[gentoo-powerpc] Re: b43 wireless not working

["Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)" <nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt>]

On 2015-04-16, Herminio Hernandez, Jr. <herminio.hernandezjr@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 9:35 AM, Herminio Hernandez Jr. <herminio.hernandezjr@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Apr 15, 2015, at 8:34 AM, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt> wrote:
>> > On April 15, 2015 4:32:52 PM EEST, "Herminio Hernandez Jr. " <herminio.hernandezjr@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> I am not seeing my wireless interface when I execute ifconfig
>> >
>> > Are you running it with the '-a' parameter?
>> No I will try when I get home from work.
>
> I ran with the -a parameter and saw the interface. I ran ifconfig wlan0 up
> and now I see it when I just run ifconfig. However I am unable to join a
> wireless network.

This is normal. So far the driver seems to be able to initialize the
card, and it shows up. But to connect to actual networks, especially
protected networks or different networks, you need something else on top
of that.


> I have networkmanager installed and running. I also saw
> in this thread
><https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-964764-view-previous.html> someone
> suggested to enable wext in the kernel wich I did and still no luck. Below
> is what I have.

I don't know how to use NetworkManager, so I can't help here, I use
wpa_supplicant.

> rican-linux@ibookG4-gentoo ~ $ sudo zcat /proc/config.gz | grep WEXT
> Password:
> CONFIG_WEXT_CORE=y
> CONFIG_WEXT_PROC=y
> CONFIG_WEXT_SPY=y
> CONFIG_WEXT_PRIV=y
> CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT=y

This will let you use iwconfig and friends, and I think this is the
problem that the forum post tried to solve. It shouldn't change how
wpa_supplicant (and others?) support the card, as wpa_supplicant at
least defaults to the wireless driver interface that b43 uses.

> ibookG4-gentoo ~ # ifconfig
> enP2p32s15f0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
>         inet 192.168.1.133  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
>         ether 00:14:51:38:fa:f8  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
>         RX packets 1370  bytes 100431 (98.0 KiB)
>         RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
>         TX packets 232  bytes 42740 (41.7 KiB)
>         TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
>
> lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
>         inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
>         loop  txqueuelen 0  (Local Loopback)
>         RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
>         RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
>         TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
>         TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
>
> wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
>         ether 00:14:51:e4:55:af  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
>         RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
>         RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
>         TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
>         TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

I can't provide a minimal wpa_supplicant example right now (perhaps
later), and I do not know anything about NetworkManager.

Try:

    "iwlist wlan0 scan"

And see if it shows up the wireless networks around you.

It is a good idea to use a pager if you have more than one, two wireless
APs available:

    "iwlist wlan0 scan | less"

-- 
Nuno Silva
Helsinki, Finland