Computer Hardware Forum

Does anyone know what chipset uses this laptop for wireless?

Is any specific kernel needed? I have got 2.6.8-2-686 (for Celeron) kernel i
nstalled.


Just asking.

Cheers,

Juanjavier Martínez.


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On Tuesday 07 March 2006 06:15, Juanjavier Mart=EDnez wrote:
> Does anyone know what chipset uses this laptop for wireless?
>
> Is any specific kernel needed? I have got 2.6.8-2-686 (for Celeron) kernel
> installed.
>
>
> Just asking.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Juanjavier Mart=EDnez.

lspci is your friend here.  It will list all the PCI attached devices on
your laptop.  But it is possible that the wireless chip is either USB=20
in which case use lsusb or is behind an "enable wireless" button.
The acerhk package might help with the enable wireless button,
otherwise more extreme methods may be needed.

David

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>On Tuesday 07 March 2006 06:15, Juanjavier Martínez wrote: 


[vbcol=seagreen]
>lspci is your friend here.  It will list all the PCI attached devices on
>your laptop.  But it is possible that the wireless chip is either USB
>in which case use lsusb or is behind an "enable wireless" button.
>The acerhk package might help with the enable wireless button,
>otherwise more extreme methods may be needed.


Is there a way to know if lspci or lsusb is needed?  Apart from try and erro
r, y'know...:-)
What about the "enable wireless" button?  What is that all about?
Where can I find information on this?  You know, I've just purchased the lap
top and
feel naturally worried....:-)

Thanks in advance...

Juanjavier Martínez.



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On Tuesday 07 March 2006 21:16, Juanjavier Mart=EDnez wrote: 
>
> Is there a way to know if lspci or lsusb is needed?  Apart from try and
> error, y'know...:-) What about the "enable wireless" button?  What is that
> all about?
> Where can I find information on this?  You know, I've just purchased the
> laptop and feel naturally worried....:-)
>
> Thanks in advance...
>
> Juanjavier Mart=EDnez.
=46irstly the button.  Look in the manual (there will be one online if you
do not have a physical one).  If it talks about a wireless enable button
then you have one.  If not you do not.  If you do it is worth installing
the acerhk package to see if it enables the button. =20

lspci and lsusb are very general utilities.  The first one to try is lspci=
=20
and look in the output to see if there is anything that looks like a=20
wireless card.  If there is nothing then try lsusb.  Both produce=20
work descriptions of what they find (unless you tell them not to).

If you do not understand the output, paste it into a reply to this note.

David

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>
>
>On Tuesday 07 March 2006 21:16, Juanjavier Martínez wrote: 
>Firstly the button.  Look in the manual (there will be one online if you
>do not have a physical one).
>
Where?

>(...) is worth installing the acerhk package to see if it enables the butto
n.
>
>
I found it in the «unstable» debian repository in www.kanotix.com.

I am currently running «sarge» on the notebook. Is there any chance I could 
install it w/no updates?

>lspci and lsusb are very general utilities.  The first one to try is lspci
>and look in the output to see if there is anything that looks like a
>wireless card.
>
>
lspci told me I have got a Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [Airforce One] 5
4g 802,11g Wireless LAN
Controller (rev 02), as you can see in the attached lspci.txt file.

>David
>
So the questions stays still there: How do I install acerhk?

Thank you so much,

Juan Javier Martínez.

Attachment: lspci.txt
This has been downloaded 0 time(s).

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On Wednesday 08 March 2006 20:06, Juanjavier Mart=C3=ADnez wrote: 
he[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> Where?
> 
>
> I found it in the =C2=ABunstable=C2=BB debian repository in www.kanotix.c=
om.
>
> I am currently running =C2=ABsarge=C2=BB on the notebook. Is there any ch=
ance I could
> install it w/no updates?
> 
ci[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> lspci told me I have got a Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [Airforce One]
 54g
> 802,11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02), as you can see in the attached
> lspci.txt file.
> 
>
> So the questions stays still there: How do I install acerhk?
As I recall acerhk is installed using modules_assistant.  It is shipped as
source so you will need a relatively recent kernel and then you can=20
install.  To get this sort of function working you will find unstable much
better than stable.  Almost certainly it will not work with a 2.4 kernel,=20
but you might be lucky.  I have only tried on a 2.6 kernel (.12 I seem to
recall).  There is a web site which describes acerhk, Google will find it f=
or=20
you.

