configuring wifi card - Linksys WMP54GS PCI

English Network/Internet
#1

Okay, I’m a wee bit corn-fused here…

My wifi card is a Linksys WMP54GS PCI card. The installation went fairly painlessly overall… most things seem to be working okay. No network yet, though.

Maybe I’m just being denser than usual… but can’t seem to find the ‘knetworkmanager’ I keep seeing people refer to. I’ve looked at some screen shots that people have posted, and I sure don’t have anything that looks like that. In YaST, there is a section for configuring network devices, and for configuring network services… but no where to add or remove network hardware (one would think it’d be under either ‘Hardware’ or ‘Network Devices’, but no…). Other instructions I’ve found to install a package ‘b43’ do not seem to help; the package ‘b43-fwcutter’ is installed, but I’m a bit confused as some of what I’ve seen indicates that the b43 module is newer than the b43xx firmware I have on the disk that came w/ my card. I’ve tried calling KNetworkManager after searching for it in the Start menu (the only way I can find it in the menu), and nothing happens. I’ve tried starting it from the Konsole… and get a sig fault.

Anyway… I’ve checked, and the b43 module appears to be installed, and when queried via ‘hwinfo --wlan’ it sure appears to be installed. Looking at some of the response I get from ‘ifup status wlan0’ indicates that there is no configuration setup for it.

If I do ‘/etc/init.d/network restart’, for wlan0 I get the following:

Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 (gripes about not having a configuration, but shutting down anyway)
wlan0… done
Setting up network interfaces:
eth0 (again, gripes about not being set up)
wlan0 command ‘iwconfig wlan0 nic linux-boxen’ returned Error for wireless request “Set nickname” (8B1C):
SET failed on device wlan0,; operation not supported.
wlan0 (dhcp)… no ip address yet… backgrounding
interface wlan0 is not up… waiting
setting up service network… done

If someone could nudge me in the right direction on this so I can continue my setup and configuration of my Linux desktop, I’d greatly appreciate it.

TIA,

Monte

#2

memilanuk wrote:
> Okay, I’m a wee bit corn-fused here…
>
> My wifi card is a Linksys WMP54GS PCI card. The installation went
> fairly painlessly overall… most things seem to be working okay. No
> network yet, though.
>
> Maybe I’m just being denser than usual… but can’t seem to find the
> ‘knetworkmanager’ I keep seeing people refer to. I’ve looked at some
> screen shots that people have posted, and I sure don’t have anything
> that looks like that. In YaST, there is a section for configuring
> network devices, and for configuring network services… but no where to
> add or remove network hardware (one would think it’d be under either
> ‘Hardware’ or ‘Network Devices’, but no…). Other instructions I’ve
> found to install a package ‘b43’ do not seem to help; the package
> ‘b43-fwcutter’ is installed, but I’m a bit confused as some of what I’ve
> seen indicates that the b43 module is newer than the b43xx firmware I
> have on the disk that came w/ my card. I’ve tried calling
> KNetworkManager after searching for it in the Start menu (the only way I
> can find it in the menu), and nothing happens. I’ve tried starting it
> from the Konsole… and get a sig fault.

KNetworkManager is the KDE applet that controls NetworkManager. It is
in the lower-right hand corneer of the screen. If you have told YaST
that NM is to control your network devices, it should be running.

To check your b43 firmware, you should look in the output that dmesg
provides. Open a terminal and enter the command ‘dmesg | grep b43’.
This will output only the messages that relate to b43.

> Anyway… I’ve checked, and the b43 module appears to be installed, and
> when queried via ‘hwinfo --wlan’ it sure appears to be installed.
> Looking at some of the response I get from ‘ifup status wlan0’ indicates
> that there is no configuration setup for it.

If the firmware is not available, b43 won’t work no matter what these
commands say.

