Linux wireless connection problem

Hi all,
using gentoo with ndiswrapper 1.18, a broadcom 4309 chipset, with the latest
*.inf file drivers, and kernel 2.6.17, wireless ext v20, all on a dell laptop.

When I upgraded kernels to 2.6.17 and recompiled everything so ndiswrapper
modules would run I've been having a problem with the "iwconfig" command.
Ndiswrapper is set up correctly with the right driver, and I can scan for ESSIDs
with iwconfig wlan0 scan but when I use "iwconfig wlan0 essid <name>" the card
does not associate with the AP; "iwconfig wlan0" displays ESSID: on/any.

Adding "ifconfig wlan0 up" and and iwconfig wlan0 commit" does nothing. It's as
if the card is not "getting" or accepting the changes I pass to it.

This whole thing was working with kernel 2.6.12 and an older wireless ext and
ndiswrapper version 1.5; but I don't think the kernel or ndiswrapper version
upgrades had anything to do with it. I have an external pc card with madwifi
drivers for this laptop and it works fine with the upgrades. What can I do to
get this internal card to accept changes with the iwconfig command?

Note, that 2.6.17 has native support for broadcom wlan cards. There may
be a problem with the compination of this driver and ndiswrapper.

~David~ wrote:
> Hi all,
> using gentoo with ndiswrapper 1.18, a broadcom 4309 chipset, with the latest
> *.inf file drivers, and kernel 2.6.17, wireless ext v20, all on a dell laptop.
>
> When I upgraded kernels to 2.6.17 and recompiled everything so ndiswrapper
> modules would run I've been having a problem with the "iwconfig" command.
> Ndiswrapper is set up correctly with the right driver, and I can scan for ESSIDs
> with iwconfig wlan0 scan but when I use "iwconfig wlan0 essid <name>" the card
> does not associate with the AP; "iwconfig wlan0" displays ESSID: on/any.
>
> Adding "ifconfig wlan0 up" and and iwconfig wlan0 commit" does nothing. It's as
> if the card is not "getting" or accepting the changes I pass to it.
>
> This whole thing was working with kernel 2.6.12 and an older wireless ext and
> ndiswrapper version 1.5; but I don't think the kernel or ndiswrapper version
> upgrades had anything to do with it. I have an external pc card with madwifi
> drivers for this laptop and it works fine with the upgrades. What can I do to
> get this internal card to accept changes with the iwconfig command?

I tried the native support, and it doesn't work. The bcm-cutter program cuts the
firmware but when trying to load it, the driver can't find all the right
firmware files. This was after using multiple driver files to extract different
firmware files. The whole thing is very beta and while I might compile extra
stuff in my kernel to try and help the devs with my output if I have the time
(and that's a big if), ndiswrapper is still the way for now.

There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem. It compiled correctly,
loaded the driver correctly, and says the driver and hardware are both present.
dmesg and the logs say everything is working, but whenever I try to use an
iwconfig command nothing happens. That leads me to think it's wireless ext
that's acting strange. If it is ndiswrapper, where can I look to fix the
problem (I've already tried /etc/ndiswrapper/ files and modules.conf)

Thanks,
David

Sebastian Volke wrote:
> Note, that 2.6.17 has native support for broadcom wlan cards. There may
> be a problem with the compination of this driver and ndiswrapper.
>
> ~David~ wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> using gentoo with ndiswrapper 1.18, a broadcom 4309 chipset, with the latest
>> *.inf file drivers, and kernel 2.6.17, wireless ext v20, all on a dell laptop.
>>
>> When I upgraded kernels to 2.6.17 and recompiled everything so ndiswrapper
>> modules would run I've been having a problem with the "iwconfig" command.
>> Ndiswrapper is set up correctly with the right driver, and I can scan for ESSIDs
>> with iwconfig wlan0 scan but when I use "iwconfig wlan0 essid <name>" the card
>> does not associate with the AP; "iwconfig wlan0" displays ESSID: on/any.
>>
>> Adding "ifconfig wlan0 up" and and iwconfig wlan0 commit" does nothing. It's as
>> if the card is not "getting" or accepting the changes I pass to it.
>>
>> This whole thing was working with kernel 2.6.12 and an older wireless ext and
>> ndiswrapper version 1.5; but I don't think the kernel or ndiswrapper version
>> upgrades had anything to do with it. I have an external pc card with madwifi
>> drivers for this laptop and it works fine with the upgrades. What can I do to
>> get this internal card to accept changes with the iwconfig command?

~David~ <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem.

First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything except
what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom. Look around --
that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:

A: Because it's hard to read.
Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

That said, your problem might be wpa_supplicant, which had the stable
version bumped just last week, and the new version isn't compatible with
ndiswrapper.
Suddenly, I couldn't get wlan0 to work at all, although my madwifi based
card worked just fine, just like yours. Masking ndiswrapper and
wpa_supplicant so they stayed at versions compatible with each other,
followed by a rebuild made the problems go away.

Regards,
--
*Art

"Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>~David~ <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem.

>First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything except
>what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom. Look around --
>that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:

>A: Because it's hard to read.
>Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

Again disingenuous. Any reputable netnews software instead will produce
>A: Because it's hard to read.
>>Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

Ie you can see immediately what the time order of the posts is.

If you removed all indicators from your post and his, you answer would also
be completely unreadable.


-------------------------
"Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
~David~ <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem.

First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything except
what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom. Look around
--
that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:

On 3 Jul 2006 23:30:16 GMT, Unruh <unruh-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>"Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>>~David~ <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>> There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem.

