Network Wireless for Knoppix 5.3.1 FAQ


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Q: How to activate my wireless card on Knoppix 5.3.1 (Case 1: Native way) ?

A: Case 1 is the best case, the wireless card is recognized by the Knoppix 5.3.1, so all we have to do is just perform the setup part.



The information here may not be 100% correct, but it works for me. However, if you find something is wrong. Please let me know. Thank you.

chip_ling@yahoo.ca

Chip Ling Dec 21, 2008



Equipment:

 Machine: Compaq Evo N600c Notebook
 Wireless Card: Netgear WG511T pcmcia card
 Chip set: Atheros AR5212
 
 Wireless router:
 ESSID   = "PCLAB1"
 channel = 9



Wireless History with Knoppix 5.1.1

Knoppix 5.1.1 recognizes the card at boot time as device ath0, just activate the card after boot up with the following three commands and the wireless connection is established.

 # iwconfig ath0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9
 # ifconfig ath0 up
 # pump -i ath0



1. Boot with Knoppix 5.3.1

At boot up time, eth0, wifi0 and ath0 were identified.

 Network device eth0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)
 Network device wifi0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)
 Network device ath0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)



2. Note

I occasionally got the application KDesktop (kdesktop) crashed and cause the signal 6 (SIGABRT) error. But that does not affect the wireless testing.



3. Setup the wireless device

3.1 Open up a konsole and enter the following command:

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ iwconfig

I get the following response:

 lo       no wireless extensions.
 
 eth0     no wireless extensions.
 
 wifi0    no wireless extensions.
 
 ath0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""  Nickname:""

where ath0 is the wireless card


3.2 From the konsole, enter the following command:

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ ifconfig

Only the lo entry appears.


3.3 Switch to super user

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ su
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# 


3.4 Setup the essid and channel

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig ath0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9


3.5 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

You should see the ESSID=PCLAB1.


3.6 Activate the ath0

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig ath0 up


3.7 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Three items display here: lo, wifi0 and ath0. ath0 is the wireless device.


3.8 Force the DHCP on the router to assign an IP address to the device

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# pump -i ath0


3.9 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Now ath0 is populated with the IP address (i.e. inet addr: equals some IP address )


3.10 Start the Iceweasel Web Browser, key in the URL, then you are connected.



Conclusion:

It behaves the same as Knoppix 5.1.1.




Q: How to activate my wireless card on Knoppix 5.3.1 (Case 2: ndiswrapper method) ?

A: Case 2: the wireless card is not recognized by the Knoppix 5.1.3 at all, so we have to perform the ndiswrapper wireless setup.



The information here may not be 100% correct, but it works for me. However, if you find something is wrong. Please let me know. Thank you.

chip_ling@yahoo.ca

Chip Ling Dec 21, 2008



Equipment:

 Machine: Compaq Evo N600c Notebook
 Wireless Card: Linksys wpc11v4 pcmcia card
 Chip set: Realtex RTL8180
 
 Wireless router:
 ESSID   = "PCLAB1"
 channel = 9
 
 Windows wireless drivers on USB thumb drive
 /linksys/oem4.inf
 /linksys/rtl8180.sys

Detail for obtaining the windows driver files can be found on Question 2 above.



Wireless History with Knoppix 5.1.1

Knoppix 5.1.1 does not recognise the card at boot time, the only way to have wireless connection is via the ndiswrapper method. See Question 2 above.



1. Boot with Knoppix 5.3.1

At boot up time, eth0 was identified.

 Network device eth0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)



2. Note

I occasionally got the application KDesktop (kdesktop) crashed and cause the signal 6 (SIGABRT) error. But that does not affect the wireless testing.



3. Setup the wireless device

3.1 Open up a konsole and enter the following command:

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ iwconfig

I get the following response:

 lo       no wireless extensions.
 
 eth0     no wireless extensions.


3.2 From the konsole, enter the following command:

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ ifconfig

Only the lo entry appears.


3.3 Switch to super user

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ su
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# 


3.4 Insert the USB thumb drive, on the desktop it shows it is sda4.


3.5 Mount the USB drive as read only:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /media/sda4


3.6 Copy the 2 windows driver files from the USB drive to /ramdisk/home/knoppix

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cp /media/sda4/linksys/* /ramdisk/home/knoppix


3.7 Configure the ndiswrapper:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ndiswrapper -i ./oem4.inf
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# modprobe ndiswrapper
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

Now lo, eth0 and wlan0 appears.


