Dell mini 9 wireless help

[Juanito]

I compiled the latest wl driver, but in +/- 10 attempts, I only managed to connect once and at least one of the other attempts locked my router so that I had to cycle the power to get things going again.

Based on this, I'd definitely recommend either b43 (plus firmware) or ndiswrapper.

[straykat]

Well thanks for trying "testing" that out for me.  I'm thinking of trying the Ndiswrapper route.  Does anyone have any links or instructions for howto do this?  I started following some Ubuntu guide but can't seem to piece it together in tinycore.  so far i have removed blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43 from grub
1) echo -e 'blacklist bcm43xx\nblacklist wl' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
2) installed ndiswrapper via appbrowser
3) mkdir /broadcom
4) installed cabextract
and now i'm lost

[Juanito]

If you have your wifi working in winxp, you just need to copy the files bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys from the \windows\system32 folder (or wherever it is) to somewhere accessible to tc and then follow the instructions in the ndiswrapper info file.

[roberts]

Here is the /opt/bootlocal from a working Dell Mini 9 ndiswrapper.

#!/bin/sh
# put other system startup commands here
/usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda2/tinycore/bcmwl5.inf
modprobe ndiswrapper
/usr/local/etc/init.d/alsasound start
#
/usr/local/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 essid "your_ssid_here"
/usr/local/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 key restricted 1234567890
/sbin/udhcpc -b -i wlan0

Note: Both bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys are in the /mnt/hda2/tinycore/ directory.
This directory also holds the bzImage and tinycore.gz
There is of course a /mnt/hda2/tce directory for extensions.

The grub entry to boot this does have both modules backlisted, e.g.,
blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43

Note: The quirky thing is that this machine must completely power off in order for the wlan0 to reset.
If you simple reboot, the wlan0 does not initialize.

From initial power on the wifi connects every time.

Hope this helps.

[straykat]

I can't even get it to work via ndiswrapper!  WTF  this is getting old.

[Juanito]

Note that for the initial setup of ndiswrapper, you'll need the perl5 extension loaded.

Could you paste the error messages you get line by line from the ndiswrapper commands.

[straykat]

i dont get any error msg.  it even loads at boot  using the above bootlocal.  it might be worth mentioning that wicd never starts either. 

[Juanito]

Is the perl5 extension loaded? Are b43/ssb still blacklisted?

I've a feeling the b43 firmware you need is the same as the b43 firmware I use - I can upload it somewhere for you if that would help

[straykat]

yes perl5 was loaded as a dep of something else and ssb and b43 are still blacklisted.

[straykat]

should reinstall and start from scratch.  I did not see an easy way to unload or reinstall extensions once they were installed?

[gerald_clark]

You need only remove an extesnion from the onboot.lst and reboot.
You can use an editor, or AppsAudit to do this.

[straykat]

thanks gerald that works great.  However it still did not help my wireless woes.  I've now tried all 3 ways and nothing worked.

[tinypoodle]

at least one of the other attempts locked my router so that I had to cycle the power to get things going again.

I think it is rather noteworthy if a "bad" wifi driver of a client has the ability to lock a router.

[straykat]

I too thought that might be an issue.  The router has already been bounced.    It changed nothing.

[straykat]

Reinstalled slitaz and it is now working after installing wl and blacklisting ssb.  Thanks to all for your help.