wireless (one more)

[FunnyZen]

Hello everybody,

I'm trying to make my wireless internet work, but no luck. I've read all the previous posts and various other guides but obviously I'm missing something (I'm not experienced in Linux). I recently installed Fedora 9 i386, got a Broadcom bcm4318 card. I followed the instructions in this guide http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 in the part "You are using the b43 driver from linux-2.6.25". So I have installed the firmware. I have the following outputs:

iwconfig

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


/sbin/lspci

06:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)


ifconfig wlan0

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:9B:D5:1B:68
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)


iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0 No scan results

If it was working shouldn't it prompt some results in the iwlist scan command? What more should I do/check? Most guides talk only about how to install the firmware.

[FunnyZen]

Also when I do

dmesg | grep b43

b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2, Revision 7
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 8
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input10
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
b43-phy0 debug: 32-bit DMA initialized
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED
b43-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2
b43-phy0: Radio turned on by software
b43-phy0: The hardware RF-kill button still turns the radio physically off. Press the button to turn it on.

If the last line means that there is a problem with the button, I'm not sure what is wrong. I have no light even when I press the button on/off, but the button works perfectly under Windows XP. So it shouldn't be a hardware issue.

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

I've seen that sort of problem on another thread recently althouh it was for another type of card.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=193267&page=2

I wonder if that solution would provide any help - substituting b43 for ipw2200 of course.

Shouldn't do any harm to give it a try.

[FunnyZen]

Thanks for your response bbfuller.

I did, like described in that post, add to the file /etc/modprobe.conf the line

options b43 led=1

but things changed to the worse (I think so...). Strangely enough in the network manager icon I don't have anymore the option "enable wireless", only "enable networking" exists and in commands like iwconfig or ifconfig there is no wlan0 anymore! When I delete again this added line and restart, everything is ok again - but still no wireless.

In case this has any importance, the file /etc/modprobe.conf contains only one line: alias wlan0 b43.

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

Sorry that didn't help.

I'd suggest a new thread along the lines of "software switch disabling wireless" and give the model number of the laptop in the hope you can attract the attention of someone with experience of that sort of problem.

The current title gives the impression it's something to do with the wireless drivers and it's not that sort of problem.

One last thought though, is your Fedora completely up to date? If it is, I'd recommend that you try booting with the previous kernel from the grub boot menu. Quite a few people are having trouble with that latest kernel and their wireless.

[FunnyZen]

Hello bbfuller,

I made a new thread as you suggested. I found out that installing acerhk may give a solution (my laptop is an Acer aspire 5022WLMi), but had problems compiling it, hope somebody knows more about this. Anyway, thanks for your help.

[Nikobelia]

I dunno if your new thread's found you any new solutions, but I had similar problems with my wireless card. Try some of the stuff on this page: http://fedorasolved.org/Members/MrHappy/troubleshooting/?searchterm=None

I'd suggest running "lspci -v". That will show you whether the drivers you downloaded are in place and working with your card - the output should look like this:

Kernel driver in use: rt61pci
Kernel modules: rt61pci

If they're not, it could be a problem to do with them not being recognised by the Fedora distribution you're using.