[TAG] Using Broadcom Wifi with Linux

[Tom Brown]

Ben Okopnik wrote:

>On Sat, Nov 06, 2004 at 06:49:19PM -0500, Tom Brown wrote:
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>>OK, guys, this time I tried to do my homework on this one, but so far 
>>haven't figured it out. Hope somebody can help.
>>    
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> 
>I think I can give it a shot - I've been messing about with various WiFi
>chipsets lately (mostly the Intel ones, though.) Heck, we even share the
>same laptop manufacturer.
>
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>>I'm trying to get wireless working with Suse Linux 9.0 on my laptop 
>>(Acer Aspire 1710), which uses the (apparently) infamous Broadcom chip 
>>(same one as the Linksys card, I believe). 
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>[blink] Whence its infamy? I hadn't heard.
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The Broadcom chip can be set via software to use diffrent radio 
frequencies, even illegal ones (police, etc), which is why they refuse 
to let anyone know how to use it, except through their proprietary 
drivers. I've seen some stuff on the web indicating it's difficult to 
get working in Linux. It's doubtful there will ever be any open source 
drivers for it, unless some clever hacker manages the feat.

>>My kernel version is 
>>2.4.21-99-SMP4G. I've compiled and installed ndiswrapper, version 0.10, 
>>and I'm using the Windows XP driver, bcml5.sys. I'm trying to stay with 
>>the 2.4 kernel, as I've had some driver incompatibilities using 2.6.
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>Hmm, that's too bad. I've had a number of things either not work or work
>poorly until I switched to 2.6; I'm currently running 2.6.8-rc3-bk4.
>This may well account for some of the problems.
>
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My  main problem with 2.6 is that it's not supported "out of the box" by 
Win4Lin. With Win4Lin, I can use all my Windows dev tools (like Visual 
Basic, Delphi, Visio)  in Linux, for the best of both worlds. For 2.6 
kernels, you have to compile-in the support yourself. It sounds like 
fun. Just to compile-in support for nVidia, I had to jump through a lot 
of hoops (special version of the compiler and libraries were needed), so 
I can only guess what this would entail. Also, IIRC, support for NTFS is 
not in 2.6, but I'm not sure if that was just in Suse or not. I *do* 
need the occasional read-access to the XP partition on the laptop.

>>At boot up, ndiswrapper displayed the correct MAC address, assigning it 
>>to "wlan0", and showed the following message:
>>"ndiswrapper driver bcmwl5.sys (Broadcom 7/17/2003, 3.30.15.0) added"
>>    
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>"ndiswrapper" didn't work for me when I tried it with Intel's IPW2200
>(that's what's in my Acer 2012) - actually, it only worked partially,
>somewhat like what you're reporting but even less functional. My take on
>it, after screwing around with it for an hour or two, was "it's not soup
>yet." I got the IPW2200 Linux drivers from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/
>(I realize that this isn't a solution for you, but I'm drawing a
>comparison), and All Was Well.
>
>"ndiswrapper" is a good gadget when it works - as it often does; it
>supplies the need in several cases when no other answer is available.
>Sometimes, though, it just ain't quite up to par.
>
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>>One interesting thing is that I cannot set the ESSID. Each time I try, 
>>it goes right back to "off/any". This might be the biggest clue to the 
>>problem.
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>I agree competely. That's the kind of clues that I put together to say,
>"it's not the card or the driver; it's ndiswrapper."
>
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>>I have found several documents on the web that are supposed to help, and 
>>following those instructions has gotten me to this point. Ndiswrapper 
>>appears to be loading correctly at boot time, and it's using the same XP 
>>driver that is working just fine in Windows. From looking at the output 
>>of iwconfig, it looks like the system sees the wifi chip, and is talking 
>>to it (although I may be misreading this). Linux doesn't seem to be 
>>reaching the Linksys router at all.
>>    
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>Can you assign an IP to the interface using "ifconfig"? Can you then
>ping it? These questions are, of course, of academic interest only
>(well, they do allow you to send a useful bug report to the ndiswrapper
>folks - which I definitely advise doing.)
>
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I can assign a fixed IP, and on bootup it's used by wlan0. Unfortunaely, 
I still cannot ping anything else on the network (nor can anything ping it).

>>One comment someone wrote on the web concerning the Linksys wifi card 
>>(same Broadcom chip as my laptop): "From what I've read, the Linksys 
>>card actually works well with ndiswrapper if you can set it up". The 
>>fellow claimed to be successful using Suse 9.1 and ndiswrapper .10, so 
>>I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
>>
>>Any ideas, guys?
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>I've seen several success reports on the Net; the ones for which the
>info was available reported using a 2.6 kernel. 
>
Yeah, Suse 9.1 uses the 2.6 kernel, while 9.0 uses 2.4. I really wasn't 
looking to upgrade, since I'm happy with everything but the wifi.

>I would look into trying
>the very latest 2.6 kernel version (the rc3 solved a couple of minor but
>persistent problems I'd been having.) Conversely, you could always spend
>$20 for a closed-source solution (linuxant) - not that I'd recommend it,
>but it is available.
>
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They do have a trial-period offer I could take advantage of, but it 
wouldn't be my first choice. I'd rather get the open stuff to work if I can.

>* Ben Okopnik * okopnik.freeshell.org * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette *
>-*- See the Linux Gazette in its new home: <http://linuxgazette.net> -*-
>
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I was hoping I'd missed an /etc file somewhere that was keeping wifi 
from working. Ay Caramba! Thanks for your help.

Tom Brown