Wireless found, but not connected bcm43xx

[Balulu]

I have a compaq V3000 laptop with a Dell (some model name) bcm43xx integrated wireless networking card. The Knetwork manager finds wireless networks and gets to 57% (Ip configurations started.) and then returns that it could not connect. I have tried installing the latest firmware /w fwcutter and the ndiswrapper approach, both which after checking device listings worked fine. Yet the problem persists. Any ideas?

(also had a similar problem /w Fedora 7 but wireless did work in Ubuntu)

-balulu

[WarraWarra]

Hi there and welcome here.

There is several ways to fix it but it depends on the version you have .
3.4E works without any bugs. Others see link below.

viewtopic.php?f=52&t=8933

[Balulu]

ok did an lspci and got this for the Broadcom device

Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)

and the version of Sabayon is 2.6.22-sabayon

and as far as ndiswrapper goes, i've done all the steps on the wiki and when i do a "ndiwrapper -l" i get the following

bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx_mac80211)

and i'm pretty sure that i installed 3.4e, and things seem to work find /w the wireless it connects to the router, the router's log shows that it just didn't follow through (no reply from return packet from verified keycode)

anyway hope this explains the problem abit more

[WarraWarra]

57% could be :
It either does not get a dhcp ip from the server.
It has problems witha wpa / wpa2 password.
It is missing the mac adress in the allow list.
I have to use wpa2 personal + pass phrase + automatic wpa2 type (aeis or tkip just leave at automatic) something like this and then it works.

If you can disable any blocking like mac adress filter and wpa type so that you can see if it can connect normally without them active. If it works then you have to check mac / wpa type and correct pass phrase , if not then the router signal is weak or the router needs a reset / restart after 2 mins. disconnected. Might want to get latest firmware for wifi router as well.

Alternatively is there a way to check the signal strenght in windows / another linux distro / SL you would need for a good connection at least 20 difference in numbers from signal to noise. 64 signal 83 noise then it can cope very well / good speeds for internet but jsut reasonable for pc to pc lan type via wifi.

Hope something here helps. Sry my brain is a bit slow now will post if I remember something else.

[Balulu]

Ok. I've been working on testing the ideas you had, none of which seem to be the issue. I tried the router w/o the WPA and it didn't work. I also do get wireless on Vista on the same computer. As far as the router not working, i have this issue not only /w this router but the multiple routers at school, leading me to think it isn't the router but instead my computer. With the DHCP thing it is on automatic and my buddy's laptop can connect /w os X so... i'm officially stumped. Is it possible that the (firmware/driver) is outdated / wrong (firmware/driver) is loaded? I really like this distro (has compiz fusion actually working!), but i'm prolly gonna go back to fedora 7 it was cleaner and i have had some (not much) luck with wireless there.

TY for all the help / support and i really do love the distro, just my dumb laptop doesn't like it as much as i do.

-balulu

[WarraWarra]

The only thing you can do is to instead of the default driver on the live dvd try and remove this and then using ndiswrapper install the bcmwl5.inf file / driver from windows and use it like that as that also works for me.
Just check as some windows drivers works better than others. The one at the bottom of the linked page dell 1390 might work as it is dell's generic broadcom driver or get the one from your laptop company and use it.
The one at the bottom is what I use right now to type this message in 3.3b mini / cd SL and 3.4e works from the live dvd nothing needed to get it to work just right click slect "other" name password wpa2 automatic and it connects.

My Dell 1390 = BCM94311MCG Rev A01 => BCM4311KFBG chip

If this also fails then no idea how to get it fixed.

[Balulu]

Ok i will try that, ty. (now i'm not sure i have 3.4e gonna try and check the DL). Also considering building off of a mini-distro and see if i can get the results i want /w that (more downloads YAY!!! ) Anyway i will post if i have any luck /w any of the reinstalls, ty for your patience /w me i'm kinda new to linux.

[Balulu]

well remember this

...
and i'm pretty sure that i installed 3.4e...

guess what i didn't have 3.4e i had 3.4a , i've downloaded 3.4e and am about to install it. I'll post here if i have more wirless issues.

Sorry bout wasting time / forum space , but ty for all the help.

-balulu

edit: Ok it workes fine /w 3.4e. Still really imbarassed that it was that simple and i didn't think twice about the distro version. Oh well no sense crying now i have it running and am posting /w Konqueror on this nice Compiz fusion desktop so i'm happy ty for the help, and my apologies for not checking the simple thing of the distro version well i'm happy to be on this forum and part of this great system now hope to be of some use to the community soon.

-balulu

[mdmarmer]

I have bcm43xx and version 3.4e, the native driver furnished with the distro ( I did not run bcm43xx-fwcutter myself ) seemed to give a strong signal but I had no internet.

I ran
dhclient eth1
as root, and it showed I was bound to 192.168.0.4
and I looked at /etc/resolv.conf and this address was not listed there -- there were other addresses which may have been from my provider's DNS server, I did not check, but my router caches my provider's DNS server, so these other addresses are not needed. I added the 192.168.0.4 address to the file as the first address, as root
add
nameserver 192.168.0.4

and everything is working OK -- I have internet
dhclient should do this for you, but I guess it doesn't always work (bug) ... ;-(