Cannot Change essid using iwconfig

[Rick Bilonick]

I know the bcm4318 mini pci wifi card works in my Dell Inspiron 2200
laptop - I had installed a hard drive with Fedora 8 (installed on a
different laptop) and I had no trouble using ndiswrapper and getting the
wireless nic to work perfectly. Now I've put the original hard drive
(that had Fedora 6 working with the same wireless nic) back in,
installed Fedora 8 (destroying all of the original data on the disk).
I've installed the same kernel, ndiswrapper, kernel modules, etc. that
is on the other hard drive with Fedora 8, went through the same process
but cannot get the wireless nic with the new Fedora 8 to work. Surely,
it can't be the hard drive (the laptop connects to the wired eth0
connection). If I put the other hard drive in with Fedora 8, the bcm4318
connects to the wireless network.

I've blacklisted bcm43xx, b43, and ssb (not sure ssb needs to be
blacklisted or even can be blacklisted).

I can get the nic to scan:

[root@localhost ~]# iwlist wlan0 scan 
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:E7:0B:50:B0
                    ESSID:"default"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:50/100  Signal level:-64 dBm  Noise
level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

[root@localhost ~]# 

ndiswrapper reports:

[root@localhost ~]# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
        device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: ssb)

I'm not sure what ssb is but when the other drive was it, I received the
same message and the nic connected to the wireless network.

dmesg reports:

ndiswrapper version 1.48 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,12/22/2004, 3.100.46.0) loaded
ndiswrapper: using IRQ 1

(see below)

wlan0: ethernet device 00:14:a5:09:f5:28 using NDIS driver: bcmwl5,
version: 0x3642e00, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter',
14E4:4318.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK;
AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

modprobe reports:

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe -l | grep ndiswrapper
/lib/modules/2.6.23.9-85.fc8/extra/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko

lspci reports:

[root@localhost ~]# lspci | grep BCM
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One
54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

If I try to manually configure the nic using iwconfig, I can set the key
but I CANNOT get it to set the essid:

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0 essid default
[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm   
          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

(iwconfig will set the key, but I'm not showing the key info.)

When I use dhclient to obtain a lease, it tells me no leases were
offered (even though the other laptop is connected to the wireless
network and I've had them both wirelessly connected at the same time
when using Fedora 6 on the Dell).

I cannot figure out why iwconfig cannot set the essid.

What else can I check? Any ideas on what is wrong or how to fix this?

(I've tried the "native" driver for the bcm4318 but it just will not
work.)

Rick B.

P.S. I do get this message from dmesg but I don't think it has anything
to do with ndiswrapper:

irq 5: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll" option)
 [<c045b16a>] __report_bad_irq+0x36/0x75
 [<c045b380>] note_interrupt+0x1d7/0x213
 [<c057ae99>] usb_hcd_irq+0x21/0x4e
 [<c045a807>] handle_IRQ_event+0x23/0x51
 [<c045bcaf>] handle_level_irq+0x88/0xb9
 [<c045bc27>] handle_level_irq+0x0/0xb9
 [<c04074c3>] do_IRQ+0x8c/0xb9
 [<c0405b6f>] common_interrupt+0x23/0x28
 [<c0431dec>] __do_softirq+0x50/0xd3
 [<c04073d5>] do_softirq+0x6c/0xce
 [<c0444685>] tick_do_update_jiffies64+0x15/0xa8
 [<c04401a1>] ktime_get+0xf/0x2b
 [<c045bc27>] handle_level_irq+0x0/0xb9
 [<c0431cc5>] irq_exit+0x38/0x6b
 [<c04074d6>] do_IRQ+0x9f/0xb9
 [<c043ff74>] hrtimer_start+0xfe/0x10a
 [<c0403ddf>] default_idle+0x0/0x55
 [<c0405b6f>] common_interrupt+0x23/0x28
 [<c0403ddf>] default_idle+0x0/0x55
 [<c042007b>] save_v86_state+0x19/0x12b
 [<c0421f78>] native_safe_halt+0x2/0x3
 [<c0403e18>] default_idle+0x39/0x55
 [<c040340b>] cpu_idle+0xab/0xcc
 [<c073fa6c>] start_kernel+0x32c/0x334
 [<c073f177>] unknown_bootoption+0x0/0x195
 =======================
handlers:
[<c057ae78>] (usb_hcd_irq+0x0/0x4e)
Disabling IRQ #5

[Mikkel]