>>First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything except
>>what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom. Look around --
>>that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:

>>A: Because it's hard to read.
>>Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

>Again disingenuous. Any reputable netnews software instead will produce
>>A: Because it's hard to read.
>>>Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

>Ie you can see immediately what the time order of the posts is.

And that's just lovely for people too lazy to put their additions in order
and those people who cool is reading backwards think.

Hello David,

> I tried the native support, and it doesn't work. The bcm-cutter program cuts the
> firmware but when trying to load it, the driver can't find all the right
> firmware files. This was after using multiple driver files to extract different
> firmware files. The whole thing is very beta and while I might compile extra
> stuff in my kernel to try and help the devs with my output if I have the time
> (and that's a big if), ndiswrapper is still the way for now.
>
> There is no reason ndiswrapper should be the problem. It compiled correctly,
> loaded the driver correctly, and says the driver and hardware are both present.
> dmesg and the logs say everything is working, but whenever I try to use an
> iwconfig command nothing happens. That leads me to think it's wireless ext
> that's acting strange. If it is ndiswrapper, where can I look to fix the
> problem (I've already tried /etc/ndiswrapper/ files and modules.conf)

Some day I had been expierencing problems with my WLAN device, too.
Later on I bought a card with native support because this other stuff
was annoying but actually it should work if ndiswrapper got the card...

Well, I am still no expert in these things but I guess that it's a
problem of iwconfig itself. Have a try and reemerge wireless-tools (the
package with iwconfig, you remember?)... Maybe this might be helpful.


Daniel

Unruh <unruh-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> "Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

No, that would be "wrote".

>> First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything
>> except what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom.
>> Look around -- that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:
>
>> A: Because it's hard to read.
>> Q: Why shouldn't I top post?
>
> Again disingenuous.

Look "disingenuous" up -- it probably doesn't mean what you think it does.

> Any reputable netnews software instead will
> produce
>> A: Because it's hard to read.
>>> Q: Why shouldn't I top post?
>
> Ie you can see immediately what the time order of the posts is.

You stil have to read backwards, which was my point.
The only answer I have to someone who /defends/ top posting in a forum where
it's a long-standing customary practice to not do so is:

*plonk*

You've just guaranteed that if you ever have a problem and I know the
answer, I will be unable to assist you, because I won't see your posts.

--
*Art

On Tuesday 04 July 2006 06:30, Arthur Hagen stood up and spoke the
following words to the masses in /alt.os.linux.gentoo...:/

> Unruh <unruh-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Ie you can see immediately what the time order of the posts is.
>
> You stil have to read backwards, which was my point.
> The only answer I have to someone who /defends/ top posting in a forum
> where it's a long-standing customary practice to not do so is:
>
> *plonk*

Not that I defend top-posting - in fact, I hate it myself, as much as I
hate Google Groups posters thinking that Usenet is a part of Google or
people who want to turn GNU/Linux into a freely downloadable version of
Microsoft Windows - but /plonking/ someone over something as silly as
that is a bit harsh, don't you think? :-/

You may also have noticed that the thread is being cross-posted to both
/alt.os.linux.gentoo/ and /comp.os.linux.networking./ I'm pretty
convinced that Bill [1] participated in this thread because it was
posted on the networking group. As far as I know, he doesn't use
Gentoo.

> You've just guaranteed that if you ever have a problem and I know the
> answer, I will be unable to assist you, because I won't see your
> posts.

[1] Bill Unruh is rather a problem-solver than a help requester. I've
known him to be around the Mandrake and Mandriva groups for quite a
long time already, and he also posts in /comp.os.linux.misc./

And just so you'd have an idea of who this man is...:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Unruh

Sorry for butting in, but I hate to see someone I've known to be quite
helpful to newbies - at times more tactful than at other times - for a
long time getting flamed or /plonked/ over something as silly as
top-posting. I've also never known Bill to top-post himself.

Sorry, it's just the peacekeeper in me standing up again... ;-)

--
With kind regards,

*Aragorn*
(Registered GNU/Linux user # 223157)

"Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>Unruh <unruh-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> "Arthur Hagen" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>No, that would be "wrote".

>>> First of all, please don't top-post, but please snip away anything
>>> except what you reply to, and then place your reply at the bottom.
>>> Look around -- that's how people do it here, and for a good reason:
>>
>>> A: Because it's hard to read.
>>> Q: Why shouldn't I top post?
>>
>> Again disingenuous.

>Look "disingenuous" up -- it probably doesn't mean what you think it does.

>> Any reputable netnews software instead will
>> produce
>>> A: Because it's hard to read.
>>>> Q: Why shouldn't I top post?
>>
>> Ie you can see immediately what the time order of the posts is.

>You stil have to read backwards, which was my point.
>The only answer I have to someone who /defends/ top posting in a forum where
>it's a long-standing customary practice to not do so is:

And with your interleaving of the response I do as well. It is NOT a long
standing cusromary practice. All sorts of responses are used, top, botton,
mid, .... in this and other groups. There are a few people who seem to see
it as their life's work to try to control others, and who feel
uncomfortable living the chaotic real world who would like to impose their
own vision on others. They pop up in this and other newsgroups from time to
time preaching their version of salvation, and see it as their calling
from God to chastise all who do not live up to their vision of rectitude.

>*plonk*

>You've just guaranteed that if you ever have a problem and I know the
>answer, I will be unable to assist you, because I won't see your posts.

Great. That will cut down on the noise.