Fedora 9, Broadcom wireless, visible access point, no connection

Chorltoon · #1 21st June 2008, 03:01 PM

Hi all. Firstly, thanks to everyone for a great forum. I've learned a lot from reading the posts of the many experts who visit here.

Secondly - I'm making this post from my Windows XP dual-boot laptop. My Fedora 9 (64bit) installation refuses to connect to my access point, and I have no internet connection there. This is the problem I'm hoping someone can help me solve.

I have an HP ZV6000 laptop with a built-in Broadcom BCM4318 (Airforce One 54g] card, and I have a second PCMCIA card which is a Broadcom BCM4306. Both work flawlessly under Windows XP using the BCMWL5.sys driver.

I found a very helpful post from a member called bbfuller (thanks to you!) which explained how to download some new firmware and run

Code:

b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

This got both of my wireless cards recognised under Fedora without a problem. The cards scanned the available wireless networks, and both could see my access point (WPA encypted).

The problem is that neither card will connect. The Network Manager accepts my key, but after a short while it prompts me to enter it again. This continues & continues. The log file doesn't help me - it talks about 'secrets required' but doesn't log or accept the secrets I'm correctly entering. I've tried enabling & disabling the wpa_supplicant service, and have rebooted many times. No luck.

For info, this is the first Fedora installation I've tried. Wireless did work with Ubuntu 7.04 and Mandriva 2008, so I know it must be possible. I like Fedora so far, and hope to continue using it - but I do need to connect. Any help will be very much appreciated!

bbfuller · #2 21st June 2008, 04:23 PM

Hello Chorltoon

Welcome to the forum.

It's annoying when that happens though thankfully it's not often.

I suspect it's more a router oddity than a machine based one as you have two cards with the same problem.

Any chance that you could turn off encryption on your router for a short while just as an experiment and try connecting then?

As well, there have been questions raised about particular kernels/versions of NetworkManager with F9.

You should have an earlier kernel in the Grub boot menu that you can boot into and see if the same happens then.

If you haven't then it may be worth updating your whole fedora system over a wired connection and see if that offers any improvement.

Chorltoon · #3 21st June 2008, 11:48 PM

Hi bbfuller. Thanks for the quick reply. I will try what you suggest and will post back later.

Cheers.

Iron_Mike · #4 22nd June 2008, 04:19 AM

You can also remove the keyrings that are kept in:

/~/.gnome2/keyrings

and delete all keyrings and reboot the computer this will create a new keyring when you log back in. BTW open the file browser and click view and select "view hidden file & directories as the period (.) in fron of the file name or directory keeps it hidden from the casual observer.

Chorltoon · #5 22nd June 2008, 09:31 AM

My sincere thanks to bbfuller & Iron_Mike for your helpful suggestions. With your help, my problem is solved and I'm posting this from my stable, fully functional Fedora 9 install!

Here's what I did for anyone with a similar problem:
1. I restarted my router a few times. This didn't seem to help.
2. I changed my security setting from WPA(TKIP) to WPA(Mixed Mode). This didn't help either.
3. I turned encryption off altogether. This allowed me to connect without a problem.
4. I allowed Fedora to download a lot a updates (including a new kernel update). Rebooted into the new kernel & guess what - instant connection!

Hopefully I will be able to repay the instant help I received to someone else in this forum soon. Cheers.

bbfuller · #6 22nd June 2008, 11:17 AM

Hello Chorltoon

Wireless in Fedora is subject to a lot of change, even compared to the other parts of the distribution which can change fast enough.

Updating is usually a good idea to try but of course, if the update is also not functional then you can have a problem.

This is particularly the case with the kernel that you updated. Normal Fedora practice is to have two installed on a machine and you get the opportunity to select which you want to use at the grub boot menu.

However, the Fedora kernel gets updated quite frequently and you can end up in the situation where neither of the two you have work but you know an earlier one did.

If is possible to easily modify Fedora to keep more than the default two kernels available and if you want to do that just edit the file:

Code:

/etc/yum.conf

so that the line that reads:

Code:

installonly_limit=2

reads:

Code:

installonly_limit=5

or whatever number you fancy.

Chorltoon · #7 25th June 2008, 09:57 AM

Thanks for the tip. I'll do that now so that a future update doesn't destabilize my system. Thanks again.

