Ubuntu

Linksys wireless cannot connect

Asked by Rhys Jenkins

I Hope someone can help me here as I'm returning to linux after about 5-6 of windows. I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 AMD64 (Fresh Install) using a Linksys WMP54GS PCI wireless adapter.

The bcm4318 driver is installed and displayed in iwconfig as eth1 and also in Network Manager. Connecting to the internet fails. Running "sudo iwlist eth1 scan" reports that the interface does not support scannning. The card works fine in Vista (Dual boot). I believe if I can get the card to scan, i will be able to connect to the access point.

Can someone shed any light on this please.

TIA

Rhys

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Basilio Kublik
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Best Basilio Kublik (sourcercito) said : 		#1

probably you don't have the firmware for this card installed since doesn't came installed by default.

you can install this package by executing the following command:

user@machine:~$ sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

after that, the postinstall script of the package will download the firmware and extract the necesary data to make your card work, if this last step doesn't work, but you have installed the bcm43xx-fwcutter already, you can download the firmware by hand and extract it yourself:

user@machine:~$ wget -c http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o -O /tmp/wl_apsta.o
user@machine:~$ sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/$(uname -r)/ /tmp/wl_apsta.o

then reload the kernel module and bring up the network interface:

user@machine:~$ sudo rmmod bcm43xx
user@machine:~$ sudo modprobe bcm43xx
user@machine:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 up

at this point you should be able to scan for wireless networks and connect.

hope this helps, if not, just say it and we can try other option.

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Rhys Jenkins (rhysjenkins2007) said : 		#2

Basilio, Thanks for your prompt reply.

I cannot use package management as my wireless card does not work under ubuntu. Internet connections are currently under vista on the same box.
Having found a .deb package of bcm43xx-fwcutter I am getting a dependancy problem on libc6. After downloding a libc6.deb package, I'm told that a newer version is already installed. How can I install this driver with these dependancy issues??

Thanks.

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Rhys Jenkins (rhysjenkins2007) said : 		#3

Ha Ha. Success. I'm typing this from Linux......

I managed to solve the dependency issue by running:
sudo dpkg -i bcm43xx-fwcutter_006-3_amd64.deb --ignore-depends libc6

which broke the package manager, but a quick call to:
sudo apt-get install -f

and ignoring the message that bcm43xx-fwcutter will be removed and hitting "Y" worked a treat.

The driver is still installed after a reboot and is always on. Fantastic.

Right, now to get my monitor to 1280..........

Thank you Basilio you've been a great help.

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Rhys Jenkins (rhysjenkins2007) said : 		#4

Thanks Basilio Kublik, that solved my question.