Wireless is always driving me crazy

Hi People,

Unfortunately I had to reinstall openSuSE because of a bad disk. Install
install install and I finally managed to configure anything but one
thing. Wireless.
The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 and wireless card is a Dell
Truemobile 1450 MiniPCI which I believe it can do really well his job.
Or at least It could. I means that before I erased the system it had
worked great. But now I can connect only if I see the access point.
Actually I have to be so close to it that I hear the fan. If I move 2
meters away I can't connect anymore.
I use ndiswrapper 1.41 (installed from source) but I tried also with
another version just to troubleshooting but nothing. The doubt it works
properly only with an older version came in my mind but... can it be?
Does anybody have the same hardware and made it work? Any other suggestions?

Regards
Jan

Jan Kalcic wrote:
> Hi People,
>
> Unfortunately I had to reinstall openSuSE because of a bad disk. Install
> install install and I finally managed to configure anything but one
> thing. Wireless.
> The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 and wireless card is a Dell
> Truemobile 1450 MiniPCI which I believe it can do really well his job.
> Or at least It could. I means that before I erased the system it had
> worked great. But now I can connect only if I see the access point.
> Actually I have to be so close to it that I hear the fan. If I move 2
> meters away I can't connect anymore.
> I use ndiswrapper 1.41 (installed from source) but I tried also with
> another version just to troubleshooting but nothing. The doubt it works
> properly only with an older version came in my mind but... can it be?
> Does anybody have the same hardware and made it work? Any other suggestions?

I have a 1350 on a d600 working fine with ndiswrapper AND I have a 1450
working fine on a M90 using ndiswrapper. I didn't install from source,
I merely installed ndiswrapper and got the firmware extract and put
it into place. I suppose I can look up the details if you want.

We have a WRT54G (a Linux friendly one before the new ones) and both
are able to see it just fine from almost anywhere inside the house.

With that said... those el-cheapo wireless router/access points do
fail from time to time. We've had our WRT54G for several years
now though.... we actually bridge to our wired network... and it has
the dhcp server etc on a DLink 707-P... which we HAVE had to replace.

Chris Cox wrote:
> Jan Kalcic wrote:
>> Hi People,
>>
>> Unfortunately I had to reinstall openSuSE because of a bad disk. Install
>> install install and I finally managed to configure anything but one
>> thing. Wireless.
>> The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 and wireless card is a Dell
>> Truemobile 1450 MiniPCI which I believe it can do really well his job.
>> Or at least It could. I means that before I erased the system it had
>> worked great. But now I can connect only if I see the access point.
>> Actually I have to be so close to it that I hear the fan. If I move 2
>> meters away I can't connect anymore.
>> I use ndiswrapper 1.41 (installed from source) but I tried also with
>> another version just to troubleshooting but nothing. The doubt it works
>> properly only with an older version came in my mind but... can it be?
>> Does anybody have the same hardware and made it work? Any other suggestions?
>
> I have a 1350 on a d600 working fine with ndiswrapper AND I have a 1450
> working fine on a M90 using ndiswrapper. I didn't install from source,
> I merely installed ndiswrapper and got the firmware extract and put
> it into place. I suppose I can look up the details if you want.

Sure, I'd really appreciate it. So you install the packet shipped with
the distro? I've heard it doesn't work. That's why the first thing I did
is install it from source.

>
> We have a WRT54G (a Linux friendly one before the new ones) and both
> are able to see it just fine from almost anywhere inside the house.
>
> With that said... those el-cheapo wireless router/access points do
> fail from time to time. We've had our WRT54G for several years
> now though.... we actually bridge to our wired network... and it has
> the dhcp server etc on a DLink 707-P... which we HAVE had to replace.

Are you telling me that I broke disk and router all togheter?? Yes, I
believe it can be... but what a... Actually I notice I can still see
all other networks here around.

Thanks,
Jan

Jan Kalcic wrote:
....snip...
>
> Sure, I'd really appreciate it. So you install the packet shipped with
> the distro? I've heard it doesn't work. That's why the first thing I did
> is install it from source.

Well the D600 I believe is running 10.1, but the M90 is running
openSUSE 10.2... and I do believe it's running the one that comes
with the CD/DVDs for 10.2 (possibly updated via YaST).

I'll see what I can dig up tonight.

I seem to remember getting the driver download off the web and
extracting the firmware from that... again, I'll try to
reconstruct the details.

Chris Cox wrote:
> Jan Kalcic wrote:
> ...snip...
>> Sure, I'd really appreciate it. So you install the packet shipped with
>> the distro? I've heard it doesn't work. That's why the first thing I did
>> is install it from source.
>
> Well the D600 I believe is running 10.1, but the M90 is running
> openSUSE 10.2... and I do believe it's running the one that comes
> with the CD/DVDs for 10.2 (possibly updated via YaST).
>
> I'll see what I can dig up tonight.
>
> I seem to remember getting the driver download off the web and
> extracting the firmware from that... again, I'll try to
> reconstruct the details.

Thousand thanks. Hopefully it'll help me.

Jan Kalcic wrote:
> Chris Cox wrote:
>> Jan Kalcic wrote:
.....
>>
>> I seem to remember getting the driver download off the web and
>> extracting the firmware from that... again, I'll try to
>> reconstruct the details.
>
> Thousand thanks. Hopefully it'll help me.
>

I'll post something on Wed. (sorry about the delay)

Jan,

> The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 and wireless card is a Dell
> Truemobile 1450 MiniPCI which I believe it can do really well his job.
> Or at least It could. I means that before I erased the system it had
> worked great. But now I can connect only if I see the access point.

Please check out my blog post: http://tinyurl.com/2axra3

Are you using 10.2? Any ways... I am using a D810 with a 1390 which the
Dell truemobile cards are rebranded broadcom cards. 10.2 has the ability
to detect and use these cards with out the headaches.


--
Jay Calderwood

Fair. Balanced Reporting on my blog:

*New Address* My Blog http://jay.longlostlove.net/
Jay and Shell's Blog http://www.longlostlove.net
PICS!!!! http://pics.longlostlove.net/index.php

Chris Cox wrote:
> Jan Kalcic wrote:
>> Chris Cox wrote:
>>> Jan Kalcic wrote:
> ....
>>> I seem to remember getting the driver download off the web and
>>> extracting the firmware from that... again, I'll try to
>>> reconstruct the details.
>> Thousand thanks. Hopefully it'll help me.
>>
>
> I'll post something on Wed. (sorry about the delay)

I have a firmware inside of /etc/ndiswrapper, a directory
called bcmwl5 (that's a lowercase L). Not sure where
the contents came from... I believe the interesting parts
are the bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files. I think I
simply used the ndiswrapper tool to add the firmware...
it wasn't hard.

Go to:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...dex.php/List#D

Search for 1490... there are instruction there and there's
a firmware link there as well (which is probably where I
got it from, or possibly the one on the comment).

Obviously you don't need the FULL instructions since you have
it installed via rpm (well.. that's what I did anyhow). But
there are instruction on the commands used to load the firmware.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

Chris Cox wrote:
> Chris Cox wrote:
>> Jan Kalcic wrote:
>>> Chris Cox wrote:
>>>> Jan Kalcic wrote:
>> ....
>>>> I seem to remember getting the driver download off the web and
>>>> extracting the firmware from that... again, I'll try to
>>>> reconstruct the details.
>>> Thousand thanks. Hopefully it'll help me.
>>>
>> I'll post something on Wed. (sorry about the delay)
>
> I have a firmware inside of /etc/ndiswrapper, a directory
> called bcmwl5 (that's a lowercase L). Not sure where
> the contents came from... I believe the interesting parts
> are the bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files. I think I
> simply used the ndiswrapper tool to add the firmware...
> it wasn't hard.
>
> Go to:
> http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...dex.php/List#D
>
> Search for 1490... there are instruction there and there's
> a firmware link there as well (which is probably where I
> got it from, or possibly the one on the comment).
>
> Obviously you don't need the FULL instructions since you have
> it installed via rpm (well.. that's what I did anyhow). But
> there are instruction on the commands used to load the firmware.
>
> http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

As the maintainer of the in-kernel bcm43xx driver for Linux, I would like to clear up some
misconceptions that are in this thread, and in others. The bcmwl5.sys file is the Windows driver and
is used by ndiswrapper. The firmware for the Broadcom chip is contained within the driver file, and
is loaded into the device when the driver is initialized. There is no need to have the firmware in
any specific location.

When one uses the bcm43xx native driver in Linux, then the firmware must be extracted from the
Windows driver and those files placed in /lib/firmware (That is not the directory for all Linux
distributions, but it is the correct one for openSUSE.). The bcm43xx driver has been clean-room
reverse engineered from binary drivers distributed by Broadcom, and without any help from Broadcom.
The two groups, clean-room engineers and Linux developers, only interact through a set of
specifications published on the Web. I have never tried to disassemble their driver, and I have
never seen a listing of such activities. To avoid any conflicts over intellectual property, we do
not distribute the firmware. We have prepared a program called bcm43xx-cutter that will extract the
firmware files from a Windows or OS X driver.

The Dell 1390 is a Broadcom BCM4311 chip on a mini-PCIe card manufactured by Dell. The PCIe chips,
which also includes the BCM4312, need a relatively new kernel (v2.6.20.4 or later) to work at all
with the bcm43xx driver and work well only with 2.6.21-rc1 or later. As openSUSE 10.2 comes with a
2.6.18 kernel, obviously the built-in bcm43xx will not work. In addition, the latest Windows drivers
have V4 firmware built in. That version does not work with bcm43xx.

Finally, you may have read in various locations that the in-kernel driver is "experimental (read
buggy)" and that it is slow. Both used to be true; however, the latest versions do not crash, and
they obtain speeds that are 80% of those obtained using the Windows driver. I now have more than
twice the speed of the max offered by my Time-Warner RoadRunner service (7 Mbs download, 0.5 Mbs
upload). My results were obtained using a Linus server on my LAN attached via a 100 Mbs wired
connection. We still have work to do to get full performance from the chips, but I think we have
done very well given the complexity of the chips, and the total lack of cooperation by Broadcom.

Larry

Larry Finger wrote:
....
>
> As the maintainer of the in-kernel bcm43xx driver for Linux, I would
> like to clear up some misconceptions that are in this thread, and in
> others. The bcmwl5.sys file is the Windows driver and is used by
> ndiswrapper. The firmware for the Broadcom chip is contained within the
> driver file, and is loaded into the device when the driver is
> initialized. There is no need to have the firmware in any specific
> location.
>
....
> The Dell 1390 is a Broadcom BCM4311 chip on a mini-PCIe card
> manufactured by Dell. The PCIe chips, which also includes the BCM4312,
> need a relatively new kernel (v2.6.20.4 or later) to work at all with
> the bcm43xx driver and work well only with 2.6.21-rc1 or later. As
> openSUSE 10.2 comes with a 2.6.18 kernel, obviously the built-in bcm43xx
> will not work. In addition, the latest Windows drivers have V4 firmware
> built in. That version does not work with bcm43xx.
>


Thanks for the good info Larry. Yes... I'm looking forward to not
having to use ndiswrapper

But I do believe it's the best solution for openSUSE 10.2 at the
moment, unless you're comfortable making a lot of changes. It's
possible that openSUSE may have a "kernel of the day" out that
contains the latest broadcom native work, but even still, it
that should be considered as a higher risk solution (and not
necessarily because of the bcm43xx driver).

I think ndiswrapper is the best way for right now.