to? The Network Wizard?
And as VK6FUN said, it's very important to reveal the exact version of Puppy you are using.

Yes. It is The Network Wizard. Puppy seems only able to detect eth0 which is my Realtek RTL8102E Family PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) but I never try to setup the Ethernet because I only use the wireless. However Puppy failed to detect my WiFi Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN.

Anyway many thanks for your reply.

Perhaps you could give step-by-step guide to install the driver that you gave me the link to. A very, very new to Linux guy here. Very Happy
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EditionLocus

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 15:53    Post subject:  
I am having the same problem.

I am using Puppy 4.1.2. My Dell Latitude 131L has a working wireless interface, and the "WiFi" LED is lit up.

Opened Internet Connection Wizard
Clicked "Internet by network or wireless LAN"
Configuration sees one interface, my wired Ethernet. I selected it, did "auto DHCP" and it was successful. I was able to surf the Web.

Opened Internet Connection Wizard
Clicked "Internet by network or wireless LAN"
Configuration sees one interface, my wired Ethernet. But not my wireless interface. I clicked "Load Module" and got a list of modules. I select "bcm43xx" for my Broadcom BCM4311 wireless interface, and click on "Load." It says "... loaded successfully..." I click OK. I wait for a few seconds, and get "No new interfaces were detected" with options to "Unload" or "Cancel." I click "Unload."

Click "Load Module" again. Now I go into "Ndiswrapper" because I have downloaded the drivers from Dell. I select "b44win.inf", and it indicates success. I click "OK" but it says no new interfaces were detected.

So I am bewildered. Searching for info about this network card in the Forum yielded a few hits, but nothing that seemed like a sure-fire answer.

If this can't be made to work, then I have some Dumb Questions. Is my wireless interface installed in some sort of standard "slot" which would let me replace it with a Linux friendly interface? I would not mind spending a few dollars to make this work, if it would let me finally pull the plug on Windows.
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EditionLocus

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 17:22    Post subject:  
Note that I would be happy to help out in any possible way, but my Linux development skills are nonexistent. But my system can be a test bed for any prototype solutions to this problem.
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lilleguard-liste

Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 42
Location: Loppa (Norway)
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 18:20    Post subject:  
Try unload ndiswrapper and load it again. That worked for my old laptop with broadcomwifi.
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tempestuous

Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 4950
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 18:23    Post subject:  
GuyKL wrote:
Perhaps you could give step-by-step guide to install the driver that you gave me the link to.

www.puppylinux.com
> Technical > Package management > "Unofficial PET packages"
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EditionLocus

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 19:11    Post subject:  
lilleguard-liste wrote:
Try unload ndiswrapper and load it again. That worked for my old laptop with broadcomwifi.


I just tried this. Interestingly, on my second try, I get a message "B43win: Invalid driver."
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GuyKL

Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 21:10    Post subject:  
EditionLocus wrote:
I am having the same problem.

I am using Puppy 4.1.2. My Dell Latitude 131L has a working wireless interface, and the "WiFi" LED is lit up.

Opened Internet Connection Wizard
Clicked "Internet by network or wireless LAN"
Configuration sees one interface, my wired Ethernet. I selected it, did "auto DHCP" and it was successful. I was able to surf the Web.

Opened Internet Connection Wizard
Clicked "Internet by network or wireless LAN"
Configuration sees one interface, my wired Ethernet. But not my wireless interface. I clicked "Load Module" and got a list of modules. I select "bcm43xx" for my Broadcom BCM4311 wireless interface, and click on "Load." It says "... loaded successfully..." I click OK. I wait for a few seconds, and get "No new interfaces were detected" with options to "Unload" or "Cancel." I click "Unload."

Click "Load Module" again. Now I go into "Ndiswrapper" because I have downloaded the drivers from Dell. I select "b44win.inf", and it indicates success. I click "OK" but it says no new interfaces were detected.

So I am bewildered. Searching for info about this network card in the Forum yielded a few hits, but nothing that seemed like a sure-fire answer.

If this can't be made to work, then I have some Dumb Questions. Is my wireless interface installed in some sort of standard "slot" which would let me replace it with a Linux friendly interface? I would not mind spending a few dollars to make this work, if it would let me finally pull the plug on Windows.

The same thing happened to me. "No new interfaces were detected" appear after I load any of the Broadcom driver in the list. Anyone have any idea why our WiFi has not been detected.
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EditionLocus

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu 01 Jan 2009, 22:31    Post subject:  
Looking through the .inf file, which is mostly gibberish to me, it seems to make a distinction between different processors and OS's. My laptop has a AMD chip. Does this matter to ndiswrapper?

Also note that using lspci, I determined that my card (id 14e4:1390) is seen by the system.
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VK6FUN

Joined: 18 Oct 2008
Posts: 120
Location: North Baandee, Western Australia
PostPosted: Fri 02 Jan 2009, 01:19    Post subject:  
tempestuous wrote "Broadcom who still refuse to release the source code for their wifi drivers".

Isn't it more to do with the fact that the broadcom is a softmac ?
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lilleguard-liste

Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 42
Location: Loppa (Norway)
PostPosted: Fri 02 Jan 2009, 02:41    Post subject:  
EditionLocus, are you sure you dowloaded the rignt driver from Dell? In my case, only one of the oldest drivers worked with linux - the one I had preinstalled with XP, not one of the driver-updates. It was very difficult to find the right driver on dell.com. Perhaps you already have read my "guide":

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22660&sid=754a91d7ffd4c73aa4cd051692f8012c
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GuyKL

Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Fri 02 Jan 2009, 05:06    Post subject:  
VK6FUN wrote:
tempestuous wrote "Broadcom who still refuse to release the source code for their wifi drivers".

Isn't it more to do with the fact that the broadcom is a softmac ?

I don't think it got anything to do with Broadcom because Ubuntu 8.10 can detect my Broadcom with no problem. Its just I don't like Ubuntu. I like a simple and more user-friendly Linux.
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