Been trying for three days now to figure out how to get wifi to work on my Dell Inspiron laptop. I hate to start a new thread when this topic has already been talked about before, but despite reading a lot about it in the forums, I still haven’t been able to get it to work.
This is what I know:
In yast I click on
Hardware → Hardware information (then it probes me) →
then I see a big list of hardware information.
then I click on PCI and I one of the lines says: "Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card"
And then I read in one of these forums that I should type something into the terminal to find out what kind of software driver my wifi needs (but I forgot what exactly I typed in or where I saw the forum). All I wrote down was the following: "Network Controller Broadcom Corp
BCM4321 802.11 b/g LP-PHY (rev01)"
and "14e4:4315 (rev01)"
I have never been gifted when it comes to computers, but usually I can follow directions. From what I understand, it is important to include information about my system when asking for help, so that is why I put it in bold. I would really appreciate it if you all could help me figure out how to make the wifi work.
Is network manager running? What version of opensuse and desktop are you using. My guess is you just need to go into yast >> network and highlight your interface and configure it.
On 12/08/2013 03:26 PM, anika200 wrote:
>
> Is network manager running? What version of opensuse and desktop are you
> using. My guess is you just need to go into yast >> network and
> highlight your interface and configure it.
You also need to install the b43 firmware. With an operating network connection,
run the command
sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
You need to do this step because Broadcom refuses to allow redistribution of
this firmware.
Thank you, that worked! Now my wifi signal (and my neighbor’s signals) are visible when I click on the little candelabra icon in the bottom right hand corner. Now I have spent another three hours googling and trying to figure out how to connect to that signal. When I click on that signal I see:
[/RIGHT]
| No IP gateway.
|
| [RIGHT]IPv6 Address:[/RIGHT]
| No IPv6 address.|
| [RIGHT]IPv6 Gateway:[/RIGHT]
| No IP gateway.|
| [RIGHT]Connection Speed:[/RIGHT]
| Unknown|
| [RIGHT]System Name:[/RIGHT]
| wlan0|
When I hover over my wifi’s name it says, “Strength 100%” I know I am so close to having this work, but I just don’t know how to make the connection. Starting to go cross eyed from staring at the screen all weekend. Better just take a break and check back later.
On 12/08/2013 06:06 PM, Louis S wrote:
>
> anika200;2606433 Wrote:
>> Is network manager running? What version of opensuse and desktop are you
>> using. My guess is you just need to go into yast >> network and
>> highlight your interface and configure it.
>
> Thank you, that worked! Now my wifi signal (and my neighbor’s signals)
> are visible when I click on the little candelabra icon in the bottom
> right hand corner. Now I have spent another three hours googling and
> trying to figure out how to connect to that signal. When I click on that
> signal I see:
>
>
>
>
> Type:
>
> Wireless 802.11
>
>
>
> Connection State:
>
> Not connected
>
>
> IPv4 Address: No IP address.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> IPv4 Gateway:
>
>
> No IP gateway.
>
>
>
>
> IPv6 Address:
>
> No IPv6 address.
>
>
>
> IPv6 Gateway:
>
> No IP gateway.
>
>
>
> Connection Speed:
>
> Unknown
>
>
>
> System Name:
>
> wlan0
>
>
>
> When I hover over my wifi’s name it says, “Strength 100%” I know I am so
> close to having this work, but I just don’t know how to make the
> connection. Starting to go cross eyed from staring at the screen all
> weekend. Better just take a break and check back later.
If you click on the NetworkManager applet (the candelbra), you will see “Manage
Connections”. Click on that and add your wireless connection there. I would be
more specific, but I do not see that you specify your openSUSE version, or what
desktop you use.
If you click on the NetworkManager applet (the candelbra), you will see “Manage
Connections”. Click on that and add your wireless connection there. I would be
more specific, but I do not see that you specify your openSUSE version, or what
desktop you use.
Sorry about that. My openSUSE version is 13.10 and my desktop type is KDE. It’s working tonight. Thanks a million.
Hi,
I’m joining this thread with a similar difficulty on my Dell Inspirion laptop. b43 and b43legacy firmware successfully installed over wired connection. After reboot, I am not seeing my wireless card show up in hwinfo --wlan nor am I seeing much of a reference in dmesg out put. However, I can manually run modprobe b43 and modprobe b43legacy and get the following output:
However, nothing happens automatically at reboot. Even with the modprobe success loading, I still get nothing at hwinfo, and my little light showing the wireless is actually sending and receiving signal does not come on. I think I’m missing a step.
Can anyone point me in the right direction for the next step?
Help and insight very much appreciated in advance.
On 12/15/2013 11:26 PM, sangorilla wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I’m joining this thread with a similar difficulty on my Dell Inspirion
> laptop. b43 and b43legacy firmware successfully installed over wired
> connection. After reboot, I am not seeing my wireless card show up in
> hwinfo --wlan nor am I seeing much of a reference in dmesg out put.