Rick Bilonick wrote:
>  
>  If I try to manually configure the nic using iwconfig, I can set the key
>  but I CANNOT get it to set the essid:
>  
>  [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0 essid default
>  [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
>  wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  
>            Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
>  Not-Associated   
>            Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm   
>            RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   
>            Encryption key:off
>            Power Management:off
>            Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>            Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>            Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
>  
>  (iwconfig will set the key, but I'm not showing the key info.)
>  
>  When I use dhclient to obtain a lease, it tells me no leases were
>  offered (even though the other laptop is connected to the wireless
>  network and I've had them both wirelessly connected at the same time
>  when using Fedora 6 on the Dell).
>  
>  I cannot figure out why iwconfig cannot set the essid.
>  
>  What else can I check? Any ideas on what is wrong or how to fix this?
>   
I had a strange idea - what happens if you try to set the ESSID to
something besides default? It is possible that default is a "key
word". If your ESSID is really "default" you may need to do
something like: (I didn't see default listed as a keyword...)

iwconfig wlan0 essid -- "default"

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

[Rick Bilonick]

On Mon, 2007-12-31 at 12:10 -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>  > 
>  I had a strange idea - what happens if you try to set the ESSID to
>  something besides default? It is possible that default is a "key
>  word". If your ESSID is really "default" you may need to do
>  something like: (I didn't see default listed as a keyword...)
>  
>  iwconfig wlan0 essid -- "default"
>  
>  Mikkel 
I've been using "default" for 4 years plus it worked fine in Fedora 6
(and Fedora 5, and 4, and 3) and it works fine on the Toshiba laptop
running Fedora 8. "default" is NOT a keyword. I have tried to set the
essid to another nearby network without WEP just to see if it would
change the essid but it would not. I've never had this problem before.
As I said previously, if I put the Toshiba hard drive with Fedora 8 in
this Dell computer, I have no problem getting ndiswrapper to work with
bcmwl5.inf and the bcm4318 nic. I can change the key.

It also will NOT let me issue the essid with the "on" keyword.

Yet I can use "iwlist wlan0 scan" and it will scan and sees the
"default" network (and other nearby wireless networks).

Could this be a permissions problem? I installed everything the same way
as I did on the Toshiba laptop, yet I can't get the nic to work with
this hard drive in the Dell.

Rick B.

[Tod Merley]

On Dec 30, 2007 11:09 PM, Rick Bilonick <rab(a)nauticom.net&gt; wrote:
>  I know the bcm4318 mini pci wifi card works in my Dell Inspiron 2200
>  laptop - I had installed a hard drive with Fedora 8 (installed on a
>  different laptop) and I had no trouble using ndiswrapper and getting the
>  wireless nic to work perfectly. Now I've put the original hard drive
>  (that had Fedora 6 working with the same wireless nic) back in,
>  installed Fedora 8 (destroying all of the original data on the disk).
>  I've installed the same kernel, ndiswrapper, kernel modules, etc. that
>  is on the other hard drive with Fedora 8, went through the same process
>  but cannot get the wireless nic with the new Fedora 8 to work. Surely,
>  it can't be the hard drive (the laptop connects to the wired eth0
>  connection). If I put the other hard drive in with Fedora 8, the bcm4318
>  connects to the wireless network.
>  
Hi Rick!

Sounds like a bad install attempt.

Probably it would be good to "snapshot" many of your /var/log files.
I like to do so with a command like "~# cat messages >
/home/tod/Desktop/messages.txt.01012008".  Capture at least messages
and dmesg. Copy them all to a flashdrive or similar probably in thier
own little directory.  While you are at it you might grab an lspci -vv
-xx and an lsmod.

It would probably be a good idea to re-seat the wireless card, hard
drive, and perhaps memory cards.  Be very careful if you decide to do
this.  Easy to cause problems.  Be static aware and use good
anti-static practice.

Be shure the machine is unplugged and the batteries removed before
moving hardware.  I know you know but sometimes a little reminder can
prevent a tragidy.

You might consider loading your CMOS defaults.  If the battery is bad
CMOS tends to do weird things.  If this works you will need to replace
the CMOS battery.

Start over I think:

1. Verify the disk.  Do it twice and using the drive you intend to
install from if possible. By this I mean check the download sites
(several of them) and see that they have the same sha1sum numbers and
then use sha1sum on your disk an so check the numbers to be the same.

2. Do a memory test on the machine overnight.

3. Use a recovery disk {e.g. UBCD) and do a careful scan of your hard
drive.  On the hard drive I am using I simply do not use part of the
disk anymore, that is probably because of a disk crash from a laptop
drop (it was not in my care).  A scan showed me the bad section of the
disk and I simply formatted around it (it is un-used) For that matter,
it constantly fails smartd checks - but - I still use it because it
works (and keep my data very well backed up!!!).  While you are at it,
do a smartd check (see man smartd and Google smartd).

