Setting up wireless to suse KDE

**crazyyyboy** · 10-05-2008

Hello,

I'm of course new to Linux. I've been looking at all the other posts as to how to set up my wireless on suse. I've been able to get ndiswrapper installed and got the drivers going for my wireless card...at least it seems as though I have. But I am now stuck at a point to where I'm trying to connect but it just says my wireless card is not connected. I'm running a HP DV5210us. The wireless card is a BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] 802.11g. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

**waterhead** · 10-05-2008

There is a native and (in my opinion) better driver for your card in the b43 driver. But since you already have NDISwrapper installed, we'll work with that.

Where did you get the instructions for installing and using NDISwrapper? This will help determine if you may have missed something. A link would be helpful.

I have an idea what is wrong, but I wanna see the instructions that you used, first.

**crazyyyboy** · 10-05-2008

Wireless Networking with ndiswrapper | TUX
That site has all the instructions i've found for this. I've followed it to the end, where the last set i've done is:
ndiswrapper -m
After this, I just must be stumped at what needs to be done.

**waterhead** · 10-05-2008

Thanks.

I don't know how old that article is, but it mentions SuSE 9.3, which is very old. It doesn't even mention about needing to remove and blacklist the native driver, because I don't think that there was one back then!

Did you load the ndiswrapper module?

Code:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

What is the output of this command, please post it here in the thread.

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

Also, what version of SUSE are you using? This is info that you should have included in your first post.

**crazyyyboy** · 10-05-2008

Yes I have done sudo modprobe ndiswrapper. When I do ndiswrapper -l, i get:
bcmwl5 : driver installed
Device (l4E4:4318 ) present (alternate driver: ssb)

I also am running Suse 11.0 and the newer version of KDE..I think its 4.5

Also, if you do know a better way to do this, please let me know that one and I can try that too. I only used ndiswrapper, because it was all that I could find.

**waterhead** · 10-05-2008

Let's try to configure NDISwrapper, since you have already started it.

There are two more options you can run for NDISwrapper, it can't hurt to do them:

Code:

ndiswrapper -ma

Code:

ndiswrapper -mi

The output of ndiswrapper -l worries me. It should show the alternate driver as b43. I seem to recall a problem with certain Broadcom chips where the ssb driver has to be removed before the wireless driver can be loaded. You then have to re-load the ssb driver.

Post the output of this command, it will show all of the driver module loaded on your system.

Code:

lsmod

You may still need to remove the native driver.

**crazyyyboy** · 10-05-2008

I can't really copy the results of that command..I have linux running on my laptop next to me and I have no way of getting that laptop on the network or transfer anything from it. Is there something certain you need from this command, and I can just find it?

**waterhead** · 10-05-2008

Can you transfer files to a USB pen drive? Save the output as a text file, if you can.

I really need to know which modules are loading. There are so many different ones, I couldn't even try to list them.

I have been looking at some threads about this chip at the Suse forums. We usually don't refer people to other forums, but I think that you would benefit from further reading. Since you have no internet connection, it will be impossible to download any files that the native driver (b43) needs. So keep that in mind as you read through these.

openSUSE Forums - Search Results

Especially read this one:
Install Broadcom 4318 in openSUSE 11 - openSUSE Forums

After you have a working internet connection, you will be able to download and install the firmware files that are needed for the b43 driver, should you want to go that route. Also, the wired network connection will never work using that NDISwrapper method.

**crazyyyboy** · 10-05-2008

I don't have a USB drive with me at work right now. But I will look into those other forums for now and when I get home, and can connect my laptop to a wired connection ill see if I can do any of those things you said. Thanks for all the information you've given me so far. Hopefully it will help to get me up and running.

**waterhead** · 10-05-2008

If you can hook up to a wired connection, I would not use NDISwrapper. In fact I would suggest removing it completely. This is because you would have to make severe changes to your system to get it to work.

It is better to just install the firmware that will allow the native b43 driver to work. In fact, SuSE 11.0 has script that makes this almost automatic. All you need to do is to run this command.

Code:

sudo /usr/bin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

This method is much preferred over the NDISwrapper method. Try it when you get on a wired connection.

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