Re: [opensuse] (solved) help please - message log and wifi link loss - what does this mean?

Jerry Feldman wrote:

On Tue, 06 May 2008 20:59:58 +0200 Peter Breger wrote:

...

Jerry Feldman wrote:

...

On Mon, 5 May 2008 14:25:46 -0700 "John Andersen" wrote:

...

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Jerry Feldman wrote:

...

One issue I see is that you are using ndiswrapper and a broadcom wireless. At lease since 10.2, SuSE and other versions of Linux have a native broadcom driver. Additionally, you would need to get the latest version of fwcutter, and install the firmware, usually into /lib/firmware either under the kernel of into /lib/firmware/b43. I no longer run SuSE on my laptop (because of a work requirement to use Ubuntu), but when it ran SuSE 10.2 I found the native driver to work rather well, and more reliably than ndiswrapper. IMHO, you should run ndiswrapper only if you have no other option. First, please don't top post on this list.

Second, I've used ndiswrapper for years and never had this problem. Its utterly reliable.

The problem is appearing at dhcp renewal time. Machine changes its name (a dhcp option that should not be used), and this causes all sorts of issues of connectivity. Sorry for the top post. I usually try to follows the conventions of the list.

I used to use ndiswrapper myself, but it has been implicated in many problems over the years. The newer broadcom drivers are more reliable, and while ndiswrapper does work, and possibly is not a problem on your system, there are some other things I may have pointed out. Try disabling your firewall temporarily and see if that has any affect on the connectivity. Additionally, are you able to get the wireless back by temporarily taking ndiswrapper down with rmmod and then bringing it back up with insmod or modprobe. Have you used iwconfig manually. Mmmh - partial success in that the link ran for 30 mins of ping at 1 min intervals, then no more. Had to use the taking ndiswrapper down with rmmod and then bringing it back up with modprobe and repeated replugging of card to re-instate contact. Now failed after 2 mins. Cannot find error messages in message log file of any event corresponding to 30 mins run or now 2 mins run. Any error log from ifup available?

No. But go back to see if there is any issue with the bc43xx driver.

Thanks for all help suggestions. Problem is now solved indeed. The failure in terms of first not being able to connect at all was the dhcp renewal with hostname. Once that box was unticked, connection was possible, but hung up every now and then, surfing really not possible. I finally managed to trace that to a hardware problem of dodgy pcmcia card - travelled too much with it in pocket, I guess, and now it has bad connection inside. Applying pressure/bending made it work for a while ... then disconnects. Bought a DLink DWL-G630 card - uninstalled driver (ndiswrapper -e lsbcmnds)and re-installed ndiswrapper with the new windows driver supplied (card version E2 F/W Ver 5.00), using (ndiswrapper -i NetRt61G.inf) - and after some reboots and fiddling with Yast the connection was finally recognised. Now wifi link to Access Point works like a charm! Next project coming up soon - how to connect to the windows network ... for file sharing... Thanks again - and for others who stumble upon it - Dell Latitude C400 works great with DLink DWL-G630 card and Suse 10.3! Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org