Trouble connecting to AP via wireless. openSUSE 11.3

English Network/Internet
1

I’ve tried really hard to avoid posting on here, but nothing that I’ve tried has worked. I just installed openSUSE 11.3 GNOME Desktop. It’s my first time using openSUSE, but I do have a little bit of Linux experience.

I have the following wireless network card:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
0c:00.0 0280: 14e4:4315 (rev 01)

I switched control of network setup to YaST (Traditional Method with ifup). It installed the firmware automatically for me. I set up connection configurations as follows:

  • Dynamic Address: DHCP
  • Operating Mode: Managed
  • Network Name: Hetts (I was able to scan and it found my ESSID)
  • Authentication Mode: No Encryption (I was using WPA2 and having trouble so for now I’ve switched my router to use no encryption just to try and get something working)

After setting this up and clicking OK, it should automatically configure and connect, right? I’ve tried a bunch of things including rebooting and deleting the wireless card configuration and starting over by reinstalling the firmware. I’ve also tried setting up the connection using NetworkManager and still have the same problem.

I have my laptop setup to dual boot, and when I boot in Windows, wireless works perfectly fine, so there is nothing wrong with my hardware or router.

Here are some of the outputs I’m getting:


# iwlist wlan0 scan:
...
	Cell 02 - Address: 00:1F:33:32:80:46
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=67/70  Signal level=-43 dBm  
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"Hetts"
                    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
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000000049669a6e
                    Extra: Last beacon: 912ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00054865747473
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F0000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
...

It doesn’t show my ESSID here:


# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

I can add it manually, but I still have no connection:


# iwconfig wlan0 essid Hetts
# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"Hetts"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:1F:33:32:80:46   
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=19 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

And after running ifconfig, the above reverts back to no ESSID.

Also, I’m not being assigned an IP address:


# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:22:5F:C5:57:AE  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:362 (362.0 b)

I tried adding the IP address manually too using “ip addr add …”, but still no connection.

I can’t even ping the access point at 192.168.1.1.

Sorry for such a long post, but it seemed to be common for people to not post enough information, so I put as much as I could think of. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris.

2

Hello cshett and welcome to the openSUSE forums. You know that we are here to (try) to help and so don’t be afraid to ask a question. If you search on BCM4312, you will find many hits here. Here is one suggestion:

Install Broadcom Drivers from Packman

Also, one can install the drivers by compiling them if you are so inclined. You can find them here:

Broadcom.com - 802.11 Linux STA driver

Read through the readme file completely. I used the second method on my Dell Laptop and it worked fine. However, I would do the top steps first. Don’t assume you have done anything right (do not worry about this) and repeat any steps you thought were complete. If for any reason this does not work, you can go to the next if you like. Consider posting more information just as you did this time.

Thank You,

3

Thanks jdmcdaniel3. Following the steps in the first link you posted fixed the problem. I thought I had already installed the drivers, and I assumed since I got the firmware and I could actually get the device to scan that the drivers were not a problem…oops.

Just a note, after setting up the packman repo, installing the drivers, and rebooting, a couple more things were added to my boot menu options and now the default boot option is openSUSE 11.3 followed by what I believe is the kernel number, which shows FATAL errors and does not boot. Skipping down a the list to the regular openSUSE 11.3 and booting from there works fine. Strange.

Also, after rebooting, I was still unable to connect using YaST, I had to switch back to NetworkManager, and it worked. But I am sending this post via wireless and that’s really all that matters.

Thanks,
Chris.

4

Thanks jdmcdaniel3. Following the steps in the first link you posted fixed the problem. I thought I had already installed the drivers, and I assumed since I got the firmware and I could actually get the device to scan that the drivers were not a problem…oops.

Just a note, after setting up the packman repo, installing the drivers, and rebooting, a couple more things were added to my boot menu options and now the default boot option is openSUSE 11.3 followed by what I believe is the kernel number, which shows FATAL errors and does not boot. Skipping down a the list to the regular openSUSE 11.3 and booting from there works fine. Strange.

Also, after rebooting, I was still unable to connect using YaST, I had to switch back to NetworkManager, and it worked. But I am sending this post via wireless and that’s really all that matters.

Thanks,
Chris.
So can I declare this a success? It would only be my second for the day, but I take what I can get. For your default boot, why not start YaST / System / Boot Loader. Select the openSUSE install you are using and press the set as default on the bottom right. You can also highlight an entry and push it up or down the list. I normally make the first selection my default, though it does not make it work any better. But if I get distracted, it will load the one I normally select by default, which is good.

Thank You,

5

Yes, you can declare this a success!

Thanks.

6

So, that is very good news. As a relative new user, if I have not said so before, welcome to the openSUSE forums. I normally add a few more things to know here during our first message thread here.

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