[SOLVED] - Help with ndiswrapper-full or Broadcom *.fw

[lkraemer]

I have Tinycore 1.3 burned to a CDR, and I am using cheatcode of:
tinycore tce=sda1
so I can access my downloaded extensions on /mnt/sda1/tce/options.

My computer is an old Compaq Presario 1672 - AMD K6-2 350 Mhz with 192Meg of RAM.
I have a Buffalo PCMCIA WLI-CB-G54HP Wifi card installed in the PCMCIA slot.

I have tried loading the Ndiswrapper extension and in a Terminal:

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sudo ndiswrapper -i /mnt/sda1/bcmwl5.inf
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
lsmod
When the driver loads it says the hardware is present and should function when I do the
modprobe ndiswrapper, but nothing happens.  (on DSL the LED's come on at this point
and then when I configure the card in Control Panel it works fine.  My drivers are good
because they work in DSL)  But I can't get ndiswrapper to work on Tinycore 1.3

What am I missing?  I tried ver 1.2 and have the same problem.

Has anyone else had trouble?

Thanks.

lkraemer

 

[roberts]

Did you get an /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5  ?
What does iwconfig command show?

[lkraemer]

Roberts,
Yes, the following directories were created in /etc:
ndiswrapper & bcmwl5, and in the bcmwl5 directory
I have a lot of file names with ?:?:?.5.co

ndiswrapper -l shows:

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bcmwl5 : driver installed
               device (14E4:4318) present

sudo ndiswrapper -m
shows:
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.conf ....

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper adds ndiswrapper to the  list of modules displayed by:

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lsmod

I have looked at the file modprobe.conf and it contains:
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

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iwconfig
only displays:
lo                 no wireless extensions
dummy0       no wireless extensions

And my PCMCIA LED's never turn on or blink when I execute the modprobe ndiswrapper.
(They always did when I ran DSL 4.4.10.)

I have tried both the ndiswrapper_full.tcem and the ndiswrapper.tcem files.  No luck!

My next attempt was at forgetting about ndiswrapper and trying to use the B43 files
included in wireless-2.6.26.tcem along with the file wireless_tools.tcel.
I installed both downloaded files as FILES -> INSTALL OPTIONAL, then did a:

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sudo modprobe b43

Now, when I do iwconfig, I can see my wlan0, and I can assign an essid "Airlink",
but from this point on I can't get my Wifi card to turn "ON" and connect with the
terminal commands:

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sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo dhclient -r wlan0
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "Airlink"
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo dhclient wlan0

Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I'd sure like to get my Wifi working.
My regular Ethernet works just fine when I plug in to the wired LAN.

I don't care which way I get it working, ndiswrapper or with the wireless-2.6.26.tcem
and the wireless_tools.tcel, but I do want it to work.
 
Thanks.

lkraemer

[roberts]

I don't use the up down commands, YMMV
I also typically combine the iwconfig commands, YMMV
I have never used dhclient.

Try this:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "Airlink"
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
sudo udhcpc -b -i wlan0


HTH

[lkraemer]

Roberts,
I loaded ndiswrapper and did the following:

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ndiswrapper -l
sudo su
ndiswrapper -i /mnt/sda1/bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig wlan0 essid "Airlink"


Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A)
Set failed on device wlan0 : no such device.

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udhcpc -b -i wlan0
gives me an error message of:
udhcpc: SIOCGIFINDEX: No such device

Also what does YMMV mean?  I haven't a clue.

This is also shown when I do a iwconfig.
wlan0 isn't there when using ndiswrapper.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll try the b43 module next...........Load the Wireless Application and wireless tools.....

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sudo su
modprobe b43
iwconfig
iwconfig wlan0 essid "Airlink"
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
udhcpc -b -i wlan0
udhcpc (v1.13.3) started
ifconfig: SIOSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Sending discover...
udhcpc sendto: Network is down
this is repeated two more times...........
No lease, forking to background.

So, I am still stuck........

Thanks.

lkraemer

[Juanito]

Doesn't the b43 module require you to use fwcutter first to obtain the firmware code from broadcom's driver? See http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#b43andb43legacy

[lkraemer]

Juanito/Roberts,
OK, I finally got it working by using the Broadcom *.fw files copied to /lib/firmware/B43
(I also added that subdirectory to /opt/.filetool.lst to have it backed up.)

Then in a Terminal do:

Code: [Select]

sudo su
modprobe b43
iwconfig
iwconfig wlan0 essid "Airlink"
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
udhcpc -b -i wlan0
exit
exit

Thanks.

lkraemer