wlan controller bcm4318 won't find networks

[Jaime Garmendia]

> Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:48:25 +0200
> From: Johannes Bauer <tatome at web.de>
> Subject: wlan controller bcm4318 won't find networks
> To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID: <44C0E939.80900 at web.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi,
> I'm on a Compaq nx6125 *sigh* and I'm trying to connect to my home wlan
> using the built-in wlan controller Broadcom bcm4318. After a bit of a
> struggle I got everything configured so "ifconfig eth2 up" doesn't
> complain and I can set all relevant parameters using iwconfig - the
> little blue light that indicates wifi activity even goes on when the
> network interface is configured. But I can't get a connection.
> kwifimanager tells me I was "Out of range" and wifi-radar just doesn't
> find any networks even if I'm sitting right next to the AP.
> dmesg tells me
> [17180464.400000] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'
> [17180465.444000] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready
> [17180466.600000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
> and another "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready" for every
> time i do ifdown eth2; ifup eth2.
> I'm using the native drivers tg3 and bcm43xx instead of ndiswrapper. My
> interfaces file looks like this:
>
>  # The loopback network interface
>  auto lo
>  iface lo inet loopback
>
>  mapping hotplug
>         script grep
>         map eth0
>
>  # The primary network interface
>  iface eth0 inet static
>          address 192.168.99.23
>          netmask 255.255.255.0
>          network 192.168.99.0
>          broadcast 192.168.99.255
>          gateway 192.168.99.2
>          # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if
> installed
>          dns-nameservers 192.168.99.2
>  auto eth0
>
>  iface eth1 inet dhcp
>  pre-up iwconfig eth1 rate 11M
>  wireless-essid AGRICOLAE
>  wireless-key [HEX_VALUE]
>  auto eth1
>
>  iface eth2 inet dhcp
>  pre-up iwconfig eth2 rate 11M
>  wireless-essid AGRICOLAE
>  wireless-key [HEX_VALUE]
>  auto eth2
>
> A
 --snip--

I have a HP DV5020, which is probably the same motherboard dressed in
a different skin. The bcm43xx module loads with no errors, but I've
been unable to get the connection to work at all.

Finally gave up and set my laptop to use ndiswrapper with the
bcmwl5.inf driver used in the windoze side. That works just fine, the
only thing you need to do is blacklist the bcm43xx.ko module ( or just
rename it). In my laptop the driver is in c:\SWSETUP\WLAN\bcmwl5.inf