New thread, broadcom 802-11 related

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 18 April 2006 08:02, Neil Cherry wrote:
[huge snippage]
>> This SD30676A drivers bcmw15a.inf, is quite new, the build date is
>> feb 2005, but doesn't mention XP, just w95 and ME2K.  It about 46k,
>> and does look a bit like a one size fits all.  And contains the
>> usual NDA stuff, proprietary Broadcom yadda yadda warnings.
>> Now I'm experimenting.
>>
>> This fails: cp bcmw15a.inf gene
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]# cp bcmw15a.inf gene
>> cp: cannot stat `bcmw15a.inf': No such file or directory
>
>???, weird, Wait! try this in lowercase BCMWL5A.INF (that's
>and "L" not a one.
>
>> But...  if I copy/paste the filename with the mouse as below,
>> and I can SEE no difference in the command line so generated,
>> and it works!!!!
>>
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]# cp bcmwl5a.inf gene
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]#

By golly, you are right! I couldn't spot that diff on the lcd screen.  
There are entirely too many fonts extant that use the exact same 
character for both a one and an ell.  I got bit on that the first time 
15 years ago trying to make a trig library compile from a printout in a 
magazine that had just dropped the src code printout from an old dmp 
printer on the camera glass & made offset plates from it.  Later, I 
carved away a piece of the ell on a daisy wheel for the same reason.

>> Just for the hell of it,
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]# ndiswrapper -e bcmw15a
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]# ndiswrapper -i gene
>> Installing gene
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]#
>>
>> Looks like reboot time to me unless a service network restart might
>> work. And this is crazy!:
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]# service network restart
>> Shutting down interface eth0:                              [  OK  ]
>> Shutting down loopback interface:                          [  OK  ]
>> Bringing up loopback interface:                            [  OK  ]
>> Bringing up interface eth0:                                [  OK  ]
>> Bringing up interface wlan0:                               [  OK  ]
>> [root at diablo SP30676A]#
>
>That's the one thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to
>get Linux to treat it like any other interface. I cheated and
>added a small script to load the module, and run wpa_supplicant.

And that script looks like?

>> And the blue led in the center of the screen hinge that says the
>> radio is up just came ON.  Ok, start kwifimanager and it says its
>> out of range but showing a green bar to the 54mbs line.  I ask it to
>> scan for networks, it finds mine, but fails to connect due to a bad
>> WEP key.  I thought I entered that once, but maybe in all the
>> screwing around it got fubared.  Where is that located?, in the
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcgf-wlan0?  Humm, no, just the
>> hardware address its supposed to use.
>
>I don't know, I use wpa_supplicant because I needed WPA-PSK.
>If it's wpa_supplicant it's under /etc/wpa_supplicant. In the
>wpa_supplicant file. It would be something like this:
>
>network={
>   ssid="SSID"
>   key_mgmt=NONE
>   wep_key0="Shared key"
>   wep_tx_keyidx=0
>   priority=5
>}

Ok, I'll bite, whats WPA-PSK?

And that file, /etc/wpa_suplicant/wpa_suplicant.conf, only contains:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

network={
        ssid="any"
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

And I have NDI how this is connected to what I'm doing.

But now that I see that %$#@^^& typu, I'm going to remove the gene, and 
try the one from the XP install just for grins :)

It went in, and I noted it was fussing about the MAC address mismatch 
when I did a network restart, so I commented the HWADDR line out 
of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 and got rid of that 
error.

Unforch, I believe there is a miss-match in the key code, either in the 
wap11gui I'm using to configure my test setups radio, or in 
kwifimanager.  It says the second 128 bit key that wap11gui makes is 
bad when I enter it in kwifimanager, and because of that I assume, 
kwifimanager never saves the 3rd and 4th keys it thinks are good.

Having kwifimanager scan for networks, it finds my setup & the wap11 
just fine, but will not connect due to an "invalid WEP key".  I've 
re-entered the wap11gui generated key quite a few times now in 
kwifimanagers key editor, set the wap11 for shared keys, the whole 
maryann with no change in the results.

Is there a better "wifi" manager program for linux that kwifimanager?
Or has the 128 bit problem alluded to on the wap11 web page 3 years ago 
now been fixed?  I'm having a bit of trouble making sure I point the 
finger at the right bit of code here.

And of course I'm walking on ground I've never walked on before, which 
doesn't help a bit either.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
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Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.