Something wrong with wireless network adapter?

[davidsc]

I have run iwconfig to get the followiing information reported for my wireless card on my ubuntu 7.10 box:

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:off/any Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

When I try sudo iwscan I get the result:
eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning : No such device
while just iwscan gives a different message:
eth1 No scan results

If I use my Windows laptop it sees the wireless network fine.
Can I work out if the wireless card on ubuntu is working or not?

David

[waterhead]

What driver are you using?

[davidsc]

I haven't installed anything in particular.

David

[waterhead]

Then it is most likely using the native Linux driver. There are two versions, either bcm43xx or b43. To find out which one you are using, run this command:

/sbin/lsmod

It will need firmware installed, it will load this when the wireless is being used. Here is a link to the Linux wireless page, but it seems to be down right now, try again later.
http://linuxwireless.org/

You can first check for errors by entering this command and looking for wireless errors:

dmesg

You can extract the firmware yourself, if you have a working driver from WinXP. If you have the bcm43xx driver, you will use bcm43xx-fwcutter. If you have the b43 driver, use b43-fwcutter. These can usually be installed through the regular repositories of your distro.

Extract the firmware to this folder:
/lib/firmware

Unless you are using the b43 driver, then extract it to this folder:
/lib/firmware/b43.

You may need to reboot afterwards

[davidsc]

I found a HOWTO at ttp://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-wireless-networking-41/howto-broadcom-bcm43xx-driver-463002/
but it doesn't seem to have done the trick. What diagnostics can I try after I supposedly have ndiswrapper installed and configured?
Now when I look at my Network settings there is no wireless card shown.

[waterhead]

Don't use the driver that is downloaded from that thread. Use the same driver that is used in your WinXP installation. NDISwrapper is different than the bcm43xx driver. You need to remove the bcm43xx or b43 driver before NDISwrapper will work.

 modprobe -r bcm43xx

[davidsc]

Hi,

I used blacklist bcm43xx as indicated in the How-To before I set up and configured NDISWrapper. Not adequate? I don't have a windows XP copy of the driver as all I have inherited from the card's previous owner is the wireless card itself. I thought the author of the How-To had done the packaging of the original XP driver for the benefit of others ...

[waterhead]

Adding a module to the blacklist file will prevent it from automatically loading at boot up. It won't do anthing to a module that is already loaded. I presume by now you have re-booted the computer at least once.


The bcm43xx is the name of the generic Linux driver for that line of chips. For a WinXP driver, I would go to the manufacturers web site. You say that it works fine in Windows, so there must be a driver there. Boot into Windows and check if there is one, look at the hardware manager and find the driver info.

Actually, you never said what make wireless it is. The make is only important for finding a WinXP driver. For Linux we need to know the chipset and the PCI ID number. Enter this into a terminal, and post the output.

/sbin/lspci -nn

[davidsc]

/sbin/lspci -nn --> no such file or directory

When I said that it works fine in Windows what I was saying is that my Windows laptop finds the wireless network OK. I have NOT tried the network card on windows at all.

[waterhead]

I forgot that you are using Ubuntu. Use this command:

sudo /bin/lspci -nn