Ad-Hoc won't connect on Acer Aspire with Broadcom Card (b43)

user · July 15, 2008, 11:08am

Hello
first of all I’m new to linux, was using OpenSuSe 10.3 only a bit before. The laptop was running OpenSuSe 12.3 using ndiswrapper for wireless connection to my home network.

Now I installed OpenSuSe 11 (KDE4) and… everything greate but wi-fi.

Network data: Ad-Hoc, the Gateway is my main PC under WindowsXP, using DHCP and fixed IP for gateway (192.168.0.1). For testing purposes I’ve disabled encryption for now.

b43-compat firmware instaled via Yast after installation.
Online update done too (via temorary dsl connection).

networkmanager scans correctly, sees the network, but as I to connect - the networkmanager icon turns to the “working” one for like 20 seconds and then returns back to normal, seems not connected (tries to ping 192.168.0.1 return error message, networ was not accessible)


/var/log/NetworkManager:
Jul 15 10:37:38 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): deactivating device.
Jul 15 10:39:48 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 2
Jul 15 10:39:48 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): deactivating device.
Jul 15 10:39:48 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): taking down device.
Jul 15 10:39:54 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): bringing up device.
Jul 15 10:39:55 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 2 -> 3
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'Maverick'
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Maverick' requires no security.  No secrets needed.
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Config: added 'ssid' value 'Maverick'
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE'
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant connection state change: 2 -> 0
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Jul 15 10:40:09 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant connection state change: 0 -> 2
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long, failing activation.
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 9
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (Maverick)
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Marking connection 'Maverick' invalid.
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) failed.
Jul 15 10:40:34 linux-maverick NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 9 -> 3

Tryied:

switch to ndiswrapper drivers and blacklist b43 - drivers working, same behaviour
disable dhcp and use manual ip configuration - no change
disable ipv6 and reboot - no change
scream loudly on virge of freaking out after hours of troublesshooting - no change

btw iwconfig lets me sometimes setup the card, sometimes it says its busy - then the only way to control it is to first disable and re-enable the card in network manager. While connecting attempt, iwconfig shows a blank essid and managed mode! I havent yet managed to connect manually too anyway…

Please help!

deltaflyer44 · July 15, 2008, 12:26pm

just a quickie, did you set the card up in YaST correctly ? i’m using the b43 drivers on my broadcom chip based pcmcia card with no difficulties

Andy

user · July 15, 2008, 12:43pm

Yep. The best I could anyway: the kernel module is set to “ssb”, this is correct, isn’t it?

It’s a build-in card… I remember I’ve failed to get it to work with the bcm drivers on OpenSuSe 10.3 , but with b43 the LED lights up and scanning works - so the driver seems loaded correctly…
Also ndiswrapper scannded the networks properly too, but had some strange behaviour on the LED (doesnt matter…) and failed to conntect too (i didnt look up the log, but the NetworkManager behaviour was the same). I’ve removed ndiswrapper for now.

Anything special I should check?

deltaflyer44 · July 15, 2008, 4:54pm

check your firewall
make sure there are no typo’s in your essid
add your MAC address if you are using MAC address filtering on the router

Andy

user · August 3, 2008, 1:26am

I’ve noticed the same issue with an Intel Pro Wireless 2200 built-in on a Dell Latitude D600. It works fine if I connect to infrastructure wireless (access points) but not if I connect to an Ad-Hoc network. It can see it but fails to connect. Are you able to connect to a wireless network with an access point?