# Wireless Networking

## opiumJ

Apologies if the question is most basic:

I managed to isntall Gentoo using the LiveCD - but at stage 1 I could not get the laptop to pick up the wireless connection. So I plugged an ethernet cable in, went to net-setup, and bang...working fine.

So I finished the install, emerged gnome, then emerged wicd to try and connect wirelessly.

My laptop will not pick up any wireless networks. At all.

I unplug the ethernet cable and click refresh and still, wicd can't find any wireless networks.

ifconfig -a shows:

```
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:64:4d:86:37  

          inet addr:192.168.0.10  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::225:64ff:fe4d:8637/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:10122 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:7831 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:11673078 (11.1 MiB)  TX bytes:776525 (758.3 KiB)

          Interrupt:18 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:546 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:546 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:40148 (39.2 KiB)  TX bytes:40148 (39.2 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:22:5f:eb:6d:30  

          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

```

On my last distro, just Ubuntu, I remember that the wireless was always eth1.

So I guessed that looking in /etc/init.d would have it, but it just has net.eth0 and net.lo

Any help would be much appreciated - thanks.

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## gentoo_dude

You need to setup up wpa_supplicant if you use encryption.  wpa_gui is good to manage the wireless connections from a gui interface.

Also to start the wireless link net.lo to net.wlan0, just as net.eth0 is, and then add net.wlan0 to default runlevel using rc-update.

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## chithanh

wicd should be able to configure wpa_supplicant properly. Maybe you have an rfkill related problem. emerge rfkill and see if your wireless needs to be unblocked.

Also don't run both Gentoo net scripts and wicd at the same time. They will fight over the network devices and not give you a working connection.

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## derk

also if using wicd  do not use the wpa_supllicant  or the dhcpcd init.d scripts as wicd calls those programs  directly .. as needed

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## opiumJ

Sorry - I'm not really understanding what to do.

I don't know how to link net.wlan0 and net.lo.

It seems that all the sites I look at are asking to do different things. I have the following info and that's all I know really

```
josh portage # lspci | grep -i Network

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)

josh kernel # rfkill event

1320028713.037785: idx 0 type 1 op 0 soft 0 hard 0

^C

josh kernel # ifconfig -a

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:64:4d:86:37  

          inet addr:192.168.0.10  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::225:64ff:fe4d:8637/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:595043 errors:0 dropped:273 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:446792 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:646740811 (616.7 MiB)  TX bytes:59125177 (56.3 MiB)

          Interrupt:18 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:1731 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:1731 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:140520 (137.2 KiB)  TX bytes:140520 (137.2 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:22:5f:eb:6d:30  

          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

josh kernel # rfkill list

0: phy0: Wireless LAN

   Soft blocked: no

   Hard blocked: no

josh kernel # rfkill event

1320028713.037785: idx 0 type 1 op 0 soft 0 hard 0

```

So looking around - I see that I need to emerge broadcom - but keep getting a 404:

```
josh linux # emerge -av broadcom-sta

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild  N     ] net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1  1,168 kB

Total: 1 package (1 new), Size of downloads: 1,168 kB

Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No] Yes

>>> Verifying ebuild manifests

>>> Emerging (1 of 1) net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1

>>> Downloading 'http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz'

--2011-10-31 03:20:04--  http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz

Resolving www.broadcom.com... 63.251.216.155

Connecting to www.broadcom.com|63.251.216.155|:80... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found

2011-10-31 03:20:05 ERROR 404: Not Found.

!!! Couldn't download 'hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz'. Aborting.

 * Fetch failed for 'net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1', Log file:

 *  '/var/tmp/portage/net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1/temp/build.log'

>>> Failed to emerge net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1, Log file:

>>>  '/var/tmp/portage/net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1/temp/build.log'

 * Messages for package net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1:

 * Fetch failed for 'net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1', Log file:

 *  '/var/tmp/portage/net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38-r1/temp/build.log'

```

----------

## Hu

Link net.wlan0 to net.lo the same way you set up your other network cards: cd /etc/init.d && ln -s net.lo net.wlan0.

Are you sure that you need the proprietary Broadcom driver?  Many, though not all, of their chipsets are supported by the mainline kernel.

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