Problems with Belkin WiFi

[iD:0t]

Ok, thanks, I'll post the outputs and get back...

[iD:0t]

Okay, so I booted the 2.6 Kernel (since you said you had most success with this) under Knoppix 3.7.

lspci feeds this:

0000:00:0a.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

and lspci -nv feeds this:

0000:00:0a.0 0280 : 14e4 :4320 (rev 03)
Subsystem: 1799:7000
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
Memory at e8114000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]

Then, I installed the bcmwl5a.inf

I typed:

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hdb5/Linux Belkin/ir/bcmwl5a.inf

and this appears:

Usage: ndiswrapper OPTION
manage ndis drivers for ndiswrapper
-i inffile Install driver described by inffile
-e driver Remove driver
-l Lists installed drivers
-m Write configuration for modprobe

so then i type:

modprobe ndiswrapper

then I type:

ndiswrapper -m

and it goes:

Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
FATAL: Could not open /lib/modules/2.6.9/modules.dep.temp for writing : Read-only file system

And there is no /etc/ndiswrapper directory to be seen

What does all this stuff mean??!! And where do you think I should go next?! Could the read-only file system error be due to running Knoppix from the CD?

Hope this was what you wanted, and I hope it helps.

Alistair.

[pureone]

try to make the folder name shorter when your next in windows can make things much easyer.

mount your c:\ via the desktop(when in knoppix) go to the folder were the .inf files are click tools on the file browser and open terminal from there this way you dont have to put the cd to the current folder. then run the script from there and you wont have to do

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/blahblah/blah

you will just have to do

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf

some how your done something wrong at that point were you try to install the inf file remember so su to root

[tom p]

lspci feeds this:

0000:00:0a.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

and lspci -nv feeds this:

0000:00:0a.0 0280 : 14e4 :4320 (rev 03)
Subsystem: 1799:7000
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
Memory at e8114000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]

Then, I installed the bcmwl5a.inf

ok, then your hardware is identical to mine, so it's supposed to work.

I typed:

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hdb5/Linux Belkin/ir/bcmwl5a.inf

and this appears:

Usage: ndiswrapper OPTION
manage ndis drivers for ndiswrapper
-i inffile Install driver described by inffile
-e driver Remove driver
-l Lists installed drivers
-m Write configuration for modprobe

you have a white space character in your directory name, so the argument will be split
into two, and thus ndiswrapper isn't able to find the .inf file. Try

ndiswrapper -i "/mnt/hdb5/Linux Belkin/ir/bcmwl5a.inf"

(i.e. put quotes around the file name)

so then i type:

modprobe ndiswrapper

with the quotes around the file name you should now be able to verify that your
card was recognized:

iwconfig

should display something meaningful now. And directory /etc/ndiswrapper now exists.

then I type:

ndiswrapper -m

and it goes:

Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
FATAL: Could not open /lib/modules/2.6.9/modules.dep.temp for writing : Read-only file system

not sure if this is supposed to work (and it doesn't really make sense anyway, you're running
the system from a read-only medium, so changes aren't supposed to survive a reboot. ndiswrapper -m
writes the kernel module configuration, so that after a reboot the module will load automatically if interface
wlan0 is about to be configured. You can ignore it by now).

What does all this stuff mean??!! And where do you think I should go next?! Could the read-only file system error be due to running Knoppix from the CD?

Hope this was what you wanted, and I hope it helps.

Alistair.

The only thing you have done wrong is to put a white space character in the directory name.
I'm quite confident that if you quote it, everything will work

Ciao,
Thomas

[grant_vallance]

tom p: Thank-you for explaining why the gap (white space) in the directories means that ndiswrapper does not work.

I did suggest earlier that iD:0t change his directory for bcmwl5a.inf from "Linux Belkin" to "Belkin" on a "feeling" that the gap could be causing the problem. I just could not account for my intuition and why it might matter. Now I know

As they say, you learn something new everyday [if you pay attention ]

Its also nice to 'know' that the hardware works -- my cards (incl. the model in question) are a different version (v2 instead of v3) and I did not know if the new cards had been shown to work under Knoppix. I'll file that one away for future reference.

Hopefully iD:0t is sorted soon.

Thanks again for the explanation.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[iD:0t]

Yay!!

Finally, I got the card recognised under Linux! It must have been the white space for sure.

But I presume that I have more to do before I can get on the internet/file sharing.... Can you offer help with this too?

I started up the network card configuration utility in the same place as the graphical ndiswrapper app, and it asked if I wanted to do a DHCP broadcast (which is how my router is assigning IPs). But this came back as a failure. Was this the right thing to do, or should I have done alternative things?

Many thanks for your help so far Tom!

Alistair.

[tom p]

Yay!!

Finally, I got the card recognised under Linux! It must have been the white space for sure.

But I presume that I have more to do before I can get on the internet/file sharing.... Can you offer help with this too?

