HP2133 Wireless Issues...

[cweep]

I've attempted to locate a forum/thread that's straight-forward on how to get the wireless (BCM4312 rev 2) working on my HP2133, to no avail.

I've installed the firmware and ndiswrapper, but can not for the life of me find out where the hell to get the drivers! I'm running openSuse 11 please help!

[lwfinger]

cweep wrote:
> I've attempted to locate a forum/thread that's straight-forward on how
> to get the wireless (BCM4312 rev 2) working on my HP2133, to no avail.
>
> I've installed the firmware and ndiswrapper, but can not for the life
> of me find out where the hell to get the drivers! I'm running openSuse
> 11 please help!

The open-source drivers for the BCM4312 are standard modules in a 2.6.25 kernel.
You do not need to locate them anywhere. There are two - ssb and b43. You should
get rid of ndiswrapper and let b43 load and it should just work after you
configure it with YaST. Ypou can check by issuing the command 'dmesg | grep
b43'. It should not show any messages about missing firmware, etc.

BTW, that is the card I use most of the time.

Larry

[cweep]

I'm sorry but I don't know what b43 is, 'dmesg | grep b43' returned two errors:

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode.fw" not found or load failed

b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).

Now I gather from the errors that I need to download a newer version of the firmware but this is also above my level of expertise.

[lwfinger]

cweep wrote:
> I'm sorry but I don't know what b43 is, 'dmesg | grep b43' returned two
> errors:
>
> b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode.fw" not found or load failed
>
> b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...devicefirmware and
> download the latest firmware (version 4).
>
> Now I gather from the errors that I need to download a newer version of
> the firmware but this is also above my level of expertise.

Do you have an Internet connection while running Linux? If so, open a terminal
and enter the one command

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

As amazing as it sounds, that will get your firmware installed.

Incidentally, if you had gone to the network / wireless forum, you would have
found a sticky called "Additional Wireless Bits" that woould have told you what
to do. If you do not have Internet access in Linux, the sticky also tells you
what to do.

Larry

[cweep]

Yes, as I mentioned I've already installed the firmware and yes I used that exact "sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware" command to do so.

Let me detail my level of experience. I've used Linux before but on an inconsistent basis. I'm familiar with how to execute commands in terminal and install the actual OS (which I understand is not that difficult).

What I don't know is what to do after installing the firmware or what those error messages even mean; sorry if I confused anyone.

P.S. I've reviewed all available threads and forums explaining this process but it always appears incomplete (such as how to obtain the drivers, or how to tell if something completed successfully/completely).

[lwfinger]

cweep wrote:
> Yes, as I mentioned I've already installed the firmware and yes I used
> that exact "sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware" command to do so.
>
> Let me detail my level of experience. I've used Linux before but on an
> inconsistent basis. I'm familiar with how to execute commands in
> terminal and install the actual OS (which I understand is not that
> difficult).
>
> What I don't know is what to do after installing the firmware; sorry if
> I confused anyone.

The normal thing to do next is to configure the device with YaST / Network
Settings / Network Devices.

If there is a problem with YaST, use the command '/usr/sbin/iwconfig' to verify
that you have a wireless device named wlan* or eth*. If not, use the command
'lsmod | grep b43' to verify that the driver is loaded. Also use the command
'dmesg | grep b43' to look for errors.

Report back what you find and we will decide where to go next.

Larry

[cweep]

Here are the results of the commands you asked I execute:

#:~> /usr/sbin/iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"linksys"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:13:10:23:F2:48
          Bit Rate=2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          Link Quality=85/100  Signal level=-48 dBm  Noise level=-73 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

#:~> lsmod | grep b43
b43                   148124  0
rfkill                 11796  3 rfkill_input,b43
mac80211              178324  1 b43
input_polldev           9096  1 b43
led_class               9476  1 b43
ssb                    38660  1 b43
pcmcia                 43636  2 b43,ssb
pcmcia_core            42900  2 b43,pcmcia
firmware_class         13696  2 b43,pcmcia

#:~> dmesg | grep b43
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input9
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy0: DMA mask fallback from 64-bit to 32-bit
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error

Now I'm not 100% on how to interpret these results but from what I can see I've got it installed right and am receiving a signal from my WLAN. However, I still can't access the internet using the wireless.

What Next?


P.S. I appreciate your patience, I understand it's frustrating when a newb can't make use of the information available so experts such as yourself must revisit these problems over and over again.

Thanks.

[lwfinger]

cweep wrote:
> Here are the results of the commands you asked I execute:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> #:~> /usr/sbin/iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"linksys"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:23:F2:48
> Bit Rate=2 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
> Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B
> Link Quality=85/100 Signal level=-48 dBm Noise level=-73 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>
> #:~> lsmod | grep b43
> b43 148124 0
> rfkill 11796 3 rfkill_input,b43
> mac80211 178324 1 b43
> input_polldev 9096 1 b43
> led_class 9476 1 b43
> ssb 38660 1 b43
> pcmcia 43636 2 b43,ssb
> pcmcia_core 42900 2 b43,pcmcia
> firmware_class 13696 2 b43,pcmcia
>
> #:~> dmesg | grep b43
> b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found
> input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input9
> b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
> b43-phy0: DMA mask fallback from 64-bit to 32-bit
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
> b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
>
> --------------------
>
>
> Now I'm not 100% on how to interpret these results but from what I can
> see I've got it installed right and am receiving a signal from my WLAN.
> However, I still can't access the internet using the wireless.
>
> What Next?
>
>
> P.S. I appreciate your patience, I understand it's frustrating when a
> newb can't make use of the information available so experts such as
> yourself must revisit these problems over and over again.

Your wifi has associated with the AP and everything is working at the transport
level. It may not have authenticated correctly, or it may not have gotten an IP
number via DHCP. What are the details of the connection? Is it encrypted? Are
you using a fixed IP or DHCP? What does '/sbin/ifconfig' show for wlan0?

Larry

[cweep]

The connection is not encrypted, I'm assigning the IP using DHCP, and the results of '/sbin/ifconfig' are as follows:

alan@linux-amhd:~> /sbin/ifconfig

...

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:00:34:FB:FA
          inet6 addr: fe80::221:ff:fe34:fbfa/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:108 (108.0 b)

...

I just enabled Hostname and Domain by DHCP and set my default gateway, hopefully this works.

So I'm correct that I am actually set to go as far as drivers and firmware? Now all I'm worrying about is the network setup?

[cweep]

Upon review I noticed an inconsistency: dmesg | grep b43 identifies the WLAN as BCM4311, is that OK or should it be BCM4312, which is the model of my broadcom card.