3.8 Setup the ESSID and channel

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig wlan0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9


3.9 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

ESSID should be equal to PCLAB1


3.10 Activate the wlan0 device

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig wlan0 up


3.11 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Two items display here: lo and wlan0


3.12 Force the DHCP to assign an IP address to the device

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# pump -i wlan0


3.13 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Now wlan0 is populated with the IP address (i.e. inet addr: )


3.14 Start the Iceweasel Web Browser, key in the URL, then you are connected.



Conclusion: It behaves the same as Knoppix 5.1.1 by using ndiswrapper method.




Q: How to activate my wireless card on Knoppix 5.3.1 (Case 3: Broadcom B43 way) ?

A: Case 3: the wireless card is wrongly recognized by the Knoppix 5.3.1 as bcm43xx, and at the same time, the firmware is missing in the OS, so we have to obtain the firmware first, install it to the OS, then remove the bcm43xx and b43 driver modules and finally perform the ndiswrapper wireless setup.



The following section records all the steps I made in order to search for a solution in this case so if you just want to make thing work, you may skip some of the steps.



The information here may not be 100% correct, but it works for me. However, if you find something is wrong. Please let me know. Thank you.

chip_ling@yahoo.ca

Chip Ling Dec 21, 2008



Equipment:

 Machine: Dell Latitude D600 and D610 Notebook
 Wireless Card: Build in mini-pci Broadcom B4306
 
 Wireless router:
 ESSID   = "PCLAB1"
 channel = 9
 
 windows driver files on the USB thumb drive: 
 /broadcom/oem6.inf and
 /broadcom/BCMWL5.sys

Detail for obtaining the windows driver files can be found at question 2 above.



Wireless History with Knoppix 5.1.1

Knoppix 5.1.1 recognises the card at boot time, but loaded the wrong bcm43xx wireless driver module.

The only way to have wireless connection is first remove the wrongly loaded bcm43xx wireless driver module, then apply the ndiswrapper method.

Detail can be found at Question 2 above.



1. Boot with Knoppix 5.3.1 from the Live DVD

At boot up time, eth0, wmaster0 and wlan0 were identified.

 Network device eth0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)
 Network device wmaster0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)
 Network device wlan0 detected. DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding)



2. Note

I occasionally got the application KDesktop (kdesktop) crashed and cause the signal 6 (SIGABRT) error. But that does not affect the wireless testing.



3. Try to setup the wireless the native way

3.1 Open up a konsole:

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ iwconfig

Result shows very possible to do it the native way:

 lo       no wireless extensions.
 
 eth0     no wireless extensions.
 
 wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
 
 wlan0    IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""

The wlan0 appears here gives me hope that 5.3.1 finally fixes the bug that appeared at 5.1.1 and it recognizes the wireless card at boot up as wlan0. If 5.3.1 really recognizes the wireless card correctly at boot time and with the proper driver loaded, we can activate the wireless device via the native way. So the first thing I do is to give the native way a try. Here we go...


3.2 Enter the command

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ ifconfig

Only the lo entry there


3.3 Become the super user

 knoppix@Knoppix:~$ su
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# 


3.4 Setup the ESSID and the channel

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig wlan0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9


3.5 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

ESSID is now equal to PCLAB1


3.6 Activate the wlan0

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig wlan0 up

Error message returns:

 SIOCSIFFLAGS:No such file or directory

Oops, no good. As usual, it is not that easy. So we cannot do it the native way.



4. What's wrong here? Searching for the problem.

4.1 By using the command below, I examine the result listing line by line

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# dmesg | more

And I found the following wireless card related messages:

 b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
 phy0: selected rate control algorithm 'simple'
 input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input11
 b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
 b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 4).



5. Go to linuxwireless.org and download the missing piece

As the error message suggested, I need to connect my notebook to the internet. So I connect the CAT5 Ethernet network cable from the notebook to the router.

