[SOLVED] another netbook wireless problem

[oldgeek]

I've been looking through several threads involving wireless problems but haven't found the solution to my problem yet. I have a Lenovo S10-3s ideapad with a disk partitioned between Windows 7 starter and Kubuntu 11.04 on a clean install. The problem is I cannot seem to get the wireless connection working. I have the latest Broadcom driver installed and know the hardware works because it works in Windows. In 10.04 LTS I had to use the addresses only option and type in 2 addresses in the DNS Servers line. That was for Ubuntu, which was using the wireless connection on an older notebook. I've tried the same with my Lenovo but I can't click on the enable wireless box, and the Connections box says it's unavailable. I'm new to Linux and don't know much about the ins and outs, but one problem might be the connection name. My wireless connection uses an old phone number as a connection name and as its SSID. But the dialogue box identifies the system name as eth2. I'm at a loss at what to do. I like the new version but it's not much good to me if I can't use the wireless. Any suggestions?

[rfakhrai]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

Please post the output of

lspci

and

ifconfig

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

Here are both, starting with lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57790 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
steve@steve-Ideapad-S10-3s:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:de:f1:13:30:4e
inet addr:192.168.1.33 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::f2de:f1ff:fe13:304e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:739 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:926 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:685708 (685.7 KB) TX bytes:173824 (173.8 KB)
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:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:880 (880.0 B) TX bytes:880 (880.0 B)

[wizard10000]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

Your wireless card doesn't show up in ifconfig - you said the driver was installed; how did you install it?

Can you run

lspci -v

and post the output that's relevant to your wireless card?

thanks -

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

I presume these are the pertinent sections:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57790 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 38d3
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
Memory at f0100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: tg3
Kernel modules: tg3

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device 0510
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at f0200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: wl
Kernel modules: wl, brcm80211

Eh?

[wizard10000]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

Strange - that's the right driver. What happens if you do this?

sudo iwlist eth2 scan

If that doesn't work you might check how the wireless card's enumerated - you could try eth1 or wlan0 or wlan1.

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

Strange - that's the right driver. What happens if you do this?

sudo iwlist eth2 scan

Here's what happened when I typed in the code. I have no idea what it all means.

eth2 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:16:B6:F2:2F:69
ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality:1/5 Signal level:-83 dBm Noise level:-89 dBm
Encryption keyn
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
Cell 02 - Address: 00:60:B3A:E3:E9
ESSID:"4490134"
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:5/5 Signal level:-24 dBm Noise level:-89 dBm
Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 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
Cell 03 - Address: 00:26:ED:80:38:73
ESSID:"MariaElisa"
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality:2/5 Signal level:-77 dBm Noise level:-80 dBm
IE: Unknown: DD0E0050F204104A0001101044000102
Encryption keyn
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
Cell 04 - Address: D8:5D:4C:E7:57:26
ESSID:"Genio"
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:1/5 Signal level:-88 dBm Noise level:-89 dBm
Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s

[wizard10000]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

It means your wireless card is working just fine - that's a list of all the wireless networks your card sees.

I assume this is your wireless access point -

Cell 02 - Address: 00:60:B3A:E3:E9
ESSID:"4490134"
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:5/5 Signal level:-24 dBm Noise level:-89 dBm
Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 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

So can you tell us how you're trying to connect and what happens when you do?

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

All I do is turn on the machine. If I have a wired connection, I have internet. If I don't, I get nothing. The wireless interface box says I have no connection available. When I try to click on the enable wireless button, the tick flashes on then off. The SSID identification is as indicated--4490134. I have also used that for the connection name--should I have done that? The mode I use for connecting to a wireless is by forced addresses. I used these on my old laptop, which used Ubuntu 10.04, and it worked fine. I also have a WEP encryption (5 characters). Everything seems to be all right, yet there's no connection available. Undoubtedly there's some little thing I forgot to do or didn't know I had to do, but I still don't know enough about Linux to solve the problem myself. I certainly appreciate the help I'm getting on this forum, by the way, and hope my problem can be resolved.

[rfakhrai]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

When you say "forced addresses", do you mean static IP? If so, NetworkManager needs to be configured for that.

Also, I'm curious to see if changing wireless security to WPA fixes this problem. WEP is no longer preferred (though it's technically still supported). Are you in a position to change wireless security?

[wizard10000]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

I think rather than having him reconfigure his router the best thing to do might be to get the thing to connect as it's configured now - then if oldgeek likes we can help him change his router settings.

I don't run knetworkmanager - can someone who does jump in and lend a hand, please?

tanks!

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

When you say "forced addresses", do you mean static IP? If so, NetworkManager needs to be configured for that.

Also, I'm curious to see if changing wireless security to WPA fixes this problem. WEP is no longer preferred (though it's technically still supported). Are you in a position to change wireless security?

Perhaps this will throw some light on the issue--it's what I did to 'manage connections'. The first wireless page has as connection name and SSID the number I chose for the connection. It is ticked to connect automatically. The second page merely contains the WEP configuration. WEP seems to be the most common system in Peru, where I live. On the IP addresses page, under method I have clicked 'Automatic (DHCP) addresses only. The 2 addresses concerned are typed in the line 'DNS servers'. Automatic connection is ticked, and I added nothing else on this page. So what is wrong? My wired connection, by the way, works fine, unlike in 10.04 LTS, where I had to add another connection in order to get it to work (and even then, it crashed frequently due to 'segmentation errors', whatever the hell they are). This is the first time I've used Linux on this computer, and except for the wireless problem and my inability to install ttf-mscore-fonts-installer, I'm quite happy with Kubuntu 11.04. But the wireless issue keeps me from making Kubuntu my OS of choice on the Lenovo, and I'm forced to be happy with Windows 7 Starter, which did connect to my wireless network without a hitch. I appreciate the help I've been getting on this and other problems from the users of this forum, and feel confident I'll get the wireless working in a few days.

[rfakhrai]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

OK, I can't see anything that's wrong with your setup. Are you willing, for purposes of trial and error, to install WICD? More often than not, it's solved my wireless problems.

[oldgeek]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

At this point I'm willing to try anything. So how do I do this? I've read some posts which say that the installation is not so easy, that you have to eliminate all traces of KNetwork Manager or it won't work. I'm game.

[Teunis]

Re: another netbook wireless problem

I've often been 'rescued' by wicd so here we go.

Preferably you have a working wired connection though it is possible to download the packages first and then install them on a system without network.

Start up your favourite package manager. (I mostly use Muon)
Search for wicd and mark for install wicd-kde, wicd-deamon and python-wicd. Just the wicd metapackage will probably also do.
The package manager might suggest other dependencies like python, just install them to.

Check which knetworkmanager stuff is installed and remove all. (knm-runtime and network-manager-kde)
Also remove network-manager.

You can now disable any still running instances of networkmanager but it's usually easier to do the Microsoft thing and reboot.

After you are sure there are no more network managers running you can start up the Wicd client KDE, you should find the widget has replaced the original one.
If not you type wicd-kde into a konsole to start it up.

When you hit the reload icon in wicd it should show all available wifi networks.

If not you first need to click the Preferences icon and set up things as per your hard- and software.
In your case I think you only need the General tab and select the correct Wireless interface.

Once you see your wifi network in the list you can click the wrench behind it and set up some other things like your password and type of encryption.