Wifi Problems ... Unable to set essid on Belkin F5D7000uk

[sventhebrit]

Hi there,

I am a newbie, but have searched the forum and can't find anything to help me. I tried Knoppix yesterday for the 1st time, everything worked OK but I had problems with my wireless network card. I used the ndiswrapper program to install my card and the driver loads correctly. I can use 'iwlist scanning' and it sees my access point and the name (My access point is a USR9106).

I have tried iwconfig wlan0 essid wireless -- with and without quotes around the wireless.
If I use iwconfig wlan0 key keyname it takes the configuration. I can also set other parameters.

I read the man pages for iwconfig and it said use the commit option (iwconfig wlan0 commit) which I tried and it still doesn't work.

Any ideas ?

Thanks
Steve

[kelmo]

You need to broadcast for an ip adress, or assign one depending on how your router is configured.

So do something like this:-

ifconfig wlan0 up (maybe not neccessar)
iwconfig wlan0 essid wireless key keyname
pump -i wlan0 (ip by dhcp)

[sventhebrit]

You need to broadcast for an ip adress, or assign one depending on how your router is configured.

So do something like this:-

ifconfig wlan0 up (maybe not neccessar)
iwconfig wlan0 essid wireless key keyname
pump -i wlan0 (ip by dhcp)

Kelmo,
I tried what you suggested, but I still cannot input the essid on the card. When I type 'pump -i wlan0' it just errors after about 40 seconds -- Operation failed. I have another PC with an identical network card -- it tried to get it working on this PC and got the same problem. I have also manually entered the settings (IP adressess, etc)

Do you think this could be driver related. The one I am using is bcmwl5a which was advised in another post. The one that came with the card is bcmwl5 but this just locks the PC when you try to install with the ndiswrapper utility.

Any help appreciated ?

Thanks
Steve

[kelmo]

You can never be assured that a windows driver will work properly under linux!

Having no experience with ndiswrapper, but having heard only reports, try using different drivers for the device.

Have a look at this:-

http://mepislovers.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1147&forum=6#forumpost12694

[grant_vallance]

You can never be assured that a windows driver will work properly under linux!

Having no experience with ndiswrapper, but having heard only reports, try using different drivers for the device.

Have a look at this:-

http://mepislovers.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1147&forum=6#forumpost12694


Ah this is ironic: I am the poster of the above guide and there is an equivalent post for Knoppix under the sticky post: Success with Knoppix 3.6 and Wireless Networking for the card.

So I can confirm for the record that a Belkin F5D7000uk does work under Knoxppix 3.6 (either kernel). This is the card that is currently sitting in my Linux box beside me; albeit it usually runs MEPIS.

The post will guide you through roughly what you need to do. But if you get stuck getting it to work, say so, and I'll give you a hand.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[sventhebrit]

Grant,
I have followe the instructions but still cannot get the essid to set -- all other parameters seem to set OK. I have tried this on two different systems with identical cards and I get the same problem. I am using the bcmwl5a driver -- the driver on the CD and the driver loaded on my XP system (same one) caused my system to lockup.

I downloaded the bcmwl5a driver from a web link which was posted on the this site http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/List. Below is the extract from the site which talks about this particulcar card -- I am using the Rev 3 drivers

Which bcmxxxx file are you using ?

Thanks
Steve


Card : Belkin 54g Wireless Desktop Network Card (F5D7000)
Chipset : BCM4306 Board : V1799 D-7000 Rev 4.5
pciid : 14e4:4320
Driver : http://www.belkin.com
Other : This is PCI, not cardbus. The chipset is marked BCM4306, however the supplied utility in win98 detects "BCM4306/BCM2050", and Linux utilities have variously reported; BCM4306, BCM4320, BCM94306. This card has been stable on a Slackware SMP system with ndiswrapper-0.8 since released, versions 0.7 and 0.9 do not work with the SMP kernel.

Card : Belkin 54g Wireless Desktop Network Card (F5D7000) Rev 02
Chipset : BCM94306
Driver : From Installation CD
Other : It is working on Slackware 10 (kernel 2.4.25 and kernel 2.6.8.1)
Also working on Gentoo (using various 2.6.x kernels), however from ndiswrapper > 0.8 the Belkin drivers did not work at all (Oops at modprobe, system lockup); I used the Dell drivers (see the rev 03 entry following this one) instead, and now I'm happily running 0.11.

Card : Belkin 54g Wireless Desktop Network Card (F5D7000) Rev 03
Chipset : BCM4306
pciid : 14e4:4320
Driver : http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R81433.EXE (use bcmwl5a.inf in directory AR)
Other : I tried to use the belkin driver (bcmwl5.inf) but the whole system just locked up as soon as I modprobed ndiswrapper. Apparently the belkin driver works for the older rev 02 cards, but not rev 03. So I'm suggesting this for folks with the Rev 03 card. You can check the revision by doing a "lspci" The Dell driver has been working great for me, for about a day.
Other : The rev.03 problem is probably not all that sinister. It is caused by the presence of the NetworkType|0 line which ends up in the *.conf files (from the *.inf driver file). Removing this allows the supplied Belkin driver to work, although I'd probably recommend using the Dell R81433.exe driver anyway if only because it's a later version. For non-US users you may wish to edit the Channel parameter to be 13 (Europe) (or 14 in Japan?). Applies to both PCMCIA and PCI versions (F5D7000 and F5D7010).