I started up the network card configuration utility in the same place as the graphical ndiswrapper app, and it asked if I wanted to do a DHCP broadcast (which is how my router is assigning IPs). But this came back as a failure. Was this the right thing to do, or should I have done alternative things?

Alistair.

cool

setting up a network connection isn't that hard now anymore; it however depends on the knowledge of some
features/settings of your accesspoint. To begin:

- does iwlist wlan0 scanning as user root return a "connection" to your AP?
- if yes: simply try (again as user root) pump -i wlan0; this should request an IP address from your DHCP server.

- if not: you probably need some settings from your AP (I've set up mine to use a WEP key and not to announce its
SSID publically). If you have the SSID and probably the WEP key, you can proceed with:

iwconfig wlan0 essid <your-ssid-here> channel <your-channel-here> key <your-wep-key-here>
you might want to consult the man page for iwconfig: man iwconfig; it describes some of the arguments
in more detail than I can

- Now look again if iwlist wlan0 scanning reports something new. If yes, try again to "order" an IP address by
using pump -i wlan0. (You can check via ifconfig wlan0 if you've been assigned one).

- If you have been assigned an IP address, you probably have to set a default route to access the internet - you
should however be able to access the machines on the same network already. To add a default route, you issue
something like route add default gw <ip-address-of-your-router>. You can check beforehand if a default
route already exists with netstat -rn. If you already have a line beginnig with "0.0.0.0", all should be set up
already. The last thing you probably have to do is to add a line in /etc/resolv.conf that points to a name server
you can use: nameserver xx.xx.xx.xx where xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP address of your nameserver.

Note however that the default route and nameserver settings can and usually will be set via DHCP.

There should be some other threads that describe how to preserve these configuration steps over a reboot.
If you've installed your Knoppix on a HD however, it should suffice to put the wlan0 configuration into file
/etc/network/interfaces; mine looks like

auto lo wlan0
iface lo inet loopback

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
        wireless-essid <my-ssid>
        wireless-channel <my-channel>
        wireless-mode Managed
        wireless-keymode restricted
        wireless-key1 <my-wep-key>
        wireless-defaultkey 1

This description should help as a starting point.

Ciao,
Thomas

[iD:0t]

I followed what you said to do, but didn't seem to make any progress...

Here's exactly what I did...

Code starts

knoppix@ttyp1[knoppix]$ su
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: (My MAC Address)
ESSIDMy SSID)
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-80 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyff
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# pump -i wlan0
Operation failed.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig wlan0 essid (my ssid) channel 11
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: (My MAC Address)
ESSIDMy SSID)
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-78 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyff
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# pump -i wlan0
Operation failed.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]#

Code ends

It's almost like it wants to work, but it isn't.

Thanks,

Alistair.

[grant_vallance]

I followed what you said to do, but didn't seem to make any progress...

Here's exactly what I did...

Code starts

knoppix@ttyp1[knoppix]$ su
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: (My MAC Address)
ESSIDMy SSID)
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-80 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyff
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# pump -i wlan0
Operation failed.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig wlan0 essid (my ssid) channel 11
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: (My MAC Address)
ESSIDMy SSID)
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-78 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyff
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# pump -i wlan0
Operation failed.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]#

Code ends

It's almost like it wants to work, but it isn't.

Thanks,

Alistair.

A couple of things.

1. Encryption can be iffy; so for starters do not try and use encryption, but that is what you seem to doing a/c to what you have posted.

2. dhcp via pump can be quite tempermental , esp. if you are any distance away from your router. I see you are not getting any signal which is suggestive. If you can try and get wireless up-and-running right next to the router or as close to it as you can to make sure you are not in any wireless dead-spots. (In my case, shifting the case under my desk a matter of inches makes the difference to whether the router is picked up or not, although the box is up-stairs from the router.

3. I take it your router is set up as a dhcp server -- i.e. that is how your M$ boxes etc., get their IP addresses ... Just to be sure ... otherwise you need to set up your router to provide this service ...

HTH

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[tom p]

Hi,

it seems as if your DHCP server doesn't work? Double check your router configuration and make
sure, your AP and router (if they are not the same machine) have the same netmask and are on
the same network!

(You can check if your router really is configured as DHCP server by doing a
nmap -sU -p 67 <ip-address-of-your-router>
It should after some seconds show
67/udp open|filtered dhcpserver)

As a workaround you can assign an unused IP address from your network by hand to your
wlan0 interface:

ifconfig wlan0 xx.xx.xx.xx netmask yy.yy.yy.yy

should do the work; here xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP number you want to assign (e.g.
192.168.1.141), and netmask is the corresponding netmask (with the former example
255.255.255.0 would be a valid netmask, saying your local network lives on the
address space 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.1.255; the first and last address from a network
aren't usable, they define the network address and usually the broadcast address).

Ciao,
Thomas