> If I do ‘/etc/init.d/network restart’, for wlan0 I get the following:
>
> Shutting down network interfaces:
> eth0 (gripes about not having a configuration, but shutting down
> anyway)
> wlan0… done
> Setting up network interfaces:
> eth0 (again, gripes about not being set up)
> wlan0 command ‘iwconfig wlan0 nic linux-boxen’ returned Error for
> wireless request “Set nickname” (8B1C):
> SET failed on device wlan0,; operation not supported.
> wlan0 (dhcp)… no ip address yet… backgrounding
> interface wlan0 is not up… waiting
> setting up service network… done

The Set nickname command is not needed and has not been implemented.
What you should be running is the command ‘sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist
scan’. That will test if your device is working.

> If someone could nudge me in the right direction on this so I can
> continue my setup and configuration of my Linux desktop, I’d greatly
> appreciate it.

If you want to use the ifup-type commands, you will need to tell YaST
the configuration. Click on the chameleon (aka Start), Computer and
Administrator Settings. After you enter the root password, click on
Network Devices in the left-hand panel, and Network Settings in the
right-hand one. You select ifup or NM in the Global Options tab. All
configuration must be done here if you use ifup.

Larry

#3

I have default icons for KMix, Beagle, KPowersave, Klipper, openSuSE updater, the clock/calendar applet, and then a couple buttons for logout/shutdown & screensaver. Nothing for KNetworkManager. I looked in both the Add Applet/Application and Remove Applet/Application - can’t find any mention of KNetworkManager. The only way I can find it is by going to the start menu, and entering ‘NetworkManager’ in the Search box… or by doing a ‘locate NetworkManager’ in a Konsole window. I know it should be somewhere easier to find, but I’ll be dipped if I can. Besides which, when I do run the comman, it seg faults anyway.

I am running KDE3.x… I installed KDE4 and looked around in there as well… no joy. Looking in YaST, both NetworkManager and KNetworkManager are installed.

To check your b43 firmware, you should look in the output that dmesg
provides. Open a terminal and enter the command ‘dmesg | grep b43’.
This will output only the messages that relate to b43.

this is what I get out of dmesg:

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file ‘b43/ucode5.fw’ not found or load failed.
b43-phy0 ERROR: you must go to b43 - Linux Wireless and download the latest firmware (version 4).

So… guess I’m looking there next. I presume then I’ll have to use b43-fwcutter to somehow extract the firmware info?

The Set nickname command is not needed and has not been implemented.
What you should be running is the command ‘sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist
scan’. That will test if your device is working.

Forgot to mention I’d tried iwlist before (new command I don’t recall from the ‘old’ days). I get an error saying ‘Interface doesn’t support scanning’. Actually I get that for all the interfaces… l0, eth0, wmaster0, wlan0…

If you want to use the ifup-type commands, you will need to tell YaST
the configuration. Click on the chameleon (aka Start), Computer and
Administrator Settings. After you enter the root password, click on
Network Devices in the left-hand panel, and Network Settings in the
right-hand one. You select ifup or NM in the Global Options tab. All
configuration must be done here if you use ifup.

yep, tried it both ways. Of course, since I can’t get KNetworkManager to work…

hopefully I’ll find something over on linuxwireless.org that will help. I really am perplexed at why I can’t seem to get KNetworkManager to run, though.

Thanks

Monte

#4

memilanuk wrote:
> lwfinger;1870823 Wrote:
>> KNetworkManager is the KDE applet that controls NetworkManager. It is
>> in the lower-right hand corneer of the screen. If you have told YaST
>> that NM is to control your network devices, it should be running.
>
> I have default icons for KMix, Beagle, KPowersave, Klipper, openSuSE
> updater, the clock/calendar applet, and then a couple buttons for
> logout/shutdown & screensaver. Nothing for KNetworkManager. I looked
> in both the Add Applet/Application and Remove Applet/Application - can’t
> find any mention of KNetworkManager. The only way I can find it is by
> going to the start menu, and entering ‘NetworkManager’ in the Search
> box… or by doing a ‘locate NetworkManager’ in a Konsole window. I
> know it should be somewhere easier to find, but I’ll be dipped if I
> can. Besides which, when I do run the comman, it seg faults anyway.
>
> I am running KDE3.x… I installed KDE4 and looked around in there as
> well… no joy. Looking in YaST, both NetworkManager and
> KNetworkManager are installed.
>
>> To check your b43 firmware, you should look in the output that dmesg
>> provides. Open a terminal and enter the command ‘dmesg | grep b43’.
>> This will output only the messages that relate to b43.
>>
>
> this is what I get out of dmesg:
>
> b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file ‘b43/ucode5.fw’ not found or load
> failed.
> b43-phy0 ERROR: you must go to ‘b43 - Linux Wireless’
> (http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware) and
> download the latest firmware (version 4).
>
> So… guess I’m looking there next. I presume then I’ll have to use
> b43-fwcutter to somehow extract the firmware info?