> However, I can manually run modprobe b43 and modprobe b43legacy and get
> the following output:
>
> 44.589014] fuse init (API version 7.22)
> 64.539642] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=em1 OUT= MAC=
> SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:5e26:0aff:fe62:3ec7
> DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:00fb LEN=84 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=255
> FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=5353 DPT=5353 LEN=44
> 96.581049] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=em1 OUT= MAC=
> SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:5e26:0aff:fe62:3ec7
> DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:00fb LEN=84 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=255
> FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=5353 DPT=5353 LEN=44
> 135.455394] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> 135.498754] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
> 135.498758] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth),
> (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
> 135.498761] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300
> mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 135.498763] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300
> mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 135.498765] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300
> mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 135.498766] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300
> mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 135.498768] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300
> mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 135.583559] Broadcom 43xx-legacy driver loaded Features: PLID ]
> 160.660890] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=em1 OUT= MAC=
> SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:5e26:0aff:fe62:3ec7
> DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:00fb LEN=84 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=255
> FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=5353 DPT=5353 LEN=44
> 288.861814] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=em1 OUT= MAC=
> SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:5e26:0aff:fe62:3ec7
> DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:00fb LEN=84 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=255
> FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=5353 DPT=5353 LEN=44
> 488.435839] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded Features: PMNLS ]
> linux-orj6:~ # hwinfo --wlan
> linux-orj6:~ #
>
>
> The device info I am able to get out of the PCI information for my chip
> is:
>
> 25: PCI 300.0: 0280 Network controller
> [Created at pci.319]
> Unique ID: svHJ.xf2myFHT2jA
> Parent ID: qTvu.bsXBLqvax56
> SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0
> SysFS BusID: 0000:03:00.0
> Hardware Class: network
> Model: “Broadcom Network controller”
> Vendor: pci 0x14e4 “Broadcom”
> Device: pci 0x4359
> SubVendor: pci 0x1028 “Dell”
> SubDevice: pci 0x0011
> Driver: “bcma-pci-bridge”
> Driver Modules: “bcma”
> Memory Range: 0xe6600000-0xe6603fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
> IRQ: 17 (202 events)
> Module Alias: “pci:v000014E4d00004359sv00001028sd00000011bc02sc80i00”
> Driver Info #0:
> Driver Status: bcma is active
> Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe bcma”
> Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
> Attached to: #15 (PCI bridge)
>
>
>
>
> However, nothing happens automatically at reboot. Even with the
> modprobe success loading, I still get nothing at hwinfo, and my little
> light showing the wireless is actually sending and receiving signal does
> not come on. I think I’m missing a step.
>
> Can anyone point me in the right direction for the next step?
>
>
> Help and insight very much appreciated in advance.
Check in /etc/modprobe.d/ for some file that blacklists b43 and/or ssb. If you
have ever installed the proprietary Broadcom driver wl, then it created such
blacklists. Remove those blacklist lines, or delete the file continaing them,
and your driver will load on boot.
Hi,
Thanks for the helpful hint about the blacklist file. However, the condition persists. Just to be sure, I forced a Kernel upgrade as well as I remembered that the Packman driver packages had done some kernel compiling etc. But that has not corrected the issue either.
Specifics here are :
Dell Latitude laptop of recent (2 years) vintage.
OpenSuse 13.1
This laptop was running Opensuse 12.3 three weeks ago and I had wireless working just fine. So, I have confidence that this is not a hardware failure.
I am also unsure of what to make of the fact that the b43 and b43legacy drivers will load manually with the modprobe command and show an output as noted above in the thread at the end of the dmesg output. If the driver loads, doesn’t that mean that it has detected the hardware device?
In any case, the driver loads, but hwinfo --wlan does not show a wireless ethernet device. iwconfig fails to find anything, and KDENetworkManager does not find it either.
Your help is appreciated. Any other ideas I can pursue?
On 12/17/2013 10:46 AM, sangorilla wrote:
>
> Hi,
> Thanks for the helpful hint about the blacklist file. However, the
> condition persists. Just to be sure, I forced a Kernel upgrade as well
> as I remembered that the Packman driver packages had done some kernel
> compiling etc. But that has not corrected the issue either.
>
> Specifics here are :
> Dell Latitude laptop of recent (2 years) vintage.
> OpenSuse 13.1
>
> This laptop was running Opensuse 12.3 three weeks ago and I had
> wireless working just fine. So, I have confidence that this is not a
> hardware failure.
>
> I am also unsure of what to make of the fact that the b43 and b43legacy
> drivers will load manually with the modprobe command and show an output
> as noted above in the thread at the end of the dmesg output. If the
> driver loads, doesn’t that mean that it has detected the hardware
> device?
When you load a driver with the modprobe command, that implies nothing about
the underlying hardware. If the hardware exists, there is a driver for your
hardware, and the appropriate driver is not blacklisted, then the driver will
load automatically.
>
> In any case, the driver loads, but hwinfo --wlan does not show a
> wireless ethernet device. iwconfig fails to find anything, and
> KDENetworkManager does not find it either.
>
> Your help is appreciated. Any other ideas I can pursue?
Please include your hardware definition (PCI ID) by usinf the ‘/sbin/lspci -nn’
command. I missed it in the hwinfo command you had before. Your device’s ID is
14e4:4359. As shown in http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices, the only
driver for it is the proprietary wl. You need to install the correct packages
for your driver.
Driver load on your system fails because you do not have one for your hardware.
OK, that make’s sense. Thanks for posting the link to the compatability URL. I’ll be able to download and try this out in a couple of days. I had mistakenly thought that a driver would only load if the correct hardware was present.