Network appears, but refuses to connect

HP Mini 2140 here.

So I finally got madwifi to work and my network card(BCM4312) finally gets a device name and appears on Knetwork Manager, but it still would not connect. At first it would be in “ip configuration” for about 30 seconds before going into “disconnected” when prompted to connect, but now the configuration icon appears for less than a second. I’m still looking around for solutions, but I really don’t know what to do at the time being.
I do believe the connection is not encrypted, access code is not needed.

/sbin/ifconfig gave me this.

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:00:F8:65:91
          inet6 addr: fe80::221:ff:fef8:6591/64 Scope:Link
          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:16

/usr/sbin/iwconfig gave me this.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  Access Point: Not-Associated

/usr/sbin/iwlist scan tells me that "Interface doesn’t support scanning.

Glahardt wrote:
> HP Mini 2140 here.
>
> So I finally got madwifi to work and my network card(BCM4312) finally
> gets a device name and appears on Knetwork Manager, but it still would
> not connect.

What does madwifi have to do with a BCM4312?

If you run the command ‘/sbin/lspci -nnv | grep 14e4’, does it
show “14e4:4315” or “14e4:4312”? If the former, then you need the
Broadcom-wl package from Akolleth’s repository. If the latter, you
need to install the bcm43xx firmware.

It shows 14e4:4315.
I’ve installed the Broadcom-wl package, nothing happens, no difference at all. I’ve tried getting bcm43xx firmware as well, no difference.

Glahardt wrote:
> It shows 14e4:4315.
> I’ve installed the Broadcom-wl package, nothing happens, no difference
> at all. I’ve tried getting bcm43xx firmware as well, no difference.

The bcm43xx firmware does you absolutely no good. You need to
blacklist ssb and b43. Then wl will load. To test this, enter the
following commands:

sudo /sbin/modprobe -rv b43
sudo /sbin/modprobe -v wl

If the Broadcom package is installed correctly, you should see the wl
module loading with the second command.

Just for the record, the b43 group is now working on a driver for the
4315 units. At the moment, it can receive on channels 6-7, but the
transmitter is not working yet. My guess is that the driver will be
working by 2.6.33.

Only a line of output appeared after the second command, can’t remember what it is because wlan0 disappeared from Knetwork manager again, I reseted the comp without copying the output. Anyway, after the reset, wlan0 came back but appears to be exactly the same.

Glahardt wrote:
> Only a line of output appeared after the second command, can’t remember
> what it is because wlan0 disappeared from Knetwork manager again, I
> reseted the comp without copying the output. Anyway, after the reset,
> wlan0 came back but appears to be exactly the same.

Until you blacklist the ssb and b43 modules, your system will return
to the original form after every reboot.

Incidentally, you should write down any massages. If we are to spend
time helping you, you need to provide the best info you can.

I could tell you how to blacklist a module, but I want you to do the
research.

Tried to chance the blacklist file using a text editor, it won’t let me save to to already existing blacklist.local.
I have no idea how to use the root privileges in anywhere else other than in Konsole.

Depending on your DE,you could type,in a console

kdesu kate Name_of_file_to_edit
gnomesu gedit Name_of_file_to_edit

Just add root’s password when asked

Andy

Already did it and edited the blacklist, thanks.
But it still doesn’t work. I’m going to try resetting it a few more times, but I’m not optimistic about this.

Glahardt wrote:
> Already did it and edited the blacklist, thanks.
> But it still doesn’t work. I’m going to try resetting it a few more
> times, but I’m not optimistic about this.

Check the output of ‘lsmod | grep ssb’. That command should return
nothing. Then ‘lsmod | wl’.

Have you configured the interface?

‘lsmod | wl’ returns ‘wl: command not found’.
I do recall installing it… How do you check for that stuff?

Also, I think it stopped trying to detect networks, I’m at campus right now and it doesn’t detect the campus networks. What interface are you talking about?

Glahardt wrote:
> ‘lsmod | wl’ returns ‘wl: command not found’.
> I do recall installing it… How do you check for that stuff?
>
> Also, I think it stopped trying to detect networks, I’m at campus right
> now and it doesn’t detect the campus networks. What interface are you
> talking about?

My typo. The command should be ‘dmesg | grep wl’.

What is the output of the following:

sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan
/usr/sbin/iwconfig

The interface is the wireless one, probably called wlan0.

Configure wlan0? I don’t think so.

‘dmesg | grep wl’ gave me this

ACPI: DMI detected: Hewlett-Packard
wl: module license 'unspecified' taints kernel.
wl 0000:08:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
wl 0000:08:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
eth0 renamed to wlan0 by udevd [1235]
udev: renamed network interface eth0 to wlan0
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

/usr/sbin/iwlist scan

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

/usr/sbin/iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  Access Point: Not-Associated

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Glahardt wrote:

> wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

If the driver cannot scan correctly, then NetworkManager cannot
connect. As this driver is closed-source, there is no way for us to
fix the problem.

Apparently I might have left the wireless card turned off or something. (The light was orange when I scanned previously, now it’s blue) But I recall not touching the switch (left it at orange) while it was in Windows and the wifi still auto-connected.

Re-scanned, so here we go.

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:E3:2F:63:11
                    ESSID:"THOMSON"           
                    Mode:Managed              
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality:1/5  Signal level:-80 dBm  Noise level:-92 dBm                                                
                    Encryption key:on                        
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s                                                  
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s                                                   
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s               
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:13:10:9E:D8:45               
                    ESSID:"linksys"                          
                    Mode:Managed                             
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)          
                    Quality:2/5  Signal level:-79 dBm  Noise level:-82 dBm                                                
                    Encryption key:off                       
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s                                                  
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s                                                   
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s               
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:12:17:DA:56:09               
                    ESSID:"linksys"                          
                    Mode:Managed                             
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality:1/5  Signal level:-82 dBm  Noiselevel:-82 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
          Cell 04 - Address: 00:13:46:5B:23:A5
                    ESSID:"default"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:5/5  Signal level:-56 dBm  Noiselevel:-92 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 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

I’ve already tried switching it orange and blue a few times to try to connect, by the way, no difference.

OK - now that the radio is on and you get scan data, then if I assume
that one of those 4 APs is yours, right click on the kNetworkManager
applet in the lower-right hand corner of the screen, select “New
Connection”, and answer the questions. As long as the “Next” button is
active, keep going through the screens. On the last one, you will find
an “Autoconnect” checkbox. Assuming that you want the network to come
up when booting, then select it.

One last thing - If your network uses WEP encryption, you should use
the hexadecimal key, not a passphrase.

Working now, much thanks.