Unfortunately the Broadcom wireless chips are badly supported by linux due
to Broadcom not making the relevant information available.  There is a clos=
ed
source driver which has been around for a while, but there is also an open
source one which is being reverse engineered.  I am not sure of its state.

David
>
> Thank you so much,
>
> Juan Javier Mart=C3=ADnez.

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Martin SurovÄĂk wrote:

>I've got Acer 3023LMI that has got some Broadcom Wi-Fi card. I've
>installed ndiswrapper and used driver downloaded via acer.com .

>To enable Wi-Fi card, I've used acer_acpi
>http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acp..._acpi_main.html) instead of
>acerhk. To install acer_acpi, download it and read INSTALL file.

I shall try and see what happens.

Thank you so much, Martin.

JuanJavier Martínez.


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Martin Surovčák wrote:

>I've got Acer 3023LMI that has got some Broadcom Wi-Fi card.
>
Great then!! Mine is Aspire 3610, so I suppose they are very close and simil
ar notebooks....

>I've installed ndiswrapper...

Good, I installed ndiswrapper-modules-2.6.8-2-686 yesterday, but now I don't
 know how to continue. :-(


>....and used driver downloaded via acer.com <http://acer.com>.

A driver for Windows? I didn't manage to find any driver for linux in acer.c
om; so I suppose
that you meant `a Windows driver', since I heard something about `ndiswrappe
r' doing some kind
of emulation...but I did not dig enough on this issue...


>To enable Wi-Fi card, I've used acer_acpi (http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acp..._acpi_main.html) instead of acerhk.
>To install acer_acpi, download it and read INSTALL file.


As I told, this is how the wireless card appears in the lspci output:


>0000:06:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce
 One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
>
So far I managed to set up the wireless LAN by previously installing the ker
nel headers typing:

apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-686

Compiling and installing the driver:

make
make install
cp acer_acpi.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-686/kernel/drivers/char

...and finally loading it onto the kernel
modprobe acer_acpi

Now the module is listed in the output of lsmod:

Module		Size	Used by
acer_acpi	6348	0

...which indicates that the module is loaded but not active.

Well, now...how do I continue?
Where do ndiswrapper and the driver from acer.com enter the picture?

Thanks in advance,

Juanjavier MartĂ_nez.


>
>


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>
>
>Ndiswrapper is a workaround to use Windows drivers for wireless card in Linux. So dowl
oad the Windows driver from acer.com <http://acer.com>
> and unpack it let's say i /tmp/wifi. Then move to the /tmp/wifi and as roo
t:
>
>ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
>
>ndiswrapper -l
>
>modprobe ndiswrapper
>
>Now you can see at the end of dmesg, that your wireless card is enabled and
 ready to go. Now is time for acer_acpi (as root):
>
>
>modprobe acer_acpi
>
>echo "enabled : 1" >> /proc/acpi/acer/wirelessled
>
>Now you can use iwconfig to enjoy wireless networking.
>
Martin: Are you an angel?

Worked flawlessly. No more messing around needed.  Pity is I haven't still g
ot a wireless router

just to test it out 'for  real', but after playing all the stuff you suggest
ed I simply typed:

dhclient wlan0

and wireless gently starts to search in the air, which clearly shows it work
s!!!

>(...)
>
>Listening on LPF/wlan0(00:14:a4:25:bd:3b
>
>Sending on LPF/wlan0(00:14:a4:25:bd:3b
>
>Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 17
>
>DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
>
>No DHCPOFFERS received.
>
>No working leases in persistent database.
>
>Sleeping.
>
>
>

...for something that doesn't find; since my router is not wireless.

So no connection is made at all....but the driver is fluently working and th
e wireless works....

So a huge *thank you so much* to you.

I will keep posting whenever I find a wireless router...or borrow it from so
meone....;-P

Cheers,

Juanjavier Martínez.



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XXXDDD ,--


Haha,....yes, you're right....

RTFM forever...!!! ;-)


You've been of great help, Martin...


Cheers,

Juan.

Madrid, Spain


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