Can't connect wireless on Broadcom

English Network/Internet
1

Hi,

I recently bought Dell Studio 15 laptop, installed OpenSUSE11.2/64
in addition to Win7 64 bit.
I am trying to connect it to my wireless network
at home and at work, but without much luck.
1)Found out that Dell 1520 WLAN adapter has Broadcom 4353 chipset.
2)saw that b43-fwcutter installed
3)installed broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop

After that can see many wireless Access Points at home,
selected one via NetworkManager (eth1), configured it (incl. security same as in Win7), it goes from Activating to Active, but I still can not connect - I mean,
in the FireFox - “page not found”

iwlist scan (for my desired AP):
Cell 03 - Address: 00:E0:98:FA:5D:1A
ESSID:“Blackhawk”
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality:5/5 Signal level:-42 dBm Noise level:-94 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s
6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s

At work we have a non-broadcasting WLAN network, for some reason it doesn’t even show it in the Scan list, although the signal is strong. Can’t used wired connection (security doesn’t allow it)
What would you recommend ?

I can easily connect to WLAN at home and at work in Win7.

What am I missing ?

Please help !
(totally new to Linux, have some Solaris experience)

TIA,
Oleg.

2

It looks like you are connected. There could be some problem related to DNS.
What is the output of the following:

/sbin/ifconfig
/sbin/route
cat /etc/resolv.conf
3

Here is what I got.
Please pay attention to “eth1”.

oleg@linux-e2sx:~> /sbin/ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:26:B9:18:F4:F1
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:36

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 90:4C:E5:A7:75:46
inet addr:192.168.1.38 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::924c:e5ff:fea7:7546/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:482
TX packets:19 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2900 (2.8 Kb) TX bytes:4161 (4.0 Kb)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:94 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:94 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:6532 (6.3 Kb) TX bytes:6532 (6.3 Kb)

oleg@linux-e2sx:~> /sbin/route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 2 0 0 eth1
oleg@linux-e2sx:~> cat /etc/resolv.conf

/etc/resolv.conf file autogenerated by netconfig!

Before you change this file manually, consider to define the

static DNS configuration using the following variables in the

/etc/sysconfig/network/config file:

NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SEARCHLIST

NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS

NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER

or disable DNS configuration updates via netconfig by setting:

NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY=’’

See also the netconfig(8) manual page and other documentation.

Note: Manual change of this file disables netconfig too, but

may get lost when this file contains comments or empty lines

only, the netconfig settings are same with settings in this

file and in case of a “netconfig update -f” call.

Please remove (at least) this line when you modify the file!

Any conclusions ?

TIA,
Oleg.

4

Your DNS entries are not updated (in file /etc/resolv.conf).

Can you first update your system and try? (There was a bug in the previous version of the knetworkmanager).

5

On 01/19/2010 10:56 AM, syampillai wrote:
>
> Your DNS entries are not updated (in file /etc/resolv.conf).
>
> Can you first update your system and try? (There was a bug in the
> previous version of the knetworkmanager).

Worse than that, you have the route bug. Your system has associated with the AP,
but you need to do the following:

sudo /sbin/route add default gw 192.168.1.1
sudo echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” >> /etc/resolv.conf

After you do those two, make sure your system is updated.

If it does not work after a reboot, then use the “Manage Connections” option in
the applet to delete and remake your wireless connection.

6

Oh, yea, I missed to see the route output.

7

Hi,

I followed your instruction, and after I changed permissions of that resolv.conf file, it started working at home.
OS Update did not load any new updates (do I have to add an additional repository for that?)
Anyway, it works at home now.

Now I need to make it work at my workplace, where I can not connect to wired network, need to connect to non-broadcasting wireless one. On Win7 I just had to connect to the no-name AP with a strong signal and put a password there - works fine. However, in Linux in NetworkManager when I click Scan, I can not see any unnamed AP with strong signal. So how do I connect to it ?

I will try to play with it on Monday at work.

Please help !

TIA,
Oleg.

8

On 01/23/2010 10:26 PM, olegkon wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I followed your instruction, and after I changed permissions of that
> resolv.conf file, it started working at home.
> OS Update did not load any new updates (do I have to add an additional
> repository for that?)
> Anyway, it works at home now.
>
> Now I need to make it work at my workplace, where I can not connect to
> wired network, need to connect to non-broadcasting wireless one. On Win7
> I just had to connect to the no-name AP with a strong signal and put a
> password there - works fine. However, in Linux in NetworkManager when I
> click Scan, I can not see any unnamed AP with strong signal. So how do I
> connect to it ?
>
> I will try to play with it on Monday at work.

You will not be able to scan for the network. You will have the manually enter
the ESSID and the encryption.

9

At my workplace they added another set of access points,
this time they are broadcasting, with Open wireless security, but after you connected, it will prompt you for login and password in the browser.

I tried to connect to it, in the Scan see several instances with that name and 100% signal.
So in NetworkManager I picked one, created new wireless connection.
Connect Automatically - checked
SSID: - filled
Mode: infrastructure
BSSID: I filled in (the one I got from Win7 AP MAC)
Restrict to Interface: Any
MTU: Automatic
Security: None
IP address:
Configure: Automatic (DHCP)
DHCP Client ID: <blank>

In KDE taskbar bottom right corner it shows me next to Wireless connection name a little Shield with Red X
and blue horizontal bar.
I guess, that means Not Connected.

Firefox shows me “Server Not Found”,
not a login to the network prompt.

How can I connect to that WLAN ?

So what do I do ?