Problem with WPA, using ndiswrapper

[mgalex82]

Hello,

I have opensuse 11.1 64bit on a DELL Latitude D830 laptop.
My problem us that I cannot connect to WPA encrypted wireless network. Everything works fine for WEP, but in case of WPA encrypted connection I only succed in joining the network in 5% of the cases. What I mean is, that sometimes (after I boot my computer) I get lucky and it connects but usually it doesn't.
First I thought maybe it's a NetworkManager problem so I installed WICD but I still have the same issue.

I think this problem only appeared after I upgraded to the latest kernel version 2.6.27.21-0.1-default from the official suse update repository.

Here is part of the the log from WICD:

2009/05/03 01:58:53 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:58:54 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:58:55 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:58:56 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:58:57 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:58:58 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS ASSOCIATED                                                                            
2009/05/03 01:58:59 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:00 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:01 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:02 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:03 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:04 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:05 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:06 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS GROUP_HANDSHAKE                                                                       
2009/05/03 01:59:07 :: wpa_supplicant authentication may have failed.

Here is my wireless card info:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
        Memory at f9ffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information <?>
        Capabilities: [e8] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Count=1/1 Enable-
        Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
                UESta:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
                UEMsk:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
                UESvrt: DLP+ SDES- TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
                CESta:  RxErr+ BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout+ NonFatalErr-
                CESta:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
        Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel <?>
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 1f-00-8c-ff-ff-e2-08-1a
        Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper

If anybody had the same problem or has any idea on how to fix this...pls let me know.

Thanks,
Alex

[Akoellh]

Delete ndiswrapper and use the native driver for your device.

This will be either b43 which needs the matching firmware installed or the hybrid driver wl.ko from broadcom.

Use the forum search, this problem has been discussed extensively here for many times.

You should have a close look at the "Sticky" threads in this subforum, too.

[mgalex82]

Actually I read quite a lot the forum before posting.

"lwfinger" said in this thread Wireless Not Working, openSUSE 11, HP 2133, Broadcom WLAN - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums, Wireless Not Working, openSUSE 11, HP 2133, Broadcom WLAN - Page 3 - openSUSE Forums that for BCM4312 with 1395 rev 01 is not supported by the b43 driver.
So my only options are ndiswrapper which I have at the moment and the wl driver.

I installed the wl driver from the default repository and removed the ndiswrapper module from the kernel. But the system didn't detect any wireless card. Can you direct me towards a more detailed instructions for installing the wl driver ?

[Akoellh]

Getting Your Wireless to Work - openSUSE Forums

Use the script and provide more information.

[pdc_2]

hi mgalex82; welcome to the OpenSuse forums; you have done very well to carefully read the various, quite detailed, stickies before posting to the forum;

as Axel says in his last post,

Use the script and provide more information.

If you click on the link inside the post that he has suggested;

it takes you to a website that has english and german sections; and a very good automated script that you can run that analyses your system; and you can then post the results back here to this forum;

there seem good instructions on how to run the script; and post the results back to the forum; where some of the gurus can then try to give you more help and advice

[mgalex82]

First of all...big thanks to you guys for the advices !

I finally got it working !!!!!!

I used the wl module....only this time I didn't give up so fast. It still didn't detect my wireless card at first.

So, I went to YAST => Network Devices => Network Settings and I added a new wireless device called "wlan0" and assigned it the wl module.
Now comes the weird part....after the restart a new device appeared automatically called "eth1". So now in yast I can see 3 devices eth0 (my Ethernet device), eth1 and wlan0.
I can use eth1 and everything works fine..so my problems is solved.
The weird thing is that if I delete wlan0 (which is not usable -- doesn't appear in ifconfig list) from Network Devices, eth1 stops working.