Yes, but only indirectly. Open a terminal and enter the command

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

That will download the necessary Broadcom driver files, extract the
firmware using fwcutter, and write to files to the correct directories.

>
> Forgot to mention I’d tried iwlist before (new command I don’t recall
> from the ‘old’ days). I get an error saying ‘Interface doesn’t support
> scanning’. Actually I get that for all the interfaces… l0, eth0,
> wmaster0, wlan0…

That is because the firmware is not available. The device cannot do
anything until it has code to run on its CPU.

Larry

#5

Okay… I went here:

b43 - Linux Wireless

and followed the instructions, and then did ‘rmmod b43’ followed by ‘modprobe b43’. Now ‘iwlist scan’ shows all kinds of information on wlan0 - shows three cells, one of which I believe is my home network (shows ESSID of “milanuk”). The Wireless Network Monitor applet down in the tool bar now shows the wifi adapter as being active… shows signal strength, all that good stuff. Now I just have to figure out what combination I need to get it logged on to my network. Seems like every implementation I’ve encountered so far - Mac OS X, WinXP, and the LinkSys app on Windows all have different ways of referring to my WEP network - ‘open’, ‘shared’, etc.

the ‘install_b43_firmware’ command only works if you have a functional network connection… I had to use the modern-day version of ‘sneaker-net’… d/l to the Macbook, then xfer via USB thumb drive :wink:

#6

memilanuk wrote:
> Okay… I went here:
>
> ‘b43 - Linux Wireless’ (http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43)
>
> and followed the instructions, and then did ‘rmmod b43’ followed by
> ‘modprobe b43’. Now ‘iwlist scan’ shows all kinds of information on
> wlan0 - shows three cells, one of which I believe is my home network
> (shows ESSID of “milanuk”). The Wireless Network Monitor applet down in
> the tool bar now shows the wifi adapter as being active… shows signal
> strength, all that good stuff. Now I just have to figure out what
> combination I need to get it logged on to my network. Seems like every
> implementation I’ve encountered so far - Mac OS X, WinXP, and the
> LinkSys app on Windows all have different ways of referring to my WEP
> network - ‘open’, ‘shared’, etc.

I don’t know how you setup your AP, but it is most likely ‘open’. When
you put in the WEP key, be sure to use the hexadecimal form of the
key. There are several methods to convert a WEP passphrase to a hex
key, and the liklihood of your AP and NM using the same method is small.

> the ‘install_b43_firmware’ command only works if you have a functional
> network connection… I had to use the modern-day version of
> ‘sneaker-net’… d/l to the Macbook, then xfer via USB thumb drive :wink:

Sorry, I didn’t think of that situation. Of course,
install_bcm43xx_firmware was also copied from linuxwireless and you
end up in the same place.

Larry

#7

I don’t know how you setup your AP, but it is most likely ‘open’. When
you put in the WEP key, be sure to use the hexadecimal form of the
key. There are several methods to convert a WEP passphrase to a hex
key, and the liklihood of your AP and NM using the same method is small.

That describes my frustration pretty well… I used a pass phrase so I wouldn’t have to remember some 26 character hexidecimal string :sarcastic:

At any rate… I used the ‘open’ variant and typed out the hex strng, and… I’m online! :smiley:

Still puzzled over the KNetworkManager thing. Part of me wants to hunt that down and straighten it out… and the other part of me thinks I might be better off leaving a working system alone!

Thanks for the guidance.