Hello!

I'm trying to get a wireless adapter to work on a laptop using the b43 driver
in 2.6.24-rc kernels. The card requires firmware which is located in
/lib/firmware/b43. The problem is that I can't always use ifup and ifdown on
the connection; those commands fail sometimes. It seems to be related to
firmware loading.

At this time I am using 2.6.24-rc2 (but I'll use whatever I need to...!) on
Debian Lenny/Sid.

The wireless connection uses DHCP but no encryption.

Note that most of the output was copied manually; there may be errors!


__/etc/network/interfaces portion:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-channel 11
wireless-essid ****
wireless-ap any

__Here is the lspci output for the card:
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)


__When the card is first inserted:
pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
b43-phy9: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:00.0
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

__Run 'iwlist wlan0 scan':
> works

__Run 'ifup wlan0':
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on Socket/fallback
> DHCP client gets IP and everything works

__Run 'ifdown wlan0':
> DHCP client releases IP and connection is brought down

__Run 'iwlist wlan0 scan' again:
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

__Run 'ifup wlan0' again, without removing the card:
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on Socket/fallback
> DHCPDISCOVER broadcast repeatedly until timed out

__Then run 'iwlist wlan0 scan' again:
> works

__Run 'dhclient wlan0':
> DHCP client gets IP and everything works


I'd like ifup and ifdown to always work. This is convoluted enough that I
haven't been able even to write a script that always works (though I haven't
tried hard; hacks are bad). Any tips?

Thanks!

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 the mental interface of
Owen Heisler told:

[...]
> __/etc/network/interfaces portion:
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> wireless-channel 11
> wireless-essid ****
> wireless-ap any
[...]
> I'd like ifup and ifdown to always work.

You're missing

auto wlan0

stanza in e/n/i

Elimar

--
Do you smell something burning or ist it me?


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On Thu, 2007.11.22 19:51, Elimar Riesebieter wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Nov 2007, Owen Heisler wrote:
>
> [...]
> > __/etc/network/interfaces portion:
> > iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> > wireless-channel 11
> > wireless-essid ****
> > wireless-ap any
> [...]
> > I'd like ifup and ifdown to always work.
>
> You're missing
>
> auto wlan0
>
> stanza in e/n/i

Uh, that would bring up the interface automatically on startup, which I do not
want. I would like, though, for the 'ifup' and 'ifdown' commands to work to
bring up or take down the connection. That is the problem. You can see, if
you read all the chatter earlier in the message, that the ifup command works
only the first time, not thereafter.