Then activate the wired network card:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig eth0 up
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# pump -i eth0

Then I open the web browser and go to

 http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

Read through the web page and following their instructions to download two files:

1. the source code of b43-fwcutter and

2. the firmware of Broadcom b43

Back to the konsole and download the 2 files:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2



6. Disconnect from the internet

Enter the following command from the konsole:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig eth0 down

Now disconnect the CAT5 Ethernet network cable from the notebook.



7. Expand (Untar) the tarball files

Enter the following two commands:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2



8. Compile the b43-fwcutter

Compile the program b43-fwcutter source code in order to generate the b43-fwcutter executable. Enter the following two commands:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cd b43-fwcutter-011
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix/b43-fwcutter-011# make



9. Copy the required files to /ramdisk/home/knoppix

We only need the b43-fwcutter executable and the firmware image file wl_apsta.o. So we copy them to /ramdisk/home/knoppix for later use.

Enter the following commands

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix/b43-fwcutter-011# cp b43-fwcutter /ramdisk/home/knoppix
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix/b43-fwcutter-011# cd ..
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cp broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o /ramdisk/home/knoppix



10. Make an extra copy to the USB thumb drive for future use

Insert the USB thumb drive, and on the desktop it shows it is sda4

Mount the USB drive as read/write and then copy the files to the USB drive

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /media/sda4 -o rw
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mkdir /media/sda4/b43firmware
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cp b43-fwcutter /media/sda4/b43firmware
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cp wl_apsta.o /media/sda4/b43firmware

Unmount the USB drive:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# umount /media/sda4



11. Install the firmware

Run the firmware cutter program to install the missing firmware back to the system

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ./b43-fwcutter -w "/lib/firmware" wl_apsta.o



12. Try to use the native way once again

Right at this point, I have the correct firmware installed. Then I ask myself, will the native way work? So I am going to give the native way one last chance.

Now try again using the native way to activate the wireless device:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig wlan0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig wlan0 up
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# pump -i wlan0

Error returns:

 Operation failed.

Note: If we are not using the Live DVD version but an installed version, reboot before step 12 and then try step 12 should work.


However, I am using the Live DVD and I cannot do a reboot here. Reboot will lose all my new changes so under the Live DVD booted up environment, native way failed.



13. The last resort, using the ndiswrapper method

13.1 Remove the bcm43xx and b43 driver modules

Before we apply the ndiswrapper method, first remove the bcm43xx and b43 driver modules from the system.

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# modprobe -r bcm43xx
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# modprobe -r b43


13.2 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

Now the wmaster0 and wlan0 entries are gone.


13.3 Copy the windows driver files from the USB drive to /ramdisk/home/knoppix

Mount the USB drive as read only:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /media/sda4

Copy the 2 windows driver files from the USB drive to /ramdisk/home/knoppix

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# cp /media/sda4/broadcom/* /ramdisk/home/knoppix


13.4 Configure the ndiswrapper:

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ndiswrapper -i ./oem6.inf
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# modprobe ndiswrapper
 
 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

Now lo, eth0 and wlan0 appears.


13.5 Setup the ESSID and channel

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig wlan0 essid PCLAB1 channel 9


13.6 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# iwconfig

ESSID now should equal to PCLAB1


13.7 Activate the wlan0 device

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig wlan0 up


13.8 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Two items display here: lo and wlan0


13.9 Force the DHCP to assign an IP address to device wlan0

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# pump -i wlan0


13.10 Check the result

 root@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# ifconfig

Now wlan0 is populated with the IP address (i.e. inet addr: )


13.11 Start the Iceweasel Web Browser, key in the URL, then you are connected.



Conclusion:

It behaves the same as Knoppix 5.1.1 by using ndiswrapper method but required to install the missing firmware and removal of the bcm43xx and b43 driver modules.



Next Time Running

So the next time we run the Knoppix 5.3.1 does not require going through all these steps again. You only need the following:

R1. Boot from the Knoppix 5.3.1

R2. Be the super user (see step 3.3)

R3. Mount the USB thumb drive as read only

 # mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /media/sda4

R4. Copy the two required files to /ramdisk/home/knoppix

 # cp /media/sda4/b43firmware/*   /ramdisk/home/knoppix
 # umount /media/sda4

R5. Install the firmware (see step 11)

R6. Perform the ndiswrapper setup again (see step 13.1 to 13.10)