[sventhebrit]

Grant,

Done some more investigation

lspci -v confirms that that the card is a rev03 board

I checked the modules.conf file and part of the file reagrding the wlan0 says remove the # from the correct line. On my system it removes the line from the prism2 usb line - it is a PCI card, so presumably it should remove the # from the prism2 PCI line

I changed permissions on the file and edited it, but now it confirms that it is newer than other files.

Can you help ?
Steve

[sventhebrit]

Ok, some more info

I can now change the essid of my network card. I was previously trying to change it to wireless -- this is the name of my wireless network (not very creative I know). I can change it to anything else other than wireless.

I wanted to use knoppix as a client to connect to my access point ... what am I doing wrong ?

Thanks
Steve

[grant_vallance]

Ok, some more info

I can now change the essid of my network card. I was previously trying to change it to wireless -- this is the name of my wireless network (not very creative I know). I can change it to anything else other than wireless.

I wanted to use knoppix as a client to connect to my access point ... what am I doing wrong ?

Thanks
Steve

Dear Steve,

First, I am a novice, and it appears you have the same or even more knowledge as I -- I have only been playing with Linux for a month or so ... Hence I am no expert ... I only reported what I found to work and how I did it.

But to answer some of your queries: (1) I have v2 of the card and am using the original bcmwl5.inf file on the CD.

So it might be the case their are special issues with v3.

But, at various times I have had problems setting the essid too; so for Knoppix I allow it to connect to any network ... Its not recommended, but it works. (When I use Mepis I use the proper name for my network).

So one thing to try in order to get Internet access is to set the essid to any -- instructions are in the man pages -- but IIRC its iwconfig wlan0 any or use the network-card configuration script in the Knoppix menu under the Network/Wireless sub-menu -- it gives you this option.

(2) Once you set the essid to any then the next thing to see is if its recognising the access-point.

You will know this if iwconfig reports the correct MAC address of your router. Other useful commands include: iwlist wlan0 scanning -- the man pages on iwlist and its various options are quite useful.

If it does not; then my expertise runs out. However, bear in mind that occassionally the connection can be erratic because of atmospheric/local conditions so persist.

Consequently, for trouble-shooting, if you can, try the proceedures as close to your wireless router as possible to eliminate that possible issue. I did not realise this and it was only a chance connection that meant I discovered what I was doing was correct; so what I needed to do was shift my box slightly ... (a couple of centimetres can make all the difference).

(3) Get the card activated. These days I am not sure how many steps are actually necessary; but in the Howto, I suggest that you need to activate the card by ifconfig wlan0 up

(4) Get requisite IP addresses either by DHCP or by manually setting them. The easiest solution is to use the script.

These steps you have probably tried ... However, what would be useful to know is where you are getting stuck.

Hope to help.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[sventhebrit]

Grant,
Thanks for the response.
Drivers load OK and I can see my access point if I use iwlist scanning. I have tried setting the essid to any, on, off, wireless and lots of other combinations. I can set it to anything other than wireless (which is the essid of my access point). I even changed the essid of my access point to 'comet' and tried again -- when I did this, I could set the essid of my belkin card to anything else other than comet.
I have tried disabling WEP and this didn't work either.
I cannot work out what I am doing wrong ?
Regards
Steve

[sventhebrit]

WORKING -- FANTASTIC
This post is from my Knoppix client.

Ok here goes. It must have been a half hearted attempt to get it working without WEP.

When I tried to reconfigure my access point with WEP again so the other XP PCs reconnected, I got no connections. I then realised I had been using an incorrect WEP password - got one of the capital letters wrong (teach me to have such a complicated one). As soon as I used the right one, I could set the correct essid first time.

A network AP so secure that event the owner cannot get in.

Thanks for your help Grant, without it I would have given up by now

Steve

[grant_vallance]

WORKING -- FANTASTIC
This post is from my Knoppix client.

Ok here goes. It must have been a half hearted attempt to get it working without WEP.

When I tried to reconfigure my access point with WEP again so the other XP PCs reconnected, I got no connections. I then realised I had been using an incorrect WEP password - got one of the capital letters wrong (teach me to have such a complicated one). As soon as I used the right one, I could set the correct essid first time.

A network AP so secure that event the owner cannot get in.

Thanks for your help Grant, without it I would have given up by now

Steve

Pleased to have been of assistance. However, I admit that before I read [i]this/i] post when logging on this morning I was stumped.

I am pleased you let everyone including me know what the final issue was; I'll file that away for the next time someone gets stuck :-)

Grant D. Vallance