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Wirless on a Dell Inspiron 1545 [solved]
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Drasica
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 7:59 pm    Post subject: Wirless on a Dell Inspiron 1545 [solved] Reply with quote

I'm trying to get wireless working on a Dell Inspiron 1545.

From the output of lspci
Code:
 0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)
I gleaned that I should follow the instructions on the related gentoo wiki: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Broadcom_43xx

I compiled the b43 module and b43-firmware.

Now I am at a loss...what do I do next? Install wpa_supplicant?


Last edited by Drasica on Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
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lxg
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can you load the module, and do you see the device with ifconfig -a?

Then the next steps would be to set up your network.

For a notebook (which usually will be often in different networking environments), you might want to set up NetworkManager in combination with nm-applet (which I very much like). Wicd also has a good reputation. wpa_supplicant is ok, but not very handy.
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Drasica
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lxg wrote:
Can you load the module, and do you see the device with ifconfig -a?

Then the next steps would be to set up your network.

For a notebook (which usually will be often in different networking environments), you might want to set up NetworkManager in combination with nm-applet (which I very much like). Wicd also has a good reputation. wpa_supplicant is ok, but not very handy.


I can load the module, it shows up in modprobe.

Wlan0 also shows up in the output of iwconfig -a.

I will try the networkmanager nmapplet combo and report back. Thanks for the response!
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, good luck. :) Btw, don't be scared by the 0.7.2 vs. 0.8 warning at the top of that Wiki page. I installed NM 0.7.2 from that tutorial and recently updated to 0.8 without problems, so I reckon that you can just as well use that page for 0.8.
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Drasica
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, so I have it all installed and a bunch of networks show up in the manager... but I can't connect to any of them.

Here's the output of dmesg after I try connecting to an unsecured network of good signal strength:
Code:
[ 2072.686557] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:24:14:32:33:11 by local choice (reason=3)
[ 2072.903320] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 1)
[ 2072.905028] wlan0: authenticated
[ 2072.923552] wlan0: associate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 1)
[ 2073.123244] wlan0: associate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 2)
[ 2073.323216] wlan0: associate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 3)
[ 2073.523238] wlan0: association with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 timed out
[ 2084.003497] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 1)
[ 2084.005287] wlan0: authenticated
[ 2084.005302] wlan0: associate with 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (try 1)
[ 2084.008566] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
[ 2084.008569] wlan0: associated
[ 2114.227309] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:24:14:32:2f:a1 by local choice (reason=3)
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lxg
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't think that this is caused by NM. I rather think that this is a driver issue.

Looking at your lspci output, I see your card is identified with Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01). Searching for this string in the Gentoo Wiki page you posted, I see four entries, all of which indicate that b43 is not the right thing for you, and you should try to go for broadcom-sta.

By the way, I recently set up a Latitude, which also has a Broadcom 43xx chip (don't have the machine available right now, so can't be more specific, sorry), and it works very well with broadcom-sta.

Could you post the PCI ID of your device?
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Drasica
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lxg wrote:
Could you post the PCI ID of your device?


Gladly...how would I go about doing that?

Update: installed broadcom-sta, and now no wifi networks show up in the nm-applet.
Is there something else I need to do?

Update2: it has started working for no discernible reason. Solved? Maybe?
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 7:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Code:

lspci -nn | grep Broadcom


look at the stuff in the brackets. I have a Broadcom 4311 WiFi controller. The guides are a bit confusing. Just install driver, firmware and wpa_supplicant. Works fine.

@lxg, I've noticed people recommending broadcom-sta, does it have any advantage over the old method? I never had problems.
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Drasica
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PCI ID:
Code:
14e4:4315


Wifi has been working flawlessly so far. The combo that ended up doing it was broadcom-sta, NetworkManager and nm-applet.

Thank-you all for your help!
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Amity88 wrote:
@lxg, I've noticed people recommending broadcom-sta, does it have any advantage over the old method? I never had problems.


It's just that the b43 driver doesn't support certain devices. That's really a pity, because it forces me to use a proprietary driver to run my Wifi.

Drasica: Glad it woks, have a lot of fun. :)
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