CorePlus/TinyCore 7.2 Wifi does not work on Inspiron 11

[Rich]

Hi newtotinycore

However, MX-16 (debian based) works fine with WiFi on the Dell Inspiron.

Then I recommend you boot up MX-16 and attach a copy of  dmesg  from that. That may provide a clue as to what's missing.

[newtotinycore]

Here's the dmesg from MX-16 connected directly to hotel WiFi.

If it is relevant, i can get a dmesg from MX-16 connected by way of my phone.

Anyway, the attached dmesg seems to show wlan0 data missing from the Tinycore dmesg.

[patrikg]

You could try to use some quotes around the ssid for the wifi.
Like this:

Code: (bash) [Select]

"SSID WITH SPACE"


Code: (bash) [Select]

'SSID WITH SPACE'


[newtotinycore]

That is a good idea, Patrikg.

Using the WiFi icon, I couldn't see how to do that.

I tried going through the Tinycore wikis and the 'Into the Core' book to find the proper
command line input. Still looking.

[patrikg]

Do you have the file wifi.db in your directory ?

Code: (bash) [Select]

cd
ls

You could test to just edit that file, and change the line with the ssid with spaces, add the quotes.

[coreplayer2]

According to the MX16 dmesg wlan0 is:

Broadcom BCM4365 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller
using wl driver

(but I'm not sitting at a tinycore machine to get the required extension names at the moment..)


Update:  "wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz" doesn't appear to have suitable drivers according to the info file
update2: turns out the BCM4365 is a model number for both wifi and bluetooth.  One way to find out the wifi component for sure is running

Code: [Select]

lspci -vnn

[gerald_clark]

You probably need to install firmware-broadcom_bcm43xx,tcz and wl-modules-KERNEL .
Be sure to read the info files.

[newtotinycore]

Gerald Clark,
The firmware-broadcom_bcm43xx.tcz file is already installed in /mnt/sda1/tce/optional/.
Should I add it to  onboot.lst or somewhere else?

The wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz file is also in /mnt/sda1/tce/optional.
I assumed CorePluscurrent was 32 bit; my assumtions frequently get me into trouble.
Should I add wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore64.tcz to /mnt/sda1/tce/optional?

The info file for the wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz mentions blacklisting some items.
Do I need to do that (I believe the wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz was added during remastering)?

Coreplayer2,
Attached is the output of lspci -vnn.
I see a mention of BCM43142, which kind of seems like too many digits to be covered by bcm43xx, but I really don't have a clue.

Thanks-

[newtotinycore]

Patrikg,

Good suggestion.
I tried changing the wifi.db file from my phone hot spot to the hotel 3 word name bracketed with quotes. But when I tried to connect by using the Tinycore WiFi icon, still no connection; have to tether to the phone, but it's no problem (just interesting).

[coreplayer2]

hello newtotinycore

AIUI, BCM4365 is the model number and ID of your hybrid wifi/bluetooth device,  whereas BCM43142 is the model number of the wifi device within it.

It appears BCM43142 is supported in the latest broadcom wl driver.  whether the device is supported in our current wl extension you will have to try it to find out, but my money is with this solution.

Should I add wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore64.tcz to /mnt/sda1/tce/optional?

not if you're only booting tinycore 32bit

you should use APPS to add these extensions to onboot list

GotTo: APPS > Maintenance > OnBoot Maintenance then add

Code: [Select]

wifi.tcz
wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tczto the list.
Note: remove any other wifi related extensions accidentally added previously to this list

wifi dependencies will be loaded automatically when wifi.tcz is loaded (if deps are installed to tce/optional)

you will need to blacklist the original broadcom modules, add this to the boot config file

Code: [Select]

blacklist=bcma,ssb,b43
Example:

Code: [Select]

LABEL TinyCore
MENU LABEL TinyCore
TEXT HELP

Boot tc
ENDTEXT
KERNEL /tce/boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/tce/boot/rootfs.gz,/tce/boot/modules.gz loglevel=3 tce=sda2 opt=sda2 home=sda2 blacklist=bcma,ssb,b43
then reboot

and run

Code: [Select]

sudo wifi.sh note any error messages

You may nee to enclose your SSID with "" as mentioned below.
if unable to connect post the dmesg again

[coreplayer2]

My bad, a small correction:

AIUI, BCM4365 is the model number and ID of your hybrid wifi/bluetooth device,  whereas BCM43142 is the model number of the wifi device within it.

better to link you to the source https://www.broadcom.com/products/wireless/wireless-lan-bluetooth/bcm43142

4365 is the ID

regardless, this device Broadcom BCM43142 (PCI ID 14e4:4365) should be supported by wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz

[newtotinycore]

Thanks for the detailed advice coreplayer2!

"GotTo: APPS > Maintenance > OnBoot Maintenance then add
Code: [Select]
wifi.tcz
wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz
to the list."


There were 2 copies of wifi.tcz in onboot.lst; removed 1 copy.
1 copy of wl-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz in onboot.lst; left it in.


"Note: remove any other wifi related extensions accidentally added previously to this list"

As far as I know, I only added wifi.tcz and firmware-rtlwifi.tcz to onboot.lst. Removed both files.
Attached is onboot.lst, in case anybody notices other files that need to be removed.

"you will need to blacklist the original broadcom modules, add this to the boot config file"

Uh Oh. I checked "into the Core" and the tc wiki (I really did), but I'm still not sure which is the
boot config file. Would that be /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/vmlinuz or maybe /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/
extlinuz/extlinuz.conf? Or maybe /opt/bootlocal.sh? /opt/.filetool.lst?

The first 2 files appear similar to your example; neither has any blacklisting.

Thanks-

[Rich]

Hi newtotinycore

"you will need to blacklist the original broadcom modules, add this to the boot config file"

Uh Oh. I checked "into the Core" and the tc wiki (I really did), but I'm still not sure which is the
boot config file. Would that be /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/vmlinuz or maybe /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/
extlinuz/extlinuz.conf? Or maybe /opt/bootlocal.sh? /opt/.filetool.lst?

Open the  extlinux.conf  file and add it to the  APPEND  line. You might need to use  sudo  to edit the file.

[newtotinycore]

Blacklisting those 3 items got the Dell online.

The first time I booted, Opera locked up, the caps lock key started flashing, and I had to shut down.
The second time, I opened chromium and opera and pulled the thumb drive.

Chromium wouldn't pull up web pages, but Opera would.
I spent 1/2 hour trying to write this post on the Dell, but had very little control of trackpad or typing.
Manage to complete post, but then "Request Time-out server timeout waiting for the HTTP request from the client" error message.

Clearly these problems are not connected to Tinycore.
Maybe, there never was any problem with Tinycore.

Thanks for all the help.
You guys are doing a tremendous job helping people who are having ongoing "computer problems".

Thanks again.

[coreplayer2]

You notebook doesn't appear to be very old, so why not try the latest Firefox?

firefox_getLatest.tcz   will download and install the latest and will keep it updated

getFlash.tcz  will also download and install the latest version and keep it updated

??