4. Make sure you reformat the disk during the install.  After the
install, check the disk with fsck or fsck.ext3  -- use the "-c -c"
option (non-destructive read write bad block test).

5. Use a notebook during the install and write down the steps you actually take.

Good Hunting!

Tod

[Timothy Murphy]

Rick Bilonick wrote:

>  If I try to manually configure the nic using iwconfig, I can set the
> key
>  but I CANNOT get it to set the essid:
>  
>  [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0 essid default
>  [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
>  wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any
>            Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
>  Not-Associated
>            Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm
>            RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B
>            Encryption key:off
>            Power Management:off
>            Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>            Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>            Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
>  
>  (iwconfig will set the key, but I'm not showing the key info.)
>  
>  When I use dhclient to obtain a lease, it tells me no leases were
>  offered (even though the other laptop is connected to the wireless
>  network and I've had them both wirelessly connected at the same time
>  when using Fedora 6 on the Dell). 
I'm not a WiFi guru, but it seems to me that if "iwlist scan" works
there cannot be too much wrong with WiFi on your system.

I would check /etc/dhcpd.conf on the remote system
to make sure it matches your WiFi device.
If the MAC is given, is it correct?
If it is not given, try adding it.
Could there be some duplication in the file,
as you have been changing your disk?
Does "service dhcpd restart" work OK on the remote machine?

Also, is /etc/dhclient-wlan0.conf (or /etc/dhclient.conf)
on your local machine reasonable?

Are you using NetworkManager (NM)?
If so, you could try turning it off
and run system-config-network.

As I said, I am not an expert on WiFi,
just someone who has had a lot of experience with it, mostly bad ...

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: [phone]
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

[Rick Bilonick]

On Tue, 2008-01-01 at 13:55 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  Rick Bilonick wrote:
>  
>  > If I try to manually configure the nic using iwconfig, I can set the key
>  > but I CANNOT get it to set the essid:
>  > 
>  > [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0 essid default
>  > [root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
>  > wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any
>  >           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
>  > Not-Associated
>  >           Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm
>  >           RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B
>  >           Encryption key:off
>  >           Power Management:off
>  >           Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>  >           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>  >           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
>  > 
>  > (iwconfig will set the key, but I'm not showing the key info.)
>  > 
>  > When I use dhclient to obtain a lease, it tells me no leases were
>  > offered (even though the other laptop is connected to the wireless
>  > network and I've had them both wirelessly connected at the same time
>  > when using Fedora 6 on the Dell).
>  
>  I'm not a WiFi guru, but it seems to me that if "iwlist scan" works
>  there cannot be too much wrong with WiFi on your system.
>  
>  I would check /etc/dhcpd.conf on the remote system
>  to make sure it matches your WiFi device.
>  If the MAC is given, is it correct?
>  If it is not given, try adding it.
>  Could there be some duplication in the file,
>  as you have been changing your disk?
>  Does "service dhcpd restart" work OK on the remote machine?
>  
>  Also, is /etc/dhclient-wlan0.conf (or /etc/dhclient.conf)
>  on your local machine reasonable?
>  
>  Are you using NetworkManager (NM)?
>  If so, you could try turning it off
>  and run system-config-network.
>  
>  As I said, I am not an expert on WiFi,
>  just someone who has had a lot of experience with it, mostly bad ...
>  
>  -- 
>  Timothy Murphy  
>  e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
>  tel: [phone]
>  s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
>   
I removed ndiswrapper and re-installed everything. Still didn't work.
Changed the router to WEP open system (from shared key) (still requires
a key from what I can tell), still didn't work. Took the laptop to work
to try connecting to the wpa network (after re-enabling networkmanager)
- couldn't connect via WPA. Brought it home, turned it on (with an old
D-Link 650 card which I had been using in place of the bcm4318 mini wifi
card) and it connected to a neighbors network (at least I think it was a
neighbors network) but I thought it was through the 650 pcmcia card. But
when I checked, networkmanager clearly showed the available networks for
both wireless cards and it was definitely connected via the 4318 (which
I've been working on for a week). I thought this was too good to be true
- not sure what has changed. I checked to make sure I was actually
connected (using ssh to connect to my Linux machine at work) and was
successful. I disconnected, and clicked my network in networkmanager and
to my utter amazement it connected. Again, not sure what had previously
gone wrong.


[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"default"
Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point:
00:18:E7:0B:50:B0   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm   
          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   
          Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xx   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:70/100  Signal level:-51 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0


Rick B.