Tellik · #8 27th June 2008, 06:17 AM

bbfuller,

Question for you on your last statement. I've noticed that when I get a kernel update it also includes updates to my ndiswrapper. What this seems to do is if it doesn't work, then when I reboot into the older kernel it still wont work because it's still trying to run the newer ndiswrapper that is now not compatible with the old kernel and I'm still stuck. Is there a way around this? or am I just doing something wrong?

Thanks.
Sorry if this is a bit off topic.

Iron_Mike · #9 27th June 2008, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chorltoon

My sincere thanks to bbfuller & Iron_Mike for your helpful suggestions. With your help, my problem is solved and I'm posting this from my stable, fully functional Fedora 9 install!

Here's what I did for anyone with a similar problem:
1. I restarted my router a few times. This didn't seem to help.
2. I changed my security setting from WPA(TKIP) to WPA(Mixed Mode). This didn't help either.
3. I turned encryption off altogether. This allowed me to connect without a problem.
4. I allowed Fedora to download a lot a updates (including a new kernel update). Rebooted into the new kernel & guess what - instant connection!

Hopefully I will be able to repay the instant help I received to someone else in this forum soon. Cheers.

Chorltoon,

Have you turned your wireless encryption back on to check on to check if it corrected the restart issue? No a very good idea to leave wireless access as open.

bbfuller · #10 27th June 2008, 09:57 AM

Hello Tellik

I don't think that's off topic at all and I agree, it can be a bit of a problem.

It works like this.

There is a kernel specific part of ndiswrapper that will be regularly updated with the kernel and that will be retained for as many kernels as you care to keep.

There are though two other packages that complete the ndiswrapper suite which possibly change less frequently. When they do change though then they no longer match the older kmod-ndiswrapper packages and the earlier ndiswrapper then will no longer work.

There is a new ndiswrapper package in Livna though, "akmod-ndiswrapper". When you install that you should also install the "kernel-devel" packages. The theory behind "akmod" is that it builds the relevant packages according to the kernel you are booting from and so you should never be in the non-working situation.

Note that I said "theory" above. I've no reason to suspect that it doesn't work, however, as I don't use ndiswrapper seriously any more I haven't got round to trying it.

If you do I'd be pleased if you posted back the results.

PolywogSys · #11 28th June 2008, 12:03 AM

THis worked for me, but it keeps resetting on F9. I can only really hold the connection for like 30 seconds at a time, and it dies and reconnects. This is obviously bad, because it'll interrupt all downloads.

bbfuller · #12 28th June 2008, 12:40 AM

Hello PolywogSys

There have been one or two problems with the wireless in F9.

Does your problem hold good across both the kernels you have installed - assuming you have managed to get a wired connection to do an update?

Warper · #13 3rd July 2008, 07:27 PM

Hey everyone,

I just installed Fedora 9 after jumping for some other distros even Fedora 8. Everything went just fine after I updated the system which also updated the kernel.
I had a working wireless connection with the b43 driver, using WPA to my Linksys router, but after the update NetworkManager keeps asking me for the WPA password and does not accept it.
I write it once an again but after a while the dialog reappears showing something different to what I just wrote it seems like somehow it is transforming the password to hexadecimal.
Hopefully I had the original kernel and it still works.
I'll try the keyring suggestion to see if it works an I will report what happens.

Warper

bbfuller · #14 3rd July 2008, 09:49 PM

Hello Warper

Welcome to the Forum.

Don't get too involved in whay your wireless doesn't work with the most recent Fedora Kernel, it's happening to quite a few people. My bcm4306 using b43 is exhibiting the same behaviour. Best thing you can do is keep booting with the old kernel until a new one gets released.

You've heard the expression about Fedora being a "bleeding edge" distribution, well this is one of those times when it's drawn blood.

Seriously though, Fedora is all about releasing the newest software and sometimes it breaks. The good thing is you don't have a chance to get bored. The other thing is that the release of new software is so regular that things don't usually stay broken for long.

Warper · #15 4th July 2008, 12:39 AM

Thanks bbfuller,

I really forgot about the "bleeding edge" status of Fedora, it's just that it really hit me when I first installed F9 and everything worked like a charm and after the very first upgrade a problem arose.
I'll keep on booting with the old kernel until I find a new working one. I've been using debian (and it's derivatives) for quite some time so I will have to get used to the fedora way.
I can tell you that everything else is working very well and that the very specific problem that had made me skip my last distro is not present in fedora.
Removing the keyrings didn't solve it but the old kernel is fine for me.

It's good to see that the forum is quite active and helpful.

Thanks again

Warper