WiFi Woes

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-07 21:23

Hi All,

Seasoned Linux user but new to antiX.

I have a Dell Latitude D610 laptop with 1.5gb RAM and I have installed
antiX 16.1 i386 stable onto it.

I am trying to get the wifi working.

I first scanned the howto's.

ceni only shows the wired interface 'eth0'. I
I did configure a new logical interface 'wlan0' and gave it the dhcp method
along with DNS namesservers. From there, nothing. The interface is still
not available.

wicd only shows the wired profile. I added a 'wireless' profile and in the
preferences I associated the wireless interface with 'wlan0'. Still no
joy.

I then turned to this forum, specifically

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=6786"
linktext was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=6786"
====================================

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lspci

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00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI6515 Cardbus Controller
03:01.5 Communication controller: Texas Instruments PCI6515 SmartCard Controller
03:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11abg Wireless Network Controller (rev 02)

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lspci -vnn -s 03:03.0

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03:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11abg Wireless Network Controller [14e4:4324] (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Dell Truemobile 1400 [1028:0001]
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at dfcfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
    Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

The device is using a kernal driver but from there, I get nothing in
ifconfig or iwconfig and I am not able to get an IP address on the
device from dhclient.

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ifconfig

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eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:22:d5:66:3d  
          inet addr:192.168.1.165  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::214:22ff:fed5:663d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:16262 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2336467 (2.2 MiB)  TX bytes:16059 (15.6 KiB)
          Interrupt:16 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:68 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:68 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1 
          RX bytes:5424 (5.2 KiB)  TX bytes:5424 (5.2 KiB)

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iwconfig

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lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.

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dhclient wlan0

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Cannot find device"wlan0"

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dhclient wireless

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Cannot find device"wireless"

Ideas?
TIA,
Rick

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2017-02-07 21:32

how about

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rfkill list

also, from some research, you might could try the b43legacy driver as well. from your current install:

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modprobe -r b43
modprobe b43legacy

and see if you have any luck. your part isn't listed exactly as your output describes here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices"
linktext was:"https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/use ... ed_devices"
====================================

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-07 21:47

Thanks for the tips,

What does 'rfkill' do?

After the 'modprobe's (no error messages during the command execution), the issue remains. No wifi device is listed in 'ifconfig -a'.

Rick

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2017-02-07 21:50

rfkill list will try to access the radio on the wireless part and determine if its soft-block, hard-blocked, or otherwise enabled/disabled.

and good on ya for checking first."man rfkill" in the terminal will provide the documentation.

Jens · posted: 2017-02-08 08:32

You can also check the boot process for messages like Broadcom... file not found... with"dmesg | less". If that happens a firmware package may be missing. Its about the same topic like dolphin_oracle wrote in 2. part of post50207.html#p50207 .

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-08 15:16

Thanks for the tip Jens,

Initially, I did not find anything in dmesg referring to Broadcom. But, if I enable both 'b43legacy' and 'ssb' in /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf, I get this:

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[    9.927363] b43legacy-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 4)
[    9.941066] b43legacy-phy0: Loading firmware b43legacy/ucode4.fw
[    9.947052] b43legacy ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43legacy/ucode4.fw failed with error -2
[    9.947064] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file"b43legacy/ucode4.fw" not found or load failed.
[    9.947066] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 3).
[    9.959033] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 1, Type 0, Revision 2)
[    9.959118] b43legacy: probe of ssb0:2 failed with error -95
[    9.959147] Broadcom 43xx-legacy driver loaded [ Features: PLID ]

Which refers to both the legacy module and the ssb module. Note that if I blacklist 'ssb', I get nothing in 'dmesg'.

I tried to download the b43legacy firmware from
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware"
linktext was:"http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri ... cefirmware"
====================================
which referred me to
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Drivers/b43/"
linktext was:"http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/e ... ivers/b43/"
====================================
, when I click on the download link, I am referred to
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Download/"
linktext was:"http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/e ... /Download/"
====================================
and when click on the releases link, I am referred to
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://drvbp1.linux-foundation.org/~mcgrof/rel-html/backports/"
linktext was:"http://drvbp1.linux-foundation.org/~mcg ... backports/"
====================================
which lists by kernel version (I think). Doing a

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uname -r

I get kernel:

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4.4.10-antix.1-486-smp

There is no such backport on the list.

My current Broadcom modprobe conf file (/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf) is:

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# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
#blacklist b43
#blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b44
#blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
#blacklist ssb

Am I on the right track navigating this?
Suggestions?

TIA,
Rick

masinick · posted: 2017-02-08 15:30

Take a look here, not sure that it will solve the problem, but it may provide additional information.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx#Broadcom_43xx_wireless_devices"
linktext was:"https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx#Broadco ... ss_devices"
====================================

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-08 16:36

Thanks masinick,

Your link provides a good download download source and since antiX is based on Debian, the Debian installer can be used.

One thing concerns me. the command:

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lspci -nn -d 14e4:

Identifies the device ID and the chipset. My laptop device ID is 4324 but the chipset is is BCM4309 which is not mentioned in any of the b43 or b43legacy documentation. In addition, b43legacy only does 802.11b but my wifi identifier says 802.11abg.

Anyway, I may be ranting for nothing. I'll download and apply both the b43 installer and the b43legacy installer and report back.

Rick

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-08 17:44

Success!

Thanks to all who helped me along with this.

I installed the Debian package firmware-b43legacy-installer, rebooted at which point the 'wlan0' device was present in 'ifconfig'.

I then tried using 'ceni' to configure the device. For some reason (maybe I missed something), I could not get DNS resolution to work. I then tried using 'wicd', hit connect, plugged in the password and it works perfectly.

Rick

masinick · posted: 2017-02-08 17:48

Great! Glad you figured it out!

IdeZilla · posted: 2017-02-08 17:51

Running live antiX I can configure wlan0 and it works.
Right after"slim" starts, wicd starts.

After install, right after"slim" wicd does not start. so no wifi.

Why the difference in boots between live and installed?

Where can I find the boot differences to fix this?

IdeZilla

$ lspci -nn -d 14e4:
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

rfkill list = empty response.

rsmereka · posted: 2017-02-08 21:27

Hi IdeZilla,

After having gone through the very same thing, just follow along on all the steps I took and use the advice that was given to me by the good people here.

Rick

fatmac · posted: 2017-02-09 10:32

From running 'live' to installing, you will need to carry over the 'live' settings, there is an option that asks you. __{{emoticon}}__

wolody · posted: 2017-03-24 01:15

I have almost the same problem as IdeZilla. I also have a Broadcom 4312 wireless chipset. Wireless worked fine immediately after installing from live usb.

However, after doing an apt-get upgrade and restarting, wlan0 no longer shows up when I do ifconfig. rfkill list shows no blocks. The Broadcom chipset does appear when I do lspci -vvnn, but it doesn't say what kernel modules it uses. The installation already had the latest version of firmware-b43-installer.

After restarting again, eth0 now disappeared from ifconfig and additionally from lspci -nn as well.

What can I do to get wlan0 and eth0 back?

rokytnji · posted: 2017-03-24 14:02

Usually a apt-get dist-upgrade does not kill wireless in my experience.

Usually with old gear. !st trouble shooting step I take. I look in bios to make sure hardware is recognized and turned on/enabled.

Because old hardware likes to heat up and drop out and make you think it is a software problem.

However, after doing an apt-get upgrade and restarting, wlan0 no longer shows up when I do ifconfig. rfkill list shows no blocks. The Broadcom chipset does appear when I do lspci -vvnn, but it doesn't say what kernel modules it uses. The installation already had the latest version of firmware-b43-installer.

After restarting again, eth0 now disappeared from ifconfig and additionally from lspci -nn as well.

Readouts from terminal help as well in getting real answers.
Because saying same same really does not help us.