Wi-fi On Dell 6400

Hi, I am having problem with finding networks on my notebook. when i Installed the SuSE i already had win xp previously running on system. so during partition i removed the winxp and then installed SuSE. On WinXp When I press Fn+F2 Wireless + Bluetooth lights turn on and I am able to use both of them. now in SuSE only bluetooth light works. I have checked bios setting. and no problem there. my card is detected during installation successfully. I can see wlan in network cards.

So my problems now are.

1. how to find a network :unsure:

2. how to turn that wireless green light on :huh:

its dell card and not intel one. bcmxxxx something

2 ½. If hardware thingy is fine then tell me how to setup a network. I have wireless network in my university. what info do i need to configure my network. in xp i only needed to provide the "key"

Hi, I am having problem with finding networks on my notebook.
[/b]

Some web pages for you to look at to obtain information on your Dell 6400 with Linux:

* http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html [with many users using linux on this laptop]
* http://www.linlap.com/wiki/Dell+Inspiron+6400

Looks to me like you need to focus your search on getting the ipw3945 module running. You could do a search for ipw3945 on our forum, and see if you get any hits. For example:
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.ph...&hl=ipw3945

Did you type "lspci" and "lsmod" in a konsole with root (super user) permissions to see what you could learn about your laptop's hardware specifics, and what modules you have loaded?

2 ½. If hardware thingy is fine then tell me how to setup a network. I have wireless network in my university. what info do i need to configure my network. in xp i only needed to provide the "key"[/b]

You need to find out what encryption method is being used? Also find out what wireless protocol? (my terminology may be weak.... ) ... ie WPA? WPA-PSK ? WEB ? ... etc ...

this is what lspci returned

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X1400
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
03:01.1 Generic system peripheral [Class 0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 01)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
[/b]

and lsmod prints

Module Size Used by
af_packet 29064 0
ip6t_LOG 10496 7
nf_conntrack_ipv6 22848 4
xt_pkttype 5888 3
ipt_LOG 9984 8
xt_limit 6656 15
snd_pcm_oss 50432 0
snd_mixer_oss 20096 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq 54452 0
snd_seq_device 12172 1 snd_seq
ip6t_REJECT 9216 3
xt_tcpudp 7168 4
microcode 15372 0
ipt_REJECT 8448 3
xt_state 6528 8
iptable_mangle 6784 0
iptable_nat 11140 0
nf_nat 21912 1 iptable_nat
iptable_filter 6912 1
ip6table_mangle 6656 0
nf_conntrack_ipv4 14856 6 iptable_nat
nf_conntrack 61684 5 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_state,iptable_nat,nf_nat,nf_c onntrack_ipv4
nfnetlink 9752 4 nf_conntrack_ipv6,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conn track
ip_tables 16324 3 iptable_mangle,iptable_nat,iptable_filter
ip6table_filter 6784 1
ip6_tables 17476 3 ip6t_LOG,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
x_tables 18308 11 ip6t_LOG,xt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,ip6t_REJECT,x t_tcpudp,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables ,ip6_tables
ipv6 268152 19 nf_conntrack_ipv6,ip6t_REJECT,ip6table_mangle
cpufreq_conservative 11272 0
cpufreq_userspace 8704 0
cpufreq_powersave 5888 0
acpi_cpufreq 13192 1
speedstep_lib 9220 0
apparmor 40736 0
loop 21636 0
dm_mod 56880 0
iTCO_wdt 14372 0
bcm43xx 419676 0
sdhci 20364 0
ac 9604 0
ohci1394 36272 0
intel_agp 27156 0
battery 14724 0
iTCO_vendor_support 7812 1 iTCO_wdt
button 12432 0
firmware_class 13568 2 microcode,bcm43xx
ieee1394 91136 1 ohci1394
b44 29580 0
mmc_core 29828 1 sdhci
mii 9344 1 b44
ieee80211softmac 34432 1 bcm43xx
i2c_i801 12560 0
rtc_cmos 12064 0
rtc_core 23048 1 rtc_cmos
snd_hda_intel 272796 1
joydev 13632 0
snd_pcm 82564 2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer 26756 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 58164 9 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,s nd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 11460 1 snd
agpgart 35764 1 intel_agp
i2c_core 27520 1 i2c_i801
rtc_lib 7040 1 rtc_core
snd_page_alloc 14472 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
sr_mod 19492 0
cdrom 37020 1 sr_mod
ieee80211 35400 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 9728 1 ieee80211
sg 37036 0
sd_mod 31104 4
ehci_hcd 34956 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
usbcore 123756 3 ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
edd 12996 0
ext3 131976 2
mbcache 12292 1 ext3
jbd 68148 1 ext3
fan 9220 0
ata_piix 21380 3
libata 136904 1 ata_piix
scsi_mod 140376 4 sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
thermal 19848 0
processor 40876 2 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
[/b]

this is your card/chipset

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01) [/b]

two ways of getting this working:

1 )ndiswrapper = follow andrew18's very good howto, found here http://nextgen.no-ip.org/~andrew/linux/ndi...wrapperinfo.php
2 ) using fw-cutter to extract the firmware for your device

the choice is yours

andy

I think my card is been detected properly. what i was looking for way to find the networks automatically. like i do in xp. I just had to right click and find networks in xp and it show all the available networks and i select one and enter authentication key it start working but here i am not able to find any network. as i can't see any "find network" utility.

how do i know if ipw3945 working or not.

if you want to search for networks & connect to them, you need a network manager. if you are using traditional ifup method to connect, you can run iwlist wlan0 scan in a console. or you could use wifi - radar,found here http://wifi-radar.systemimager.org/ rpm's are dependent on your SuSE version. if you are using Knetwork manager, if your card is configured to work with it, it will automatically show available networks

andy

Unless something has changed with 10.3 regarding Broadcomm wireless card support, I think you will have to do as andy mentioned, use the ndiswrapper tutorial. I installed 10.2 on my friend's Dell with the same card that you have, and to get wireless working I had to use ndiswrapper. I do not have experience with the fw cutter, so I stuck to what I knew. The ndiswrapper route is easy to follow, and worked first time for me. Once you do that, Knetwork manager-assuming you use it-will show you available networks.

I think my card is been detected properly. [/b]

What do you base this belief on?

how do i know if ipw3945 working or not.
[/b]

Thats why I asked you to type "lsmod". To see what modules were loaded into your kernel.

And for modules that might be close, all I could find was this:

bcm43xx 41967bcm43xx 419676 0 6 0 
.......
firmware_class 13568 2 microcode,bcm43xx

and I don't think that is your wireless, ... I think its your wired ... (but I'm not sure).

Andy (deltaflyer) is one of our resident wireless experts. If anyone can sort you out, he likely can.