(Hopefully) straightforward wireless problem

[lwfinger]

On 11/05/2009 07:26 AM, Jimbo G wrote:
>
> Okay, thanks for your help.
>
> I tried a different version of WPA_supplicant (0.6.9-7.1) to replace
> the original version (0.6.4-15.13.1).
>
> That didn't work either, so I'll wait for the driver gurus. I guess it
> might be easier to just buy a new wireless card...
>
> I should probably change the thread title as well!

I just reread the postings in this thread, I noticed that your AP is
very weak with a signal of -70 dBm. That may be the problem. The
reason is that the reverse engineering of the early devices is not
that good and they can fail with weak signals. A revisit of that code
has long been on my agenda, but it has lower priority than getting the
newer devices (802.11n) implemented.

Is it possible for you to get closer to the AP, at least for tests? I
would like to see a signal higher than -50. Alternatively, you might
try (choke..choke) ndiswrapper with the Windows XP driver. You have
i386 architecture, which gives this option a chance. The 64-bit
Windows drivers have all kinds of problems.

[Jimbo_G]

I'm already right next to the router, so I'm not sure why the signal is weak. By moving the laptop around the best signal I've had so far is -42dBm, but it's very variable. My other laptop (an old Toshiba with a Belkin plug-in card) is fairly constant at -40dBm, so I don't think it's a router problem

I will try ndiswrapper and see what happens (if I can work out how to use it).

[Akoellh]

Not too difficult, but I suggest to at least keep ndiswrapper packages at hand which come from this repo here:

Index of /repositories/driver:/wireless

Should be version 1.55 (ndiswrapper and ndiswrapper-kmp-$FLAVOR) but that is not the reason (ndiswrapper in oss-repo will be 1.54).

Try version from oss repo first, but if you encounter similar problems, it might be good to use the upgraded packages from driver:wireless, 1.54 was sometimes buggy with wpa_supplicant (timing issues) and 1.55 had some hacks/fixes for that.

Also don't forget to unload and blacklist the modules "ssb" and "b43legacy" to avoid driver conflicts.

[lwfinger]

On 11/05/2009 08:56 AM, Jimbo G wrote:
>
> I'm already right next to the router, so I'm not sure why the signal is
> weak. By moving the laptop around the best signal I've had so far is
> -42dBm, but it's very variable. My other laptop (an old Toshiba with a
> Belkin plug-in card) is fairly constant at -40dBm, so I don't think it's
> a router problem
>
> I will try ndiswrapper and see what happens (if I can work out how to
> use it).

A strength of -42 dBm should work. In the scan data that you posted,
it was much weaker.

[Jimbo_G]

I'll have a go with ndiswrapper tomorrow and let you know what happens. Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

I'm assuming if this doesn't work then my best option will be investing in a new wireless card for the laptop?

[Jonathan_R]

Originally Posted by lwfinger

On 11/05/2009 08:56 AM, Jimbo G wrote:
>
> I'm already right next to the router, so I'm not sure why the signal is
> weak. By moving the laptop around the best signal I've had so far is
> -42dBm, but it's very variable. My other laptop (an old Toshiba with a
> Belkin plug-in card) is fairly constant at -40dBm, so I don't think it's
> a router problem
>
> I will try ndiswrapper and see what happens (if I can work out how to
> use it).

A strength of -42 dBm should work. In the scan data that you posted,
it was much weaker.

It's not the strength. although you should have the computer 3-6 feet away from the modem/router, for reasons of electromagnetic interference.

From my earlier post

you're using WPA, then choose WPA personal and enter in the "shared key", which is again, whatever you have for the key. Now I do recommend you click on, for WPA, "expert settings" and tick the box "use a specific WPA version" and you'll probably want version 1. After that, it should be connect and save.

[Jimbo_G]

Well, I'm not sure this is what you guys want to hear, but I have finally succeeded by using ndiswrapper.

For the benefit of anyone else who has this exact problem, here's what I did (based on Ndiswrapper - openSUSE)

- Installed ndiswrapper from the normal repo using YaST
- Attempted to find the Windows XP drivers in my Windows partition. Failed, and eventually downloaded a driver installation file called SP29361.exe from the Compaq website.
- Ran this installation in Windows, and copied the new folder containing all drivers and .inf files into my openSUSE partition.
- Blacklisted b43legacy and ssb in '/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist'
- Unloaded b43legacy and ssb (see Kernel module configuration - openSUSE)
- Installed the driver with ndiswrapper; I used bcmwl5a.inf
- Checked driver installation then initialised ndiswrapper using the instructions in the HowTo.

For info, here is the NWData script file with working WLAN: nopaste.info - free nopaste script and service

The signal level is still quite poor but at least it's working!

Thanks for all the help. Please let me know if anything looks wrong with the NWData information.

[Jimbo_G]

@Jonathan_R Thanks for the reply, but I don't think the WPA key was the problem. Also, as I mentioned in my first post, I'm using Gnome and therefore NetworkManager. I think your screenshot is KNetworkManager - I may be wrong but I can't find any settings in NM that allow you to choose between WPA1 and WPA2.

[Jimbo_G]

Apologies for the multiple postings, but I wanted to add that I have found it necessary to use ifup rather than NetworkManager. NM didn't work most of the time for some reason.

[Jimbo_G]

For some reason I'm now back to the original problem, with no wireless access. I can't take any more punishment, so I'm going shopping tomorrow for a new wireless card.

What is the best way to disable the existing internal wireless device?