Linksys Wireless NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6 problem

Dear All,
I am attempting to help a colleague with a Linksys Wireless
NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6. I'm unfamiliar with this
NIC and distro. The driver will not load properly due to the NIC's
firmware. A description matching our symptoms is listed on
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ha...rkCardsLinksys
but the link referring to the solution at
http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/index.php?topic=29.0 is broken. Does
anybody with this H/W + S/W combination know the solution or have the
information from the broken link? Ubuntu's webmanager has not
responded to my query/broken link report.

Also, would I be correct in assuming that the firmware upload to this
NIC is volatile and therefore needs to be performed at each system
boot?

TIA.
Tom Crane

--
Tom Crane, Dept. Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill,
Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, England.
Email: T.Crane at rhul dot ac dot uk
Fax: +44 (0) 1784 472794

On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:17:55 +0000, UHAP023 wrote:

> Dear All,
> I am attempting to help a colleague with a Linksys Wireless
> NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6. I'm unfamiliar with this NIC
> and distro. The driver will not load properly due to the NIC's
> firmware. A description matching our symptoms is listed on
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsLinks ys
> but the link referring to the solution at
> http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/index.php?topic=29.0 is broken. Does anybody
> with this H/W + S/W combination know the solution or have the
> information from the broken link? Ubuntu's webmanager has not responded
> to my query/broken link report.
>
> Also, would I be correct in assuming that the firmware upload to this
> NIC is volatile and therefore needs to be performed at each system boot?

Try these links:

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/
HOW_TO_install_the_Broadcom_bcm43xx_Driver_in_Debi an_Linux_and_enable_WPA_Encryption

Sorry, I can't be of more help. I did install the bcm43xx for another pcmcia card, but it was way
back when.

On 10/27/2007 01:47 AM, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Dear All,
> I am attempting to help a colleague with a Linksys Wireless
> NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6. I'm unfamiliar with this
> NIC and distro. The driver will not load properly due to the NIC's
> firmware. A description matching our symptoms is listed on
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ha...rkCardsLinksys
> but the link referring to the solution at
> http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/index.php?topic=29.0 is broken. Does
> anybody with this H/W + S/W combination know the solution or have the
> information from the broken link? Ubuntu's webmanager has not
> responded to my query/broken link report.
>
> Also, would I be correct in assuming that the firmware upload to this
> NIC is volatile and therefore needs to be performed at each system
> boot?

Please arrange to post more information about you NIC, hint:

$ lspci |grep [Nn]etwork

I think/guess, here is a discussion about the said card:
http://www.binrev.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28033

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Anu'z Linux@HOME (Unix Shoppe) Machines: #168573, 170593, 259192
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Home: http://cto.homelinux.net/~bsd/ Visit: http://counter.li.org/

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Dear All,
> I am attempting to help a colleague with a Linksys Wireless
> NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6. I'm unfamiliar with this
> NIC and distro. The driver will not load properly due to the NIC's
> firmware. A description matching our symptoms is listed on
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ha...rkCardsLinksys
> but the link referring to the solution at
> http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/index.php?topic=29.0 is broken. Does
> anybody with this H/W + S/W combination know the solution or have the
> information from the broken link? Ubuntu's webmanager has not
> responded to my query/broken link report.
>
> Also, would I be correct in assuming that the firmware upload to this
> NIC is volatile and therefore needs to be performed at each system
> boot?

Yes, the firmware needs to be uploaded when the network interface is brought up.

To see what needs to be done, check out http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43. You should
also be aware that the kernel version needs to be 2.6.21 or later. You can check that with 'uname
-r'. Kernels up to 2.6.24-rc1 will use bcm43xx as the driver. After that, you can use b43 or
b43legacy (depending on the actual chip in the WPC54G), or bcm43xx.

Larry

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Dear All,
> I am attempting to help a colleague with a Linksys Wireless
> NIC (WPC54G, vers. 1.2) under Ubuntu 6.6. I'm unfamiliar with this
> NIC and distro. The driver will not load properly due to the NIC's
> firmware. A description matching our symptoms is listed on
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ha...rkCardsLinksys
> but the link referring to the solution at
> http://bcm43xx.spugna.org/index.php?topic=29.0 is broken. Does
> anybody with this H/W + S/W combination know the solution or have the
> information from the broken link? Ubuntu's webmanager has not
> responded to my query/broken link report.
>
> Also, would I be correct in assuming that the firmware upload to this
> NIC is volatile and therefore needs to be performed at each system
> boot?
>
> TIA.
> Tom Crane
>

On my broadcomm card(s) with 4303 and 4318 chipsets, the 4303 will only
work well with 2.6.22 and the 4318 with 2.6.23 and better.
The 4303 on the 2.6.21 kernel just wasn't worth a pint of piss. On the
2.6.22 and 2.6.23 kernels it be fine.

The 4303 is in a Dell laptop and the 4318 v2 is a belkin F5D7001 I just
installed in a home built Desktop.

The Belkin card with the 4318 chipset was troublesome to setup.
With 2.6.22 kernel or earlier on the 4318 card, the firmware would load and
the card would come up in ifconfig but I just would not communicate.
iwconfig just reported nothing at all. With the 2.6.23 kernel all is well.

I use Fedora 7 BTW.

I have found that you need to use at least version 4 of the firmware, You
can get information here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Go here to get the firmware cutters:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/...?group_id=4547

Get the bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2

Extract it
Compile it by running make

Cut the firmware like this as root
bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys (From Install CD)

Or

bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o (From
linuxwireless.org)

You will also need to add this to /etc/modprobe.conf

alias eth1 b44
alias wlan0 bcm43xx

That allows me to use the GUI network device tool in KDE (Fedora 7)
to configure the card.


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Tayo'y